by Mary Moreno
The Millionaire Fantasy (Book 1): A New Life
By: Mary Moreno
Goldstar Publishing
Copyrighted © 2020
All Rights Reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, copied or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system without written expressed permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is purely coincidental.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
About the Book:
Chapter 1: Jessica’s Luck
Chapter 2: Meeting Jessica
Chapter 3: Talking With Tony
Chapter 4: Mother’s Lecture
Chapter 5: Swimming Lessons
Chapter 6: Dinner For Three
Chapter 7: Bedtime
Chapter 8: Jessica’s Past
Chapter 9: Jared’s Pain
Chapter 10: Jessica Helps Me
Chapter 11: Trying To Convince Me
Chapter 12: Stunned
Chapter 13: The Morning
Chapter 14: Jessica Avoids Me
Chapter 15: Giving Into Him
Sneak peek / Also Available
About the Author
About the Book:
Jessica Harper:
My life was crap before I went for the interview. I wasn’t sure that I would be in the running to be a nanny. I enjoy kids, I’ve watched kids, but I’m determined not to end up like my mother, the worst thing that I can be. When Tony and Jared Collins become a part of my world err when I become a part of their world, it seems like everything is changing. Everything is moving so quickly and to the point where all my emotions are spiraling out of control!
Jared Collins:
I could tell from the start that she was quiet, that something was the matter with her. Maybe not physically, but I could tell that she wasn’t from around these parts. It’s not until I see the way Tony takes to her that I see how blue her eyes can get when she’s happy. I like to read body language more than I like to hear people talk. Jessica Harper, I thought, was going to be just another nanny, like all the ones before when I could just leave and work like I’m supposed to. Trusting her with my son, but the more I get to know her, the more I want to be around her when I should be working! Why does she have to smile like that, why does she have to laugh like that, and why the hell does she have to bite down on her lip so seductively without even meaning to? Getting a call from my mother, I forgot that she and my father are coming in two weeks to spend family time with us like they do every year. I have a hard time with my mother because she’s always asking me if I’ve found the one. The one that I want a family with, the one that could show Tony how a mother could be. It’s a double whammy when I invite Jessica to have dinner with Tony and me because he speaks of the one thing he hasn’t spoken of in a long time…
His mother…
Chapter 1
Jessica’s Luck
Jessica’s POV:
I wasn’t from the right side of the tracks. At eighteen, I finished high school by a thin piece of my blonde hair. My blue eyes weren’t even misted over with pride in myself. I didn’t bother going to college, so I could just assume what Mr. Collins was going to think of the “Nanny For Hire” application that I had filled out. My mother had abandoned me right after I got out of high school. On graduation day, to say the least. She had run off with a man who promised to take care of her. It was always about men with her, not even about herself. Now three years later, at twenty-one, here I am in a broke down apartment, paint peeling off the walls, hearing the neighbors fighting every night, and if they aren’t fighting, they are partying. This wasn’t the life that I had dreamed of making for myself. Sometimes we slide off track. My job isn’t any better than my home-life. I sort trash for a living. Not that I like it, it’s not where I thought I’d be when I was that little girl dreaming about the big white house, kids, a dog in the yard surrounded by a white picket fence. That was long gone, the child with big hopes and dreams was nowhere to be found as I look at my reflection in the rundown bathroom mirror.
I see the light blue eyes that are tired, my blonde hair is straightened, and I have a slight tan going on. I look at myself in the dress that I managed to scrape up enough money to look good for the interview that I have with Mr. Collins. I want to look my best.
It’s a white sundress, it shows off the tan that I have. I have matching sandals on my feet, and when I give a small smile, I feel a little better.
Maybe this is the job that I’ve been dreaming of. I’ve always liked little kids. They’ve always held a special place in my heart. The way their eyes light up when they become excited either over going to get a piece of candy or seeing a bug on the ground as if they were the ones who had first discovered the ant or the spider.
“Alright, let’s do this,” I tell myself, giving myself a firm nod of the head, and my smile grows wider.
The only thing that makes me nervous is that why would Mr. Collins pick me out of all the applications that I’m sure to have been filled out? Why would he just choose me out of the pile of women who would be just as good for the job as I would be?
Putting my small phone in my matching white purse, I leave the bathroom, not wanting to look at the cracks in the walls, but as I close the door, I see them praying that sooner or later, I will be able to do better for myself.
“Get the job first. Do what you need to.” I whisper to myself and feel the slight confidence growing inside of me.
This isn’t like any other job that I’ve had.
Sure, I’ve been a babysitter before. I’ve watched plenty of kids for part-time jobs while I was going to school and had to save it to make sure that I helped my mother with the rent. To make sure that we could have another month’s stay not knowing if the following month, we were going to get kicked out and need to find another place in a hurry.
I’ve lost count on how many times we had to move, how many times my mother would wake me up in the morning and tell me that it was time to go.
I have no idea where my father is, I always say that my mother wasn’t into talking about him. I don’t even know his name if she told me it was when I was too young to remember because I have a good memory.
All I know is that I’m not going to be like either of them. One day I will show myself that I can break the cycle.
Just because you come from a rundown, broken home doesn’t mean that you can’t make something of yourself. It doesn’t mean that you have to live the same way you’ve always lived, and I’m hoping to change that today.
As much as I want to change my life around right now in these few hours, I remember that it’s Monday, and Mondays are usually no good.
I make sure that I have my apartment key, I don’t know why. Anyone could break down the flimsy door that is supposed to be my security. If anyone wanted to truly break into the place, they would be able to with one good kick to the middle of the door, maybe not even that.
Locking the door behind me, I can hear the couple upstairs already beginning to argue, and I roll my eyes. Not that anyone can see me do it.
I just pray that I get out of here. It’s the worst place that I’ve been to, but at least the rent is cheap. I can’t afford much of anything, living on your own at such a young age with no support is hard, but to me, I think it makes me a little stronger.
Not as trusting as much would-be growing up with a family, a place to call home. When you go through tough battles alone, it makes you stronger on the instead even if it doesn’t show on the out. I don’t like to rely on anyone, that’s not something that I do every day.
However, I wonder if Mr. Collins is going to like the strong-willed woman that he’s decided to interview. I wonder if he’s going to like the fact that the second, he lays eyes on me, he’s going to realize that I’m not a woman to be swept off my feet with a nice smile and a gentle voice.
Why?
Because I’m nothing like my mother.
Chapter 2
Meeting Jessica
Jared Collin’s POV:
My butler came into the sitting room where I was sitting and watching my son Tony playing with his toy trucks on the floor. I don’t usually let him play downstairs because he has a playroom upstairs, today is different. Today I am bound and determined to find a nanny for my young son. One that’s not going to run away because he has a head fit, a tantrum over something silly. If I’d have to guess I’ve gone through a nanny a year because they couldn’t handle Tony at his worst.
Looking down at my five-year-old boy, I see the brown hair that matches mine. He has slight blonde high lights running through, and I know that he gets that from his mother. I sigh, pushing the thoughts of his mother out of my head. I wish she was here to see him grow up. I wish that she…
“Mr. Collin’s, the appointment is here,” Jackson tells me in a deep voice.
A tall man of sorts, taller than me. His dark blue eyes are piercing, but there’s something in his facial expression that is distasteful.
“What’s the matter with her?” I jump up from the couch and take another look at Tony before I leave the room.
He doesn’t say anything, letting me see for myself.
A mousy woman that doesn’t look to be over the age of nineteen is standing in the hallway just outside the door looking as if she’s going to run out on me before I can get her name.
I give her the best smile that I can.
“Mr. Collins?” She asks me, a little confident in guessing my name but not too sure is what her blue eyes are telling me.
“Yes, nice to meet you…” I let my voice trail off, extending my hand, forgetting the name on the application that I looked at numerous times before her arrival.
“Jessica Harper.” She states, taking my hand shaking it.
She has soft hands, a firm handshake, and she gives me a small, warm smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes.
I wonder what her story is, but I’m not about to pry. That’s none of my business.
“Please, come in,” I tell her, nodding my head as I let my hand slip out of hers and lead the way to the sitting room.
She stands in the doorway as if the room is going to swallow her whole. Maybe a little impressed and maybe a little scared.
“I didn’t realize that you lived in such a big place, a palace.” Jessica grins at me, slowly walking into the room.
“I wouldn’t call it a palace. This is Tony.” I introduce her to the boy playing with his trucks on the floor.
Tony doesn’t lift his eyes, not that he’s being rude. It’s just when he’s fixed on something, he shuts the world out.
“He looks content,” Jessica tells me as she sits down on the couch beside me.
In front of us is the coffee table with her application on it.
“There’s not much in your file. However, I do see that during your high school years, you worked as a babysitter?” I ask, remembering some of it without opening the folder that holds her application.
“Yes, to help my mother make ends me. I’m not going to beat around the bush. I know that there’s not much at all in the application that I filled out. I’ve always enjoyed being around children, I have the certification of CPR, I know how to handle emergencies when it comes to children Mr. Collins.” Jessica sounds like she’s in defense mode, and the last thing that I had wanted to do was offend her.
“Are you currently working?” I ask, remembering she hadn’t put anything down on the application about that.
“Yes. Some may find it degrading…” I hear her pause, and the silence is too long between us.
“You’re not a call girl, are you?” I ask her, watching her blue eyes quickly make contact with mine.
The light blue eyes are growing slightly dark, her ears are turning a deep red fast along with her cheeks.
“No, I would never degrade myself like that, Mr. Collins.” She answers me, and I got what I wanted from her.
The fight that I knew she had. The quiet ones always have a fire that needs to be let out once in a while.
“Then it can’t be that degrading,” I smirk at her, finding her slightly amusing.
“I work at a trash company sorting paper, plastic, and cardboard. I mean someone has to do the recycling, don’t they? Or we as humans are going to die from the pollution that we create ourselves.” Jessica defends her job, and she doesn’t even have to.
“That is the truth. I have to admit. You’re doing this world a service.” I nod my head firmly. I can’t deny her that, now can I?
“Do you know how to swim?” Tony looks up from his trucks before either of us can continue to converse with each other.
“Yes, I am a very good swimmer, how about you?” Jessica’s tone is light, it’s bright.
As I watch her speaking to my son, her blue eyes are no longer dark, but beaming with happiness, her smile is amazing, her white teeth showing off how perfectly straight they are. Tony must be impressed as well because he gets off his knees and walks over to her with a smile of his own, his brown eyes just as bright as Jessica’s blue ones.
“My name is Tony Collins, it’s nice to meet you.” He sticks out his little hand, and I watch her take it without hesitation as her smile grows wider.
“It is nice to meet you, my name is Jessica Harper.” Her slight laugh makes my heart skip a beat, and I know that she’s perfect for the job.
Chapter 3
Talking With Tony
Jessica’s POV:
How dare this man like me if I’m a call girl? Who does he think he is? Assuming that any woman would sit there and degrade herself that much to the point where she would even think about selling herself for money?
His little boy, though, the second he noticed me, I knew that I was falling in love with him—such a great kid with excitement in his eyes.
“Maybe you could find time to teach me how to swim? That’s something that I’d like to do. Do you like playing with cars and trucks?” He asks me, and I see the hope in his eyes, such hope that it makes my heart melt.
“I like to play with cars and trucks sometimes, I haven’t in a long time.” I feel his hand slipping away from mine, and out of the corner of my eye, I notice that Mr. Collins is watching us interact. I don’t even care if he’s watching Tony Collins is a sweet boy, he seems to be a happy boy.
Tony turns away from me and begins to pick up his cars and trucks. Putting them back into his car carrier by color.
“I would guess that your favorite color is red,” I tell him, not wanting the conversation to end.
<
br /> “Yes, how did you know?” He lifts his head quickly.
“As a kid, when I played with my blocks, I always put my favorite color first. I see that’s that what you’re doing as well.” I explain to him.
“I always like putting my favorite color first, it makes the clean up easier.” He grins before going back to putting his stuff away.
I wonder why Tony is taking care of his things. People with lots of money don’t have to worry about picking up their messes, that’s what a maid is for. I haven’t seen anyone except the butler who had answered the door for me.
Maybe they were told that Mr. Collins didn’t want to be disturbed.
“I like to think that my son doesn’t have to rely on others to take care of his belongings. The more he takes care of his things, the more things he gets. Responsibility.” Mr. Collins tells me.
I try to hide the look of shock on my face.
“You thought that I was just some rich man who doesn’t care about how my son treats his things.” He states it’s not even a question.
I look at him, surprised that he would talk to me like that.
“No worries, that’s not going to hurt your chances of working for me.” He winks at me, and for just a slight second, my heart jumps.
I feel the warmth on my face, but I clear my throat and turn my eyes away from his.
“If you are to work for me, that means everything, Ms. Harper.” I cringe at him calling me this, everyone always called my mother, Ms. Harper.