Single Dad Billionaire Heartthrob Read online

  Single Dad, Billionaire Heartthrob

  Holly Rayner

  Contents

  Single Dad, Billionaire Heartthrob

  1. Tia

  2. Tia

  3. Tia

  4. Maxim

  5. Tia

  6. Tia

  7. Maxim

  8. Tia

  9. Maxim

  10. Maxim

  11. Tia

  12. Tia

  13. Maxim

  14. Tia

  15. Maxim

  16. Tia

  17. Tia

  18. Maxim

  19. Maxim

  20. Tia

  21. Tia

  22. Maxim

  23. Tia

  24. Tia

  25. Maxim

  26. Tia

  Epilogue

  Fake Fiancée, Bride Forever

  Introduction

  1. Leah

  More Series by Holly Rayner

  Single Dad, Billionaire Heartthrob

  Copyright 2019 by Holly Rayner

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part by any means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the explicit written permission of the author.

  All characters depicted in this fictional work are consenting adults, of at least eighteen years of age. Any resemblance to persons living or deceased, particular businesses, events, or exact locations are entirely coincidental.

  Chapter 1

  Tia

  One more turn and I was home free. This had to be what pure bliss felt like.

  I never thought I’d see the day where two days off from work, set aside to do chores around the house and run neglected errands, was the equivalent of a luxury vacation. Then again, I hadn’t foreseen a lot of things in my life turning out the way they had. I was most looking forward to spending time with Ryan, one of the few times a year when our schedules aligned completely so we could have Mommy-Ryan days for the rest of the week.

  The smell of cigarette smoke from my last passenger permeated through the air, and I tried to keep from coughing as I pulled into the driveway. Maybe he would have been worth it if he had tipped more than a dollar, but the amount of air freshener I’d need in order to make the taxi smell better left me barely making minimum wage.

  I was exhausted. Exhausted from working crazy hours. Exhausted from taking care of a rambunctious ten-year-old all by myself. Exhausted from living across the country from what little family I had left. Exhausted from pinching pennies and paying bills and driving this taxi every night. But I was also blessed. Blessed with stability since I’d left the freelance art game and had decided to get a consistent job. Blessed with a son who loved me unconditionally. Blessed with a house that I’d worked damn hard to pay for.

  Nighttime always had me deep in thought. So maybe 6 a.m. wasn’t exactly nighttime for some, but it was the end of my shift, and, after driving around all night, I’d had plenty of time to think. I wanted to make this spring break the best spring break Ryan had ever had. With the money I’d set aside over the past month, I could treat him more than usual. Maybe we’d hit the ice skating rink or the trampoline park.

  Knowing Ryan, he’d also want to go to the movies at least once this week. Having the money and time to take him to these places was what made every crazy, eventful taxi ride worth it.

  As I took the key from the ignition, ready to relieve Lena from her babysitting duties, my phone vibrated in the center console. I’d forgotten to turn the sound back on after dropping off my last passenger and barely reached the phone before it stopped buzzing.

  The caller ID told me that Jenny Miller was calling, but that couldn’t be right. We talked maybe three or four times a year. Why would she be calling me at six in the morning on a random Thursday? I supposed it was the start of her workday, but that still didn’t explain things.

  Confused but curious, I clicked to accept the call. “Hello?”

  “Tia?”

  “Hey, Jenny!”

  “You’re probably wondering why I’m calling so early,” she said. “Or at all.”

  I hesitated. “Sort of,” I said. “Is everything all right?”

  “Everything’s great!” Jenny’s usual chipper attitude was evident just from her voice. “Except I had this fantastic trip booked for Bradley and me and I have to back out last minute because my firm just landed a huge client.”

  It had been a good seventeen years since we’d graduated high school together, but it still made me chuckle when Jenny talked about clients and contracts and firms. Back in high school, not only had we been neighbors, but we’d been two peas in a pod. We’d been known as the artsy girls, doodling our way through classes and taking every art elective the school would allow us. My, how things had changed since then.

  Jenny had deviated from pursuing art, went to a great school, and landed a job in public relations. Every time she came back to town to visit—usually once or twice a year—she had some wonderful new promotion to talk about. Last I’d checked, she was vice president of a huge PR firm. She’d gone from being the girl wearing paint-stained overalls to the woman in overpriced business suits.

  I, on the other hand, had remained the girl with the paint-stained overalls and had grown into the woman with the paint-stained leggings. Not much had changed, other than the addition of Ryan into my life, which had forced me to buckle down and find a dependable job. If it wasn’t for Ryan, I’d probably still be the same free spirit I’d been back then, just coasting through life and spending the days painting in my studio apartment.

  Jenny and I couldn’t have gone down more separate paths if we’d tried. She was married to a successful businessman, who, though he traveled often for work, adored her and their six-year-old son, Bradley. Meanwhile, I’d broken up with Ryan’s dad before I even hit my second trimester. Still, Jenny was one of my only friends from high school I’d kept in touch with, and I knew there would always be a part of her, however small, that was that same girl from the art room.

  Of course, there were moments like this, when Jenny complained about some lavish vacation being canceled because of her high-paying job, that made me remember how vastly different our lives were.

  “That stinks,” I said, still unsure why she was telling me this. “Maybe you can switch the dates or something?”

  “The trip is nonrefundable, and the dates are set in stone,” Jenny said.

  Why didn’t she sound as disappointed as she should? I was too tired for this back and forth, and if there was anyone I could be straight with, it was Jenny.

  “You don’t sound all that heartbroken about the trip being canceled. Is there some reason you called me of all people?”

  “I’m glad you asked.”

  Even though I couldn’t see her, I could imagine Jenny’s mile-wide smile forming on her face.

  “How would you and Ryan like an all-expenses-paid trip to Switzerland?”

  “Switzerland?” I repeated.

  “There’s this fantastic resort one of the partners at work told me about, in the mountains outside of Geneva,” she said. “I booked it for Bradley and me, since Kevin’s away this month, but now we’re not going to be able to make it. So, I was thinking about who in my life has a son and needs a vacation, and it was a no-brainer. You and Ryan should take the trip!”

  “Be serious, Jenny.” Even though I was sure it had to be some sort of joke—people didn’t just give away vacations, right—my heartbeat sped up.

  “I’m dead serious. I can change the names on the plane tickets, but th
e hotel reservation is set in stone. So you’ll just have to pretend that you’re me when you check in.”

  “I don’t know. What if—”

  Jenny interrupted me before I had a chance to begin my long list of logistical questions. “When was the last time you took a vacation?”

  I wasn’t sure if she actually wanted an answer, but the question forced me to dig deep into my brain to figure out when my last vacation was. It had to be my family trip to the Bahamas when I was twenty-two or twenty-three. I’d kept my passport up to date but couldn’t remember using it since then. Had I really not been on vacation since Ryan was born?

  Guilt crept in upon the realization that my son, my genuinely good, kind son, had never gone on a trip outside of West Virginia, let alone outside the country. I’d gotten a passport for him, but because money was tighter than I’d expected, we’d never used it.

  “Tia, you won’t have to worry about a thing. The room is all paid for, the resort has a breakfast and lunch buffet and other amenities included, and the train tickets from the airport to the resort are booked.” For good measure, she added, “I even have ski lessons scheduled already.”

  “And you’re serious about this? This isn’t some practical joke?”

  My questions were met with Jenny’s laughter. “Of course I’m serious. I already told you that. It sucks to lose out on the fun time with Bradley, but it would suck even more if the entire trip went to waste. You work hard, Tia. You deserve a break.”

  “When exactly is this trip?” I asked. I had to admit that a small part of me was looking for a way out. This all just sounded so far-fetched and impossible.

  There was no answer on the other end of the line.

  “Jenny?”

  “Well, you’d have to leave tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow?! I have work. I have bills.”

  “I know that,” Jenny said. “Just don’t pass up this opportunity before you think about it. You would love Switzerland. There are some really great art museums and…”

  Jenny rambled on and on about Switzerland, but I couldn’t keep my focus on the giant list of tourist attractions she was explaining to me. This was all happening so quickly, and I had to decide whether to spend our spring break as we’d planned or hop on a plane to Switzerland in less than twenty-four hours. There was the issue of the hotel reservation to worry about. What if we flew all the way to Switzerland just to be turned away? I didn’t have the extra money to drop on a room at some fancy resort if we couldn’t use Jenny’s reservation.

  But then I thought about Ryan. This would be the trip of a lifetime for him. I couldn’t imagine ever being able to book a trip of this magnitude for us. Ever since one of his friends from school had spent winter break in Aspen skiing, he’d been asking if we could go on a ski trip. He would be in absolute heaven in Switzerland.

  “I can’t just take a trip from you.”

  “Of course you can!” Jenny exclaimed. “Tia, I swear to you, if you don’t take the trip, no one will. I have two days’ worth of meetings that could impact the future of my firm, and I just can’t miss them. Bradley and I will hit Switzerland in the summer or fall. No big deal.”

  The way she said the words made me realize that, for her, this really wasn’t a huge deal. No, she wasn’t the richest person on the planet, but, between her and her husband’s successful jobs, they made enough to take trips like this on a regular basis. Plus, she’d assured me that the trip would otherwise go to waste.

  I supposed that it would be easy enough to make up the hours of work I’d be missing when we got back, especially since I had already taken off for the next two days. And I still had bills and a mortgage to worry about, but they’d still be here when we got back. The look on Ryan’s face when I told him would be worth it all.

  “We’ll go!”

  Jenny shrieked through the phone so loudly that I was certain she’d wake up Ryan, even through the car door and the door to the house.

  “Yay! You’re going to love it! I’ll call the airline right now!”

  “Jenny?”

  “Nope. You already said yes. You can’t change your mind.”

  I grinned to myself. “I just wanted to say thank you. This means more to me than you’ll ever know.”

  “You’re welcome,” Jenny said. “The trip couldn’t be going to a more amazing person and mom. Give Ryan a hug for me!”

  The moment we hung up, I hopped out of the driver’s seat and skipped up the front steps. I couldn’t wait to tell Ryan. It still hadn’t completely sunk in that, tomorrow, I’d be going on my first vacation in over a decade.

  I held back tears, but not the kind of tears I was used to crying due to unpaid bills and overworking myself. These were tears of joy, tears that told me that, somehow, everything was going to be all right. I was still hesitant—and was sure I would be until I was in Switzerland, in our hotel room—but there was a small part of me that felt as though the stars were finally aligning.

  I raced through the front door, right past Lena, who was fast asleep on the couch. I was sure she’d be happy to know she had a few days off from babysitting, but, right now, I had to tell Ryan.

  Ignoring the fact that Ryan had no need to be up this early, I flipped on his light switch and bounced on the end of the bed.

  “Ry, wake up.”

  Ryan tossed and turned in his bed then pulled the covers over his eyes, so I knew it was time to break out my backup method for waking him up. I tugged the covers back and tickled Ryan until his giggles and yawns were the only things that filled the room.

  He sat up in his bed and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. “Why are you waking me up? I thought you said I could sleep in on spring break.”

  “I have a surprise for you!” I squealed, sounding like a child at Christmas.

  Ryan’s eyes grew wide with curiosity. “Is it a video game?”

  “Even better.”

  “We’re going to the water park?”

  “Better.”

  “What could be better than that?” Ryan asked—and he was serious.

  I jumped up for dramatic effect. “We’re going to Switzerland! You get to go skiing!”

  Ryan threw the rest of his comforter back and ran in circles around his small room, pumping his fists in the air. “Mom, I hope you’re not just messing with me.”

  “I swear. Aunt Jenny helped make it happen.”

  The addition of Jenny’s name must have added some validity to the story, because, the moment the words left my mouth, Ryan kicked his excitement up ten notches. He attempted cartwheels and hooped and hollered until Lena, who he’d surely woken up, came in to make sure everything was all right.

  By the time I’d explained the situation to Lena and told her she could head out, Ryan was jumping up and down on his bed. In his ten years, I couldn’t recall a time I’d seen him this excited.

  “So, I guess Switzerland is okay with you?” I asked playfully.

  “We’re going on a vacation,” Ryan said. “A real vacation!”

  His toothy grin, made even more adorable by the two missing teeth the Tooth Fairy had claimed weeks earlier, told me that everything was going to be all right. The lost earnings I’d miss from work, the possibility of being turned away at the resort in Switzerland, it would all be worth it just to have seen Ryan this enthusiastic about something.

  “We leave tomorrow, so we don’t have much time to get ready.”

  Without saying anything, Ryan marched over to the closet in the corner of his room and began digging through a pile of clothes and toys. He emerged with a kid-sized blue suitcase that hadn’t gotten nearly as much use as it deserved. “Can I start packing now?”

  “Sure, sweetheart,” I said. I walked over and planted a kiss on his head.

  Ryan opened his dresser drawers and started shuffling through them. “Billy Jensen thought he was cool because he was going to Florida for spring break. This is going to be so much better.”

  He was right. In a matter of
twenty minutes, I’d gone from being excited about the prospect of running errands instead of working, to being over the moon about spending a long weekend in Europe. It felt like I was living in some alternate universe.

  Whatever it was, I never wanted to leave. I couldn’t wait to leave all of my work troubles and money worries behind and spend a few days in luxury. Sure, my reality would still be waiting for me when we got back, but I’d figure it out later. To make up for the pay I’d be missing, I’d pick up extra shifts when we got back, once Ryan was back in school. Maybe I’d even find a part-time job or try selling some of my artwork to account for the money I’d surely spend in Switzerland.

  Nothing else mattered in this moment. My son’s excitement said exactly what I was thinking—this was going to be the trip of a lifetime.

  Chapter 2

  Tia

  “It looks just like a painting!” Ryan squealed, staring out the window at the mountains in the distance. “Look, Mom. See the water?”

  “I see,” I replied, trying to match his enthusiasm.

  The past twenty-four hours had been a whirlwind, and it still felt completely surreal that we were here in Switzerland. Ryan had spent the first and last hour of the plane ride positioned just as he was now, with his nose pressed against the window and eyes wide open.

  As thrilled as I was to have a vacation for the first time in over a decade, I was more thrilled about the look of excitement on Ryan’s face, a look that hadn’t faded since I’d first told him about our spur-of-the-moment adventure. I hadn’t considered the fact that he’d never been on an airplane until we’d arrived at the airport. A definite over-analyzer, I’d gotten us to the airport three hours before takeoff, but Ryan had been a good sport about it. He walked from gate to gate, watching the planes take off and land.

  We hadn’t even gotten to the resort, and yet this was already the most amazing adventure I’d taken my son on. Ryan sat beside me in the nicest train seats I’d ever seen, admiring everything from the bridges to the trees.