by Bella Andre
Captivating in Love
~ The Maverick Billionaires ~
Book 6
Bella Andre & Jennifer Skully
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
About the Book
A note from Bella & Jennifer
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Epilogue
Excerpt from Breathless in Love
Bella Andre Booklist
Books by Jennifer Skully
About the Authors
CAPTIVATING IN LOVE
~ The Maverick Billionaires, Book 6 ~
© 2019 Bella Andre & Jennifer Skully
Gideon Jones came back from war a changed man. Though the Mavericks claim he’s one of their own, he doesn’t believe he deserves to be part of their tightly knit unit. Just like he doesn’t deserve Rosie Diaz—an amazing mother…and an utterly captivating woman he can’t stop dreaming about.
Rosie Diaz pulled herself out of the foster care system and made a great life for herself while raising Jorge, the son she adores. Only one thing is missing—a good man, one she can respect and love with her whole heart. A man exactly like her best friend’s older brother, Gideon.
When Rosie and Gideon agree to take care of Matt and Ari’s son, Noah, while the couple are on their honeymoon, they have no idea of the havoc two matchmaking little boys can create. Not to mention the steamy kisses that Rosie and Gideon can’t help but steal from each other as their connection deepens and grows. But when mother and son are threatened, Gideon will stop at nothing to protect them. Will he finally believe that he truly is Maverick material…and worthy of Rosie’s and Jorge’s love?
A note from Bella & Jennifer
Thank you for your outpouring of love for the Maverick Billionaires! Since Gideon Jones first came on the Maverick scene in Fearless in Love, the number one request we get is for his story. Of course, we are just as excited as you are to see him find happiness and love! Especially when it’s with a woman as wonderful as Rosie—and her young son, Jorge.
We hope you love Gideon and Rosie’s story as much as we do.
Happy reading,
Bella Andre and Jennifer Skully
P.S. More Mavericks are coming soon! Please sign up for our New Release newsletters for more information. BellaAndre.com/Newsletter and bit.ly/SkullyNews
Chapter One
Gideon Jones was so good with Jorge and Noah, two six-year-olds who made enough noise to rival a herd of stampeding cattle. As he handed each boy a cube of bread, Gideon gently encouraged the boys, showing them how to stretch out one hand with the bread in the center of the palm. They were both so attentive, while their bodies quivered with the attempt to stay still long enough for the peacock to feel safe eating from their hands.
Rosie Diaz’s heart melted as she watched from the picnic area, where a huge tent provided shade for the tables and dance floor that had been set up for her best friend’s wedding. Ariana Jones had first met Matt Tremont when she agreed to be his young son’s nanny. Ari showered Noah with love—and it wasn’t long before Ari and Matt were in love too. Though Rosie knew their happiness hadn’t come without struggles, their relationship was still a fairy tale come true to her. She couldn’t be happier that her friend had found love.
It was a gorgeous, sunny Saturday in August as Rosie’s son, Jorge, and Ari’s son, Noah, hunkered down before the peacock, his magnificent tail feathers trailing behind him. When Ari and Rosie had been teens together in foster care, this what they’d dreamed of—that their children would end up being best friends.
Rosie and Ari were sisters of the heart—along with their friend Chi, who had also been a part of the foster care system. Rosie had met them when her parents died in her early teens. She loved Ari for her eternal optimism and her loyalty to her brother. She loved Chi for her strength. When her foster family couldn’t say her Chinese name—Zhi Ruo—correctly, Chi had adopted their pronunciation as her own, saying it was a powerful name, like Tai Chi.
Rosie believed the three of them would be best friends forever and ever. They’d seen her through the dark days when she was eighteen and pregnant and alone after her baby’s father had abandoned her. They’d seen her through Jorge’s birth when she was nineteen. Jorge’s biological father—DNA being his only contribution—was the one who’d taught her not to trust men. At least until she’d met the Mavericks. In the same way that Ari and Chi had taught her the loyalty and goodness of friends, the Mavericks had taught her the goodness of men.
As much as Rosie wished her parents were still alive, she wouldn’t change any of what she’d gone through. She couldn’t imagine her life, her world, without Jorge.
Her son was the light of her life, an amazing little human being. Sometimes she couldn’t believe he had come from her. She and Ari and Chi had raised Jorge to be the confident, outgoing, loving boy he was.
So how could she regret anything? Especially on such a beautiful day when true love was all that mattered. As a wonderful bonus, she was finally getting to spend time with Ari’s brother. Gideon was so patient with the boys, never yelling, never snapping.
With adults, Gideon didn’t talk much, didn’t smile much. But when he played with Noah and Jorge, it was as if he became the man he would have been if he’d never been scarred by his time in the army, if he’d never lost touch with Ari. When he was with the boys, he became the funny, amazing, big brother Ari had always talked about.
The kind of man to whom Rosie could so easily lose her heart.
Maybe she’d already given him a tiny piece of her heart, especially when she watched him in unguarded moments like this with the boys.
He hadn’t yet changed into his tux and was still dressed in jeans and a T-shirt that showcased every rippling muscle. He was a vision of rough, raw, sexy power, accentuated by blue eyes and dark blond hair worn short, as if he’d never completely left the military behind. He could see right into you with those eyes. Or right through you as though you didn’t exist. Rosie longed for him to look at her, really look at her, to see what was on the inside. He made her warm all over. He made her aware of every beat of her heart. He made her want to trust a man again.
Just then, the peacock stretched out his long neck and pecked the bit of bread from Jorge’s hand. Rosie’s little boy wriggled with delight, pressing his lips together to suppress the squeal of joy dying to get out. Gideon smiled his approval, ruffling Jorge’s hair. Then he urged Noah forward, his nephew all big eyes and wonder as the peacock grabbed the bread out of his hand too.
It didn’t matter that Ari wasn’t Noah’s birth mom; Gideon treated him like he was his own blood. No one ever used the word stepson. Ari was simply Noah’s mom, Gideon was his uncle, and Matt was his dad. There was so much love among them all, it made Rosie gooey on the inside.
Ari and Matt had decided to have their wedding at the petting zoo and open-air puppet theater
in San Jose because it was Noah’s favorite spot. They’d rented the whole park for the day, and the wedding itself would take place on the stage. Rosie and Gideon were currently in charge of Noah while Ari was getting ready in the bridal tent.
Rosie, as maid of honor, would need to get herself ready soon, but there had been so many last-minute things to check on. She wanted everything to be absolutely perfect. And she knew that Gideon, who would be giving Ari away, wanted perfection just as much for his sister’s big day.
With the docent looking on, Gideon showed Noah and Jorge how to carefully stretch out a hand to pet the peacock’s brilliant blue neck. The boys were clearly awed by the bird’s magnificence, by his feathers, by the way he ate from their hands and let them touch him.
Though Gideon was ten years older, Ari claimed that when they were kids, he’d never treated her like she was an annoying pest. Instead, he’d played games with her, taken her to the park, made her laugh until her stomach hurt. Rosie supposed that because their mom had been an addict, Gideon had grown up fast, taking care of the two of them.
When he was eighteen, he’d enlisted in the army, wanting to make enough money to help Ari and their mom with living expenses. But he couldn’t have predicted their mother would move them around so much that he’d lose track of them—or that he wouldn’t get notification of their mom’s death until she’d been gone six months. By then, finding Ari while stationed in the Middle East had been impossible. Despite searching for her after he got out, it had taken sixteen years since the day he’d joined up for them to find each other again, after Matt had hired a private investigator to find Ari’s long-lost brother.
Rosie would have loved Matt just for that, even if he wasn’t such a great guy on top of it. The fact that he was a billionaire—along with his four best friends, the Mavericks—was irrelevant. Although, she thought with a small smile, she wasn’t going to lie and say she hadn’t enjoyed flying on his private plane last month.
“Sorry I haven’t been helping you take care of the final wedding details,” Gideon said, his deep voice surprising her. Rosie had been so lost in her thoughts she hadn’t realized Gideon had left the boys with the docent, who was explaining about peachicks and peacocks and peahens to her rapt audience. “The boys were so excited about the animals,” he added, “I wanted to get them started.”
“I’m glad you did.” She turned to smile at him. “And I haven’t needed any help. Fortunately, the caterers are great. They’ve got everything set out the way Ari wanted.”
Gideon was so tall, broad-shouldered, and powerfully muscled that being this close to him made her shivery inside, her breath catching as her heart beat fast enough for her to feel her pulse in her fingertips. There was that ancient cliché—he stole my breath. That’s what Gideon did to her.
Not that he seemed to have even the slightest clue what he did to her—or any woman, for that matter. Rosie couldn’t remember ever seeing him flirt with anyone, and though he was a devastatingly good-looking man, his hard shell was so intimidating that Rosie had yet to see any woman bold enough to flirt with him either. Even when they played water polo in Ari and Matt’s pool or jumped on Noah’s trampoline, and she’d catch Gideon looking at her, she wasn’t able to read what was in his mind. Did he think she was pretty? Did she make his heart race the way he always sent hers into overdrive?
Gideon hid all his emotions behind a wall no one could scale.
He had been deployed in the Middle East for seven years, and though he hadn’t spoken to anyone, not even his sister, about his experiences during those years, it was obvious they’d left their mark on his heart—along with deep, dark shadows in his eyes.
Only with Noah and Jorge did Gideon seem to be his true self. Rosie longed for him to be this way all the time, not just with the boys. She longed for him to relax and laugh with her the way he did with them.
But, just as with every time before, when he caught her eyes on him, his immediate withdrawal was like a physical punch. The smile died on his lips, his blue eyes turned into dark, fathomless pools, even his body seemed to grow rigid. As if he’d turned to stone. As if he couldn’t allow himself happiness with anyone but the boys. Even with Ari, whom he clearly loved with everything in him, he held something back.
It broke Rosie’s heart. If only they could all have happy endings. Matt, Ari, herself…and especially Gideon.
“What about the parts of the wedding Ari doesn’t know about?” Gideon’s deep, gravelly voice ran up Rosie’s spine as seductively as the brush of his fingertips over her bare skin. If he ever touched her. “Not many brides would want to be surprised on their wedding day.”
“Ari isn’t like any other bride,” Rosie reminded him. He’d been wary when Will, Sebastian, Evan, and Daniel had not only suggested a robot theme for the wedding, but also that the details were to be kept secret from the bride and groom until the big day. Though the Mavericks were all massively wealthy and successful men, they were also loads of fun. “Trust me, both Ari and Matt are going to love the surprises we have in store for them today.”
Since the wedding was at the puppet theater, Ari had decided to have a puppet skit beforehand, while the guests were arriving, and the Mavericks had run with it, going totally wild with their secret plans. Rosie and Chi, and all the Maverick ladies and their family members, including Harper’s brother, Jeremy, had worked tirelessly over the last two weeks making themed party favors and table centerpieces. Jorge and Noah, being Lego experts, had been instrumental in directing everyone.
“The fountain is ready to go,” Rosie told Gideon. “And the wedding favors and centerpieces are being set out as we speak.” She hooked a thumb over her shoulder at the army of workers stocking the bar and setting the tables. White tablecloths, real silverware, gold-trimmed plates, crystal stemware, no expense spared.
The peacock made a loud eeeiu, capturing her attention again. The boys were all agog as the docent explained that it was a mating call.
Gideon gave Rosie a tiny quirk of his mouth, which was as close as he ever came to a smile around her. “Noah and Jorge are fascinated that he’s a French peacock named Henri,” he told her. “According to the docent, the bird actually came from France—a small town near Toulouse called Le Fousseret. I’m not sure I believe it, but the boys keep saying they want to learn French so that they can talk to him in his own language.” He recounted the information dryly, nearly without inflection…yet Rosie could hear his affection for the boys beneath his words.
“You’re so good with them,” she told him.
Gideon stiffened, the hint of a smile falling away. “They’re good kids, really easy.” He clearly refused to take any credit. And just as clearly, after speaking only a handful of sentences to her, he was looking for an escape route out of their short conversation.
It wasn’t just single women who gave Gideon a wide berth—everyone did. Even the Mavericks had simultaneously welcomed him into the fold and given him all the space he seemed to require.
Maybe it was the magic of the upcoming wedding weaving its spell around her. Maybe it was the warmth of the sun on her skin on this beautiful summer day. Maybe it was the peacock’s mating call.
Or maybe it was simply that nine months had been enough time for Rosie to see Gideon for who he really was. Sweet and adoring with his sister. Playful and caring with the boys. Respectful yet protective as he made sure Matt was good enough for Ari.
From the first moment Rosie had set eyes on Gideon last Thanksgiving at Matt’s house, he’d captivated her. He was so tall, at least six two, and she’d had to look up, up, up at him. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t speak. Even her heart fluttered. His dark blond hair, as short as it was, looked soft enough to run her fingers through. She’d wanted to do it so badly that her hand almost rose on its own. He’d been wearing butt-hugging dress pants at Thanksgiving and a shirt that molded to every single muscle. She’d wanted to touch those magnificent muscles, test whether they were real. Then there was
all that bronzed skin from the years working outside as a carpenter, the matching set of tiny lines at the corners of his eyes from being in the sun all the time. He was seasoned to perfection.
Rosie never went gaga over men—she was immune. But from that very first day, Gideon had made her want things she hadn’t thought about in years.
It was his eyes she couldn’t forget, however. His gaze shuttered as if he were warning everyone off. Those eyes made her want to make him smile, to give him joy, to bring him happiness. And now, she couldn’t help but imagine. Couldn’t stop herself from dreaming.
Dreaming of Gideon with Jorge high on his broad shoulders, laughter on Jorge’s face.
Dreaming of her hand in Gideon’s, feeling his strength, his caring.
Dreaming of him lifting her hand to his mouth, brushing his lips across her knuckles.
Dreaming of love in his eyes and an unselfconscious smile on his mouth. For her.
It had been so long since she’d let a man into her life. Not since Jorge’s worthless father. She hadn’t thought she could ever do it again. And even if she could manage to conquer her own demons for Gideon, she wasn’t sure he would ever be able to fully drop his walls for her.
But she was absolutely positive about one thing: She was done tiptoeing around him. Done giving him a wider berth than she would give anyone else. Done worrying that she’d freak him out by treating him the way she treated her other friends.
From here on out, she was going to tease him and joke with him and laugh around him. The way she did with Ari and Chi and all the Mavericks. The same way she’d seen him tease and joke and laugh with the boys.
Never one to let the grass grow under her feet, she said, “Since you’re taking care of Noah while Matt and Ari are on their honeymoon, it would be great to get the boys together for a few playdates over the next two weeks. We could take them to the park or for a hike or a trip up to San Francisco. There are so many great ways for us to have fun together.”