RUTHLESS
A Billionaire Secret Baby Romance
Athena Braveheart
Copyright © 2018 by Athena Braveheart
All rights reserved.
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
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
Epilogue
About The Author
Chapter 1
“Gentlemen, I need you to pay attention here. I know how you all feel about this upcoming meeting, and while none of us really want to step up and handle it, I’m sure we’ll work something out.” Mr. Capone glanced around the table as he spoke, but Chase Ellis was far too engrossed in his phone to notice. It was just another routine meeting at the Alabaster Club, and he hadn’t been able to find a good excuse to skip it.
Chase sat scrolling through his social media messages, trying to piece together something to do that evening when he was finally free to return to his social life. Mr. Capone’s voice faded into the background as he grew more absorbed in his phone screen. All his social media updates had been met with the hearty approval of dozens of women, but there was one in particular whom he had a special interest in.
Melody Cash, a girl who had been messaging him most of the morning, was clearly trying to get him to commit to going out with her that evening. Though he was used to women vying for his attention, that didn’t make it any less flattering for this beautiful woman to want to see him.
The only trouble was, she seemed to know him personally, and he only had a vague recollection of who she was. The name sounded familiar, that was for sure, but he couldn’t find any trace of her on his social media accounts. More often than not, he would meet these women online or during his nights out, but there had been so many women constantly filtering in and out of his direct messages that it was impossible to remember all of them.
The flirting would ensue, then he would meet them, bed them, and get rid of them as soon as possible. He wasn’t interested in finding a long-term relationship, nor was he interested in the drama that came with pretending that he did want one. He had no trouble finding a woman to sleep with, so why bother entertaining one more than a couple of times before getting rid of her for good?
He knew it was only a matter of time before another would be throwing herself at his feet, begging him to have his way with her. Sure, they didn’t explicitly say so, and they would pull it off with more dignity than that, but it was all so transparent. Women found him completely irresistible.
Come on! Why are you being so hesitant? Don’t you want to see me again? You sure seemed to enjoy yourself last time.
She sent the text with a winking face emoji, and Chase sighed deep within himself. He wanted to figure out who this woman was, but he couldn’t come out and ask her directly. He wasn’t at all embarrassed about the fact he didn’t fully remember who she was, but he could imagine the shitstorm he’d face. A barrage of texts from a random woman was something he wasn’t trying to deal with. He decided to go with a vague text and hope that along the way, he’d get a hint of who she was.
I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the only one who was enjoying myself.
He sent the text back and waited. Mr. Capone’s voice droned on in the background, but Chase didn’t hear anything that sounded too important. As always, he was merely talking about how to keep improving the Alabaster Club with some new idea he had come up with. All in all, Chase knew that it would affect him to some extent, but being the youngest member of the club, he didn’t think he was going to be assigned anything crucial.
At twenty-nine, it was solely because of his father that he got into the club when he had. The man was an expert salesman, and he was able to convince just about anyone to do anything he wanted. When it came to getting his son in the club, it was nothing more than a conversation with those who were in charge and all of a sudden, Chase found himself on the inside.
Of course, he proudly followed in his father’s footsteps, and he, too, had become a powerful billionaire in the furniture industry. While that meant he wasn’t the same kind of tycoon as the rest of the men who were sitting around the table at that moment, it did mean he knew how to hold his own. His cocky confidence was enough to earn him a level of respect among even the hardest to please in the club, and he was proud of his accomplishments.
His phone vibrated and he glanced down. He always kept it on vibrate during these meetings, and for good reason. The woman he had been texting sent him a photo and he casually unlocked his phone, curious to see what it was. He immediately covered his phone with his hand when he saw her enormous tits fill his screen, quickly glancing around the table to make sure no one saw the image.
Chase’s heart sank when he saw that several of the other men around the table were staring at him, and he quickly turned his attention to the front of the room, realizing that Mr. Capone was staring him down expectantly.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Capone, I was a million miles away. What was that?” he asked quickly. Mr. Capone gave him a look, then glanced toward his phone.
“I don’t even want to know what it is you are so preoccupied with on that thing, but you’re going to have to pay attention. Prince Shahid Hussein is going to be visiting with his father within the next couple of weeks, and it’ll be your responsibility to entertain him during his trip.”
“Entertain him?” Chase asked, raising his eyebrows.
“Yes. Take him out to one of the clubs around town. Show him a good time and ensure he leaves with a good impression of us. I don’t care how you do it, just get it done,” Mr. Capone said.
Chase nodded, not allowing his face to betray the true emotion he was feeling. “Of course, sir. I’ll show him everything our town has to offer. No doubt he’s going to want to make some renovations to his own city when he gets back.”
Chase laughed at his own joke, but no one else joined in. He cleared his throat and glanced around the table once more, looking from one cold face to the next. He felt the frustration rise in his chest. Though he had a large part in this potential investment deal by keeping the prince happy, Chase knew that the real meeting was going to be taking place elsewhere with the king. Mr. Capone and several of the elder members of the club would no doubt do their own form of entertaining with the prince’s father, while Chase was the one who was out doing the job no one wanted to do. He was just a simple distraction so the “grown-ups” could talk amongst themselves.
“No doubt,” Mr. Capone said after a moment of cold silence. He then turned to the rest of the table and started addressing other issues within the club, and Chase sighed quietly to himself. It was rare for him to be assigned anything, given his age and rank in the club. It seemed to him he was given the jobs no one else wanted to do, the same shitty work that only fell to those who didn’t hold enough rank within the club to pass it down to someone else.
“Just don’t cut me out of any special investments the king proposes. You
know you’re going to need my money to reach the investment price, after all,” he said, only half-joking. He knew he was reaching dangerous territory and it would be better to just let the topic drop before he said something he regretted.
Mr. Capone gave him an icy glance before moving on without further comment. They all knew he’d take the work and he’d do it without complaining, though he didn’t really care to babysit some prince. He glanced down at his phone, finally making the connection with the nude photo and the name. He now remembered picking up the woman at the club the week before. He was trashed at the time, but then again, so was she. They had gone back to his place and enjoyed some rough sex, and she’d gone home satisfied early next morning.
Though he remembered those tits fondly and the sleepless night they had, he didn’t know if he wanted to get together with her again. He’d only slept with her the one time, but it was enough for him. He didn’t want to deal with any of the drama that he knew would come if she got too attached.
He slid his phone into his pocket and clasped his hands, listening to the rest of the meeting. He could deal with that woman later. Right now, he had other things going on, things that he knew deserved his attention more than some hookup he had the other night.
He was going to be entertaining a prince, after all. Perhaps he ought to pay attention.
Chapter 2
Penny swept the mascara over her long lashes twice before stopping and looking at herself in the mirror. She gave herself a critical once-over, but she was never very hard on herself. She knew she had natural beauty and was the envy of many women; she just liked to play up on her looks as much as possible. Every morning when she looked at herself in the mirror, the first thing she did was tell herself words of affirmation. She firmly believed in self-love and body confidence.
Music played through her phone, but she was only partially listening to it. Getting ready for work always put her on edge, and the background noise helped, even if she wasn’t fully paying attention to it. She looked herself over once more in the mirror and smiled, satisfied with the look. Then, she went to the closet and retrieved her purse.
She had been so tired when she got off work the night before that she had just shoved her things into the closet and had forgotten about them. But she didn’t want to carry around the tips she had made. She pulled out a roll of twenty-dollar bills and pulled out her shoebox from the back of the closet, setting the money carefully inside. She paused for a moment, looking down at the rolls of cash that lined the bottom of the shoebox.
She glanced over at the wall, calculating how long she had been saving her tips and how much longer it would take before she could quit her job at the nightclub and pursue her dream of having her own business. Ever since she was a child, Penelope Connor had dreamt of being a high-end fashion designer. She had posters on every wall of her bedroom of the icons in the industry: Karl Lagerfeld, Diane von Furstenberg, Coco Chanel.
Penny promised herself that her clothing would only be sold in the high-end malls and stores, and her name would be known around the world. Though she grew up poor, she knew without a doubt that poverty would not keep her down. As a little girl, she dreamt of living her best life, a life where money was never an issue, where she would be able to travel the world and meet important people, but most important of all, make women look and feel beautiful with her designs.
She had her goals and was passionate about seeing them come alive. Her twenty-year plan for her professional life was crystal clear and she used it as a guide to keep her motivated and on track.
Penny was blessed with a curvy, voluptuous body, which she used as an asset. It helped her get the job she currently held at the nightclub when she was only twenty-one years old, but that was four years ago. Now, she was growing tired of the men and their jeers, and the assumption that if they gave her money she would do whatever they asked of her. Though she was only a waitress and a part-time bartender at the nightclub, Penny was often treated as though she were a stripper or a hooker.
Many of the men who came through would openly hit on her, and many seemed to assume that if they gave her some money she would go home with them. Or, at the very least, pleasure them while they were in the nightclub. But Penny had high standards. She did not sleep around casually to begin with, and that meant she definitely never with slept with any of guys she met at the club.
She was sick and tired of being sick and tired of her lifestyle. She was tired of the late nights and sleeping long into the day, she was tired of not having much of a social life to speak of, and she was tired of the way she was treated at work. She wanted to break out of the drudgery that had become her life and embrace a new kind of normal right now, but she knew that it was only a matter of time before she would be able to raise the initial money to start her business.
Penny had gone to a seminar that taught women how to save their money and invest if they want to finish rich. Faced with mounting bills from all her schooling, rent, and just day-to-day expenses, the only sensible solution she could think of was to save her tips. It was no secret she made good money that way, and thanks to the way the nightclub managed their employees, she didn’t even have to claim the money on her taxes. She could take the cash and leave it in the box in her closet for as long as she wanted, only touching it when she was in dire need. Of course, that had happened a time or two, but it had been a while since she had needed to break into it, and it was starting to pile up.
Penny closed the lid and set the box back in the closet with a sigh. Though she knew she was coming up on having enough money to quit the nightclub for good, that didn’t change the fact that she was going to have to go in to work tonight, and she really didn’t feel like it. She was so tempted to call out sick. There had been a group of men who had come into work the night before, and they had tipped her more for the bottle of wine she provided them with than the bottle was worth.
Her phone rang, interrupting the music, and she lifted it to her ear.
“Hello?”
“Penny? It’s Doug.” She sighed on the inside, though she managed to keep it to herself. Doug was her boss and one of the owners of the nightclub. There was only ever one reason why he would be calling her, and before he even said the words she guessed what it was. And she was right.
“Hey, Doug, what’s up?” she asked warily.
“I was wondering if it might be possible for you to stay late tonight. Coming in early would be great, too, but definitely stay late if you can,” he said. She shook her head as she rolled her eyes. She knew that was what he wanted, and she wasn’t happy that she was right.
“Sure, Doug, I can do that. It’s more money for me. But what’s up?” she asked. She knew there had to be some reason that she was asked to stay, and though she wasn’t so sure she wanted to know the answer, she asked anyway. “Did someone call out?”
“No, but those men who were in last night were pretty impressed with your service. They called ahead to make sure you were going to be in tonight and I told them you were. Girl, I told you about that charisma of yours. You are able to stir up feelings in men that drive them crazy. See if you can get these deep pockets to commit to a bigger and more expensive bottle of wine tonight if you can. I know it’ll be a piece of cake for you.” He spoke as if he was complimenting her, but she could see right through it. He just wanted the money. Penny rolled her eyes once more even though she wanted to burst out in laughter from the mere audacity of the request.
“Yeah, that’s fine,” she said in a controlled voice. A picture of the leering half-drunk rich men rose up into her mind, but she quickly replaced it with a picture from her vision board. Knowing that the tips would help to get her much closer to her dream helped a lot. Penny had learned a while ago that she would have to change her mindset about her job if she wanted to finish rich. She looked at the job as her investor.
From their behavior during the night before, she knew that they were after more than just the wine, so she wasn’t looking forw
ard to seeing them again tonight. There had been one man in particular who had taken a liking to her, and though she had to be friendly for her job, it was clear he wasn’t getting the hint she was not interested. She had worried that she would need to get one of the bouncers involved, and was relieved when she saw that was not the case. It wasn’t ever pleasant to see people escorted out of the building, and she always worried what was going to happen when she got off work. Would they be waiting for her out in the dark parking lot? Would they try to kidnap her or jump her? Sometimes her mind would go off in tangents of fear and she would have to deliberately bring herself back to reason.
There were a number of fears associated with the job she was working, but with the undisputable fact she was making more money in a single night than her parents had brought home in an entire week growing up, she didn’t feel she could justify leaving. At least, not until she reached the goal of one hundred thousand dollars.
When Penny set that goal for herself, she knew she did not have the skillset to achieve it. She meticulously set about learning all she could about people. She studied the art of seduction, how to influence people, and how the rich became successful. Eventually, through working at the nightclub, she mastered at least the first two, and was well on her way to the third.
At least, she hoped she was.
Chapter 3
“Oh, come on! You know we’re the only ones who really know how to tear it up when it really matters!” James slapped Chase on the back with a grin, and Chase nodded.
“Well, yeah, it’s been a while since I’ve been to any of the nightclubs on the east side of town, and I’m not sure I’m ready to go back.” He thought about the last time he was on that side of town, and his friends laughed. It was true. The last time he went out on the East Side with the gang, he ended up escorted out of one of the clubs, and they had teased him about it ever since. It was a humiliating situation to say the least.
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