His Secret Baby
Natasha L. Black
Copyright © 2020 by Natasha L. Black
All rights reserved.
The following story contains mature themes, strong language and sexual situations. It is intended for mature readers.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
Also by Natasha L. Black
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Epilogue
CEO’s Secret Baby (Sample)
A Note from the Author
About the Author
Also by Natasha L. Black
Secret Baby & More:
CEO’s Secret Baby|Boss's Secret Baby for Christmas|Daddy’s Secret Baby|My Ex’s Secret Baby| Bad Boy’s Secret Baby
Brother’s Best Friend| Forbidden Protector| Sweet Tooth|
Alpha Male Collection:
Forbidden Daddy| Redemption| Protecting Her
Saving Sky| Protecting Sasha
Complete box set here: Men in Charge
Reverse Harem/Ménage Collection:
Double Dirty| The Cabin| Double Trouble
Training the Rookie| Cuffed to my Roomies
Complete box set here: One Lucky Girl
Fake Marriage Collection:
Pretend You’re Mine| Pretend I’m Yours| Let’s Pretend
Faking It
Complete box set here: Playing Pretend
Introduction
It’s a simple arrangement.
He needs a green card.
I need a scandal.
The wedding was strictly for show.
I’m used to pretending all kinds of things.
I’m an A-list Hollywood actress, after all.
And Gael?
He’s a lead stuntman on set.
Big biceps, piercing eyes, and an arrogant tone.
I’d be crazy to fall in love with him.
I only need Gael to salvage my reputation.
To divert people’s attention from my recent fake breakup.
Trading one fake lover for another seemed like a good strategy.
Don’t judge me. It’s a common practice in Hollywood.
Saying “I do” was the easy part.
Saying “goodbye” will be the real test.
1
Gael
“Cut! Just—just cut the damn thing.”
I yanked my helmet off as the director waved his hand in the air. Fucking hell, was he really not pleased with that take either? Victor Voxx was the best in the business, one of the Hollywood directors everyone wanted to work with even stuntmen like myself.
But he was picky.
And I’ll be damned, if he wasn’t getting on my nerves.
“Take ten, and we can try this again. Maybe with a bit more bike action and less of you trying to look at the camera like you’re the main man in this movie?” Voxx asked.
I gritted my teeth and nodded. “Sure thing.”
I slid my leg from around the motorcycle and passed the bike off to the prop crew. They were going to set me back up so I could try the shot again. For the seventeenth time, I walked over to a darkened corner and leaned against the wall, ruffling my hair with my hand. As I tucked my helmet underneath my arm, I felt my phone buzzing against my thigh.
“And get that phone off my set when we’re filming!” Voxx exclaimed.
I slipped my phone out of my pocket and saw that I had an incoming video message from Elizabeth, my fiancée. As I looked at the phone, I sighed, already noticing her frowning face. I used to smile whenever she called. My heart used to skip beat after beat with every step of her heels. The clicking of them used to bring me comfort. Her smile used to bring me happiness.
But now, everything about her made me cringe.
“Hey there, babe. What’s up?” I asked.
“Can we meet? We really need to talk,” she said.
My stomach seized. “About?”
“When do you get off work?”
I furrowed my brow. “You sound out of breath. What’s wrong?”
“Please, Gael. This is important, and I don’t want to have this conversation over fucking FaceTime.”
My eyebrows rose. Elizabeth only cursed when something was really nagging at her.
“Well, I don’t get off set until ten tonight. And even then, Voxx is really riding my ass—”
She waved her hand in the air. “Fine, that’s fine. We’re technically face-to-face right now anyway.”
“I mean, not really, but—”
“I can’t go through with the wedding.”
I paused. “Can you try that again? I think my phone hiccupped.”
She groaned. “We can’t get married, Gael.”
I blinked. “Are you being serious right now?”
“I’m sorry. I know this isn’t what you had hoped for us. But—”
“We can move the wedding to whenever you want it to be. I know the plans have been bogging you down lately. We could get back our deposits on some—”
“No, Gael. Just—damn it.”
I licked my lips. “Oh.”
She sighed. “I’m sorry. It’s just—”
“You want to call off the engagement, not just the wedding.”
“Look, things aren’t going well at all on my side of the family. Daddy’s breathing down my neck about this. Mom keeps chattering on about how you’re not the right guy for me. Daddy just called and threatened to cut me off from everything if I went through with this marriage.”
I nodded slowly. “So, you’re breaking off everything because your father won’t give you money anymore if you don’t.”
“It’s not like that.”
“That’s literally what you just said.”
A whistle pierced my ear. “Gael! Set!”
Voxx’s voice made me want to punch the man in his throat.
“It sounds like you have to get back to work,” Elizabeth said.
“No, what I want is to talk this out, to work this out,” I said.
“You can’t tell me you haven’t felt the distance between us lately.”
“All couples go through with it. Once this movie is over—”
“Where the hell is my stuntman?” Voxx exclaimed.
“Family emergency, give me a second!” I roared.
I looked over at Voxx, and he held up his hand.
“Take your time. We’ve got other things we can shoot,” he said.
“You won’t need the time. I have to go soon anyway,” Elizabeth said.
“No, don’t go. Talk to me,” I said.
“Don’t make this any harder than it already is. I do care for you, but what we’ve had these past couple of months is hardly love. Everyone sees us drifting.”
“Which is why I planned a surprise getaway for us.”
&nb
sp; She blinked. “You what?”
“Yeah, I booked us an entire week together in a cabin up north a bit. A nice little getaway, just you and me, to reconnect again.”
“You mean to tell me you had the money to book something like that, but we’ve been struggling to pay the bills for the wedding?”
I sighed. “Elizabeth, come on. That’s not even fair.”
“I can’t do this. I wish you the best of luck, but we’re over. Goodbye, Gael.”
And before I could get another word in edgewise, she hung up.
I tried calling her back, but she didn’t pick up. Eventually, the phone didn’t ring even once before it sent me straight to her voicemail. Rejecting my calls. How fucking quaint. I growled as I shoved my phone deep into the recesses of my pocket before striding back on set.
Then, I turned toward the director.
“Sorry about that. I’m ready,” I said.
“Sure you don’t need a few more minutes?” Voxx asked, suddenly more amiable.
I nodded. “I’m sure. What’s done is done.”
I slid the helmet over my head as Voxx nodded.
“Then, get the hell on that bike and let’s try this one more time, please? You came highly recommended. It shouldn’t take us more than three or four shots to nail this,” he said.
“Read you loud and clear, Director.”
As I made my way up to the bike, I felt fury rushing through my veins. Were Elizabeth and I in love? I didn’t know. Maybe. I liked the girl. Hell, I could’ve loved her, if given the chance. Not that she’d ever let go of her father’s wallet long enough to give me that chance. We had a deal. She married me; I got a green card so I could continue working, and she got to piss her absentee father off. Win-win, right?
Apparently not.
“And… action!”
I revved the engine of the bike as I stared down the ramp. With my eyes narrowed and my fury rushing all the way to the tips of my fingers, I readied myself for work. It was the only thing I had now. And if I couldn’t find some way to get my hands on a reason to renew my visa, I wouldn’t even have that. I’d be shipped back to Spain, where I’d have no shot at the kind of career I wanted. All my life, all I ever wanted to do was be a stuntman in Hollywood. And now that I finally had my shot with this damn television show, it was about to be ripped away from me.
Because of some spoiled rich kid I’d allowed past my defenses.
I pushed off from the ramp and started down the great expanse. I breathed in deep. In through my nose, out through my mouth. Adrenaline raced through my heart, and I funneled my fury into the stunt. As I took off into the sky, I threw in one of my best moves.
A flip over my head with my legs falling away from the bike.
Even I heard people gasp. As the ground came back into view, I knew I was turning and twisting more than I should’ve been. Around again. A dangerous move after already flipping once. I held my arms out to gain control of the bike. The move was unrealistic at best. The second my tires hit the ground, I skidded to a stop, turning the bike perpendicular to the camera and gazed off into the distance. Then, I pushed off and soared down the alleyway until the darkness consumed me.
“That was fantastic!” Voxx exclaimed.
The prop department came and took the bike from me before I passed off my helmet.
Voxx jogged down to me. He put his hand on my shoulder and pointed at me, leveling those piercing eyes at my own.
“I want that for the rest of this season. Got it?” he asked.
I nodded. “Nice to be working with someone who knows what he wants.”
Unlike Elizabeth.
“All right, everyone! Break for dinner! Then, we keep on,” Voxx yelled.
I winced at the command of his voice before I felt a familiar pat between my shoulders that pulled me from my angry trance.
“Looks like you need something stronger than apple juice,” Hunter said, grinning.
I grumbled. “At least tell me there’s pasta today.”
“Nope. But there is pizza, salad, and fresh garlic bread.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Pass.”
“Who the fuck passes on pizza?”
I shrugged off his touch. “I do. Today, at least.”
“The hell’s got your panties in a bunch?”
No use in hiding things from Hunter. Otherwise, he’d just get more annoying until I told him.
“Elizabeth broke off the engagement.”
Hunter blinked. “I mean, I’m shocked you two got this far with that crazy plan of yours.”
“Seriously, dude? Right now?”
“What? The girl’s a pain in the ass. Dense, at best. What was her reasoning? Another guy? A better deal? Daddy cutting up her credit cards?”
I cast him a look, and he snickered.
“Hard to compete with money nowadays,” he said.
“I’m fucked,” I said flatly.
“You’re not fucked, dude. With all the laws that have passed nowadays, you could marry me.”
I scowled at him. “You’d make a terrible wife.”
“Wait a second, who the hell said anything about me being the wife?”
“I did.”
He snickered. “If I took some pointers from a woman, I could be a good wife.”
“Good luck finding a decent one of those lying around.”
“I don’t know. I think she’s a decent one.”
He nodded and I turned around right as Syn Sycamore walked across the alleyway. With her long legs and her sizzling red hair, she had her eyes downcast to something in her hand. Possibly a script. Maybe her phone. I was too far away to figure it out.
“Or, you could just take her as a wife,” Hunter said as he clapped my back.
I rolled my eyes. “You’re an idiot.”
“What? You made a deal with one girl. Why can’t you make it with another?”
“With Syn Sycamore? Hollywood’s ‘It Girl’?”
“Uh, yeah. I’m pretty sure that’s who I just pointed at.”
I shook my head. “Nope. Uh-uh. I’m not getting into another deal with another raging bitch.”
“What? Where in the world did you hear that?”
“Literally, everywhere. I’ve been told by numerous people she’s an absolute dick.”
“Have you seen her being a dick to someone?”
I shrugged. “No, not exactly.”
“Look, you’re in a rough place. You need a fiancée to keep your visa, and fast. You don’t get to be picky. And you don’t really have your pick of the crop around here. This set is a damn sausage fest, minus a few extras and Syn Sycamore. You either cowboy up and grow a set, or you risk your career. Those are your choices right now.”
I rolled my eyes. “Can I have curtain number three?”
He swung his arm around my shoulders. “Plus, what if you get in good with her? I mean, think of the perks? Guaranteed another season on set. Possibly jobs wherever she might go. Maybe a bit of bedroom action?”
I shrugged him off. “I don’t want to sleep with the damn girl, or any girl for that matter.”
“I mean, I did just propose.”
“I’m going to break your nose.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time someone’s done that.”
I shook my head. “And anyway even if she was single, she’d never look in a stuntman’s direction. She’s a class-A actress who’s constantly in the spotlight, who she stands next to is important.”
He shrugged. “Then, I hope you enjoy your time in the Canary Islands. Because that’s where you’re headed if you don’t do something quick.”
2
Syn
“Oh, shi—I mean, crap.”
I looked up and saw Nat—my assistant—dabbing at her blouse.
“Just… shoot,” she whispered.
“You got another blouse in your car?” I asked.
She sighed. “This was my other blouse.”
I giggled. “You can borrow something of
mine from costume. I’m sure they’ll have something that might fit.”
“No offense, but have you seen these things I’m carrying around?”
She gestured to her very buxom chest, and I grinned.
“Hard to miss,” I said.
“Yeah. Exactly. Now, look at yours.”
I threw my head back and laughed.
“Point taken. But still. I’ll talk to someone in costume. I’m sure they’ve got something you can wear for the time being. Unless you want to go home and change,” I said.
Nat pushed her glasses up her nose. “I’d rather devour this food. I didn’t get a chance to eat breakfast.”
“You promised me you’d start eating better in the mornings. You can’t keep running on caffeine alone. That’s why you’re getting so forgetful.”
“No, I’m getting forgetful because of this stupid phone. I need a new one because my calendar app decided to stop working.”
I paused. “When was this?”
I watched Nat bounce her head, her salad completely forgotten about.
“Uh, two weeks ago?” she asked.
I nodded. “All right. You’ll be getting your Christmas bonus a week early.”
“What? No. I didn’t mean—”
I held up my hand. “You’ll see it in your account tomorrow. Take the morning and get a new phone. I wish you would’ve told me sooner, Nat. I could’ve helped you before this.”
His Secret Baby Page 1