Millionaire Hero
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.
Cover Photographer: Wander Aguiar Photography
Model: Andrew Biernat
Contents
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
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Epilogue
Millionaire Crush (Sample)
A Note from the Author
Books by Natasha L. Black
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Introduction
Damsel in distress?
Forget it.
Not my type.
Until Bryn shows up.
Her ex took her inheritance and lost it to bad investments.
I’m the only man who can turn that around.
So what if she brings out the caveman in me?
An alpha wolf that won’t let anyone mess with his mate.
Not that I’m looking for a mate.
So what if my brothers are all loved up with families.
I’m a loner.
Except that I can’t seem to leave Bryn alone.
She wants something from me: hope. And maybe something more.
Me? I’d never get involved with a client.
That rule is about to be broken.
Because Bryn says she needs me.
I know just what she needs.
There’s no way the alpha in me could resist.
Book 4 in the Freeman Brothers series brings you Nick and Bryn’s story. Millionaire Hero is a standalone, full-length romance with burning passion, secrets, and drama. And don't forget the HEA that makes it all worthwhile…
1
Bryn
“Oh, come on!”
I stuck my fingers under the beige twine and yanked, but it wouldn’t release. Digging my nails into one of the knots, I cursed the manicurist who told me the short, sporty look was trendy for this season. No matter how much I pulled, poked, or prodded, I couldn’t get the twine off the packaging. It was beyond me why a butcher felt the need to bind up a roast so tightly. It wasn’t like it was going to escape at this point.
Glancing over at the clock, I saw my time was dwindling away. When I first came up with this plan, it seemed like such a good idea. Silly me, I didn’t take into account the need to wrestle the roast free before I would be able to put it in the oven. The battle had already put a significant dent in the time I had to prepare dinner. If it didn’t get it in soon, Justin would come home to a less-than-romantic assortment of takeout Chinese. Granted, at this point I was almost ready to take the knock against me in the romance department if it meant not dealing with this massive chunk of meat.
But I was never one to give up that easily. Some people called it stubbornness. I called it… well, stubbornness. But I thought of it in a more positive way. Something closer to persistence.
Wrenching open the junk drawer, I dug through the odds and ends of life that ended up tucked there. My search for kitchen shears came up dry. It didn’t surprise me. The scissors had a way of climbing out of the drawer and walking away from the kitchen. At least, that’s the way Justin would tell it, considering he insisted he never touched the things and couldn’t understand why they kept showing up on his desk.
Letting out a sigh, I left the offending roast on the counter and headed for Justin’s office. Crowded into one of the two extra bedrooms in my little house, the office was where he buried himself in work. He spent hours locked away trying to get to the next level. That was how he described it. I wasn’t entirely sure what he meant. He wanted to make more money and be more successful.
I was proud of him. We were trying to build our lives together, and he was working so hard to make it happen for us.
The door to the office was shut, but it wasn’t locked. I stepped inside and glanced at the desk. The scissors weren’t there. Sifting through the papers piled on top, I still didn’t find them. They had to be there. I didn’t have them, and they weren’t in the kitchen or living room. I opened the first drawer but didn’t find them. The second drawer was files and papers. I was closing it when I noticed a particular file.
I paused. Why would he have that in here?
Taking the file out, I checked the label, just to make sure I was seeing it right. Justin didn’t have an account in that bank. But I did. The account my mother set up for me that held my entire inheritance, everything she had worked so hard to build up for me before she died.
My stomach sank and my hands shook as I flipped the file open. I went through the papers not believing what I was seeing. Rage bubbled up inside me, and my eyes blurred. This couldn’t possibly be what I thought it was. I went back to the first page and read through them again.
He’d stolen my entire inheritance.
I wanted to cry. I wanted to scream and break things. I wanted to storm back in the kitchen and throw the roast out the window. But before I could do anything, the doors to the office opened and Justin walked in.
“What are you doing in here?” he asked.
I looked at him incredulously. “Are you seriously going to try to be angry with me right now? This is my house. Don’t forget that. I can go anywhere I please. Especially now that I know what’s been happening right under my own roof.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Don’t act dumb,” I said. “Don’t add to how much you’ve been insulting my intelligence and disrespecting me by pretending you don’t know what’s going on. I was in the kitchen acting like an absolute idiot trying to make you a special dinner to show how much I appreciate all the hard work you’ve been doing. But the scissors were missing, yet again. So, I came in here to find them, and look what I found instead.”
I shoved the papers into his chest, and Justin stumbled back a couple of steps before taking them in looking down at them. His eyes widened. “Bryn, let me explain.”
“There’s nothing for you to explain,” I said. “You can’t possibly talk your way out of draining my entire inheritance and then losing it all. You stole from me. You took everything I had. I thought we were trying to build a future together.”
“We are,” he said. “That’s why I did this.”
“Just stop. Stop trying to defend yourself. There’s nothing you could say that could even come
close to making this okay.” I let out an exasperated sigh and covered my face with my hands, shaking my head. “I can’t believe I was putting myself through all that hassle to make you dinner because I was so proud of what you were doing. I thought you were working so hard. Turns out all you were doing was stealing from me.”
“I wasn’t stealing,” he said. “I was investing. You had all that money sitting there not doing any good for anyone. All you’ve been talking about for years is wanting more security, a bigger house, more opportunities. But you wouldn’t even touch that money. Investing it could get us there faster. It could make far more money far faster than either of us could working regular jobs.”
“So, you stole it.”
“I invested it. I was going to surprise you when all the profits came in,” he said.
I let out a mirthless laugh and shook my head, putting my hands on my hips and staring at him. This couldn’t possibly be the man I’d been in love with. He couldn’t be the person I thought I might spend the rest of my life with. That man wouldn’t betray me like this. He knew how much that money mattered to me. That it was so much more than just the balance on the account.
“You weren’t going to tell me about it at all. If you had any intention of making me a part of it, you would have included me from the beginning. You wouldn’t have gone behind my back and stolen every dollar I had, then handed it over to some incompetent investor to toss away. How could you do something like that?” I asked.
“This was for us.”
He opened his hands, stepping toward me with hope in his eyes, but I backed away from him.
“No. Don’t even try. How could you do this?”
He let out a breath, his hands falling and his expression shifting to something dull and unaffected. “I thought I could get away with it. Honestly, it didn’t seem like it would be that difficult to get past you. Considering I’ve been doing it for the last six months and you didn’t know, I was on the right track. You’re just so blind, Bryn. So stupid when it comes to money. If you didn’t come in here and find those papers, you never would have found out.”
“I never would have found out? How exactly would you explain to me that all my money had disappeared?” I asked.
“I would have figured it out,” he said.
“Get out.”
“What?”
“Get out. Get out of my house,” I said.
“You can’t be serious,” he said, rolling his eyes.
“I am. This is my house. Get out now.”
I pushed past him into the bedroom and started yanking his clothes down off the hangers in the closet and scooping them up from the drawers in the dresser. He stood in the doorway to the office, watching me when I stopped as I passed to the front door. I opened it and threw everything in my arms out onto the front lawn. He let out a shout to protest, but I didn’t care. Stomping back up to him, I snapped the papers from his hands and went back into the bedroom for more.
“Bryn, stop it. You’re being ridiculous,” he said.
“No, I’m done. I am done with all of this and with you. Get out now before I call the cops.”
I felt a measure of glee when I was finally able to kick him out and throw the rest of his stuff out after him. It stayed like a hum buzzing in my head as I watched him at the window plucking his clothes and other belongings up out of the grass. I walked away just before hearing the door slam closed. The amplified feeling drained out of me when I heard the car pull away.
Sinking down to the floor, I clutched the papers harder in my hands, and the tears came.
It was gone. All of it. My entire inheritance, gone. All the money my mother had worked so hard for her entire life, gone. One of the very few links I had left to her, gone.
Now I had to deal with the reality that I had to figure out what to do next. It wasn’t just about the money being gone. This was an upheaval of my whole existence, and I had to figure out how to rework my life.
I had never relied on it. That was my nest egg, my safety net that protected me in case things went completely wrong.
I dropped my head back against the door and let out a breath. Maybe there was a way I could get it back.
2
Nick
I was just coming back into my office after lunch when my phone alerted me to a new text message. I sat down behind my desk and got myself situated before I checked it. It was from Lindsey, and before I even read it, I had a feeling I knew what was coming.
Come over for dinner tonight? The message read.
I let out a groan, happy nobody was in the office with me to hear my reaction. My best friend had been hounding me for more than a week to go over to her place for dinner. Actually, it wasn’t even her place. It was my older brother Vince’s place. She had started spending a lot more time over there recently, which was exactly where my issue lay.
I don’t know, I messaged back. I have a lot going on with work and everything. I might be working late.
Her answer came almost instantly, and I could almost see her leaned against her bar, holding her phone and waiting for my response.
Just something quick. Nothing big and elaborate. If you have to work late, we’ll eat late.
It wasn’t that I had a problem with Lindsey and Vince being together. The idea of my best friend and my big brother being involved might seem strange for some people, but I thought it was great. They fit together perfectly.
It didn’t even bother me that they were going so fast in their relationship. I figured there wasn’t much point in delaying too long or dragging their feet. It wasn’t like they were teenagers. They were old enough to make their own choices, and once they knew, they knew. It didn’t make sense to slow things down and move through the stages of a relationship gradually just because it was what was expected of them.
And it wasn’t that I didn’t want to see them. I enjoyed spending time with both of them, and it had been a while since we’d spent any time together. I loved Lindsey and her son. Remy was a fairly new addition to my life, at least in terms of spending time with him. Up until recently, Lindsey had been keeping him a secret from everyone but me. I was the only person who even knew she had a son but didn’t spend any time with him. It wasn’t until a nasty custody battle with her ex that she let other people in, and he started spending more time with his mother, and, by extension, the rest of us.
Getting a chance to hang out with them, and with my brother, was appealing. Which was the only reason I was considering taking her up on her offer for dinner. The truth was, as much as I wanted to spend time with them, watching them play out their new role as a happy little family was a bit difficult for me. In fact, it had gotten sickly sweet enough to make it hard to be around them for long.
My label as the last of the Freeman brothers to remain single didn’t exactly help the situation.
First Merry came along. A young, driven social media consultant and marketing expert, she burst onto the scene of Freeman Racing and instantly clashed with company owner and oldest brother, Quentin. The friction didn’t last long. Somewhere between overhauling the company’s social media presence and establishing events that took the fans by storm, she and Quentin fell in love. A baby and wedding quickly followed, and now they reigned over the compound together.
While all that was going on, our youngest brother, Darren, shocked the family by falling in love with a woman who already held his heart. Kelly, a brilliant mechanic, showed up from Canada looking for a new life… and the father of her toddler daughter, Willa. She found both at the complex and now had another Freeman wedding in her near future.
But it was Vince that really surprised us all. His head was always buried in work. As the CEO of Freeman Racing in addition to owning several businesses throughout Charlotte, there was plenty of it for him to do all the time. But Lindsey needing help made him come up for air and he never turned back. The girl he always thought of as his kid brother’s friend suddenly looked different to him, and the rest was, very rec
ent, history.
It left me. The only brother not to stick with the family and work at the complex, and now the only brother not to be linked up with a woman. My parents actually handled me wanting to find my own path in my career and go into investments well. They understood I needed to do what was right for me and find what would make me happy. Just like my father did when he built Freeman Racing.
Mom most certainly took it better than she had been taking me staying single. Up to her eyeballs in babies, weddings, and new daughters, she was in her element and gleefully happy. All she needed was the full grand slam. And she wasn’t being subtle about it. She’d been making plenty of noises about me following my brothers’ examples. According to her, it was time for me to settle down.
I didn’t understand the push. In my mind, she should be happy. Three out of four was a good record, especially for such a short time. She should be enjoying the outcome. Even if she wasn’t happy about it, she should find a way to accept it and stop prodding me about it. I wasn’t ready for the whole family thing. There was plenty of time ahead of me. If, and it was a big if, I ever decided to jump into domesticity, I would do it when it was right for me.
Millionaire Hero (Freeman Brothers Book 4) Page 1