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  The Hot Billionaires Box Set

  Nella Tyler

  Copyright © 2018 by Nella Tyler

  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

  Free Book

  Billionaire's Fake Valentine

  Billionaire's Secret Baby

  Billionaire Vacation

  Sleeping With A Billionaire

  Nailing The Billionaire

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  Billionaire's Fake Valentine

  BILLIONAIRE’S FAKE VALENTINE

  By Nella Tyler

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2018 Nella Tyler

  Chapter 1

  Drew Wednesday After Christmas Break

  I pushed the eggs around in the pan, breaking up the bigger chunks to keep them from sticking together. Sophia only ate them scrambled. If I tried to make her an omelet, she’d refuse to eat it. This was one of those things I just didn’t fight her on. It wasn’t worth it. She was like her mother in that way: strong with opinions you couldn’t change no matter what you said. It was aggravating but reassuring at the same time because I knew no one was going to be able to force her into things she didn’t want to do later in life.

  “Do you want bacon, Soph?” I asked, not turning from the stovetop. Back when I first took over the fulltime job of raising my little girl after her mother passed, I could barely cook eggs without burning them beyond recognition. Now, I was a pro at all kinds of household tasks. In retrospect, I wished I’d known more about helping around the house to make things easier for Chelsea, but it was too late for that now.

  “No,” Sophia said in her tiny voice. She’d only uttered a single syllable, but I could tell something was wrong. She’d been quiet all morning. It was the first day back after the holiday, which we’d spent with my family in the middle of the country. There was lots of playing in the snow, getting spoiled by grandparents, and good old-fashioned holiday fun. Now we were back to the reality of our daily lives. It could be a little boring, but it was ours. I kept pretty damned busy between raising Sophia all by myself and running the biggest construction company in town. I didn’t need any extra drama on top of all that.

  I looked back at my daughter. She was slumped in her chair and staring glumly at me. She hadn’t seemed happy since we left my parents’ house a few days earlier. She was dressed in one of the sweaters she’d gotten on Christmas morning, her hair in loose pigtails — styling her long brown hair was another thing I’d gotten good at in the last couple of years, learning how to braid and create a flawless ponytail, as well as work with all kinds of clips, pins, and barrettes. She was adorable, but clearly upset about something.

  I put her cheesy scrambled eggs onto a plate and brought them over to our tiny dining room table, taking the seat across from her. She hadn’t even touched her glass of orange juice, which was her favorite breakfast drink.

  “What’s wrong, honey?” I asked.

  She picked up her fork, keeping her dark brown eyes on the steaming eggs. She breathed in deeply and then looked up at me. “Why can’t it be Christmas still? I wanna go back with Nana and Poppy.”

  I smiled at that because I felt the same way. Having the last week and a half off had been relaxing, even with the added stress of the holidays. I was grateful that Sophia had such a close relationship with my parents, who only lived a few hours away, especially considering that Chelsea had been taken from her so early.

  “Well, it can’t be the holidays all the time or they wouldn’t be as special as they are, would they?” I asked in the gentle voice that I only used with her. Seeing this little girl just melted my heart. She was so sensitive to the world around her. I wanted to protect her with every fiber of my being, but I knew I had to let her fly solo, too, if I wanted her to grow into the kind of strong woman her mother had been.

  Sophia shrugged at that and filled her small mouth with some eggs. I watched her chew, trying to figure out just what was actually bothering her. She was a puzzle, the same way her mother had been. I’d changed this girl’s diapers and taught her how to ride a bike, but there were times when she was inscrutable to me as the Sphinx. A cute little riddle I just couldn’t figure out no matter how hard I tried.

  “Aren’t you excited to be getting back to school?” I asked. I took a sip of my coffee. It had cooled considerably while I’d been making the eggs.

  She shook her head decisively, the color burning in her chubby cheeks. Her face was the only place she still had an ounce of baby fat. The rest of her was long and skinny. “I don’t like anyone at school.”

  I lifted my eyebrows dramatically, which usually made her smile — she liked to say my bushy eyebrows looked like caterpillars — but not this morning.

  “You don’t like anyone at all?” She was quiet as a mouse at school, too, according to every teacher she’d ever had. She was coming out of her shell this year, but only a little. I didn’t know if she was shy and anxious by nature or because of the loss of her mom. Either way, I wasn’t sure how to help her feel more comfortable around other people.

  She thought about it, screwing up her small face into a pensive expression. All of a sudden, she smiled. “I like Miss East. She’s my favorite person at school.”

  I had to admit, Miss East was my favorite person at her school, too. Smoking hot with a body that made her job as a kindergarten teacher almost obscene — she could be on the cover of a magazine, instead of working in the elementary school of a small town. In fact, I’d love to see her in something tight and made of leather while she preened on a magazine cover. I didn’t know much about the young teacher, and it wasn’t like I was planning to date anyone in the foreseeable future with my busy schedule, but it didn’t hurt to look and do some harmless daydreaming, did it?

  “You don’t have anyone your own age who’s your favorite?” I asked.

  She finished chewing on another mouthful of eggs before answering me. “I like Miss East best.”

  I didn’t push the issue. I knew Sophia was nervous about returning to class after having the last two weeks off and didn’t want to upset her.

  “Think of something fun to do this weekend, kiddo. It’s just me and you.”

  Her eyes lit up as she sat a little straighter in her chair. “Can we go climbing? And then to the movies?”

  I nodded, and she squealed with happiness. It was that easy for her to win me over. I hoped it took her at least another decade before she realized how tightly she had me wound around her chubby little finger. When she finished her breakfast, I cleaned up the kitchen while she ran to brush her teeth and pull her backpack out of the closet where it’d been for the last two weeks.

  We piled into my big blue truck and drove the ten minutes it took to get to her elementary school. Sophia was pretty talkative on the drive, at least for her. She didn’t have playdates at other people’s houses or have little kids over to our house, so I didn’t have much to compare her behavior with besides my own experiences growing up. Little boys and little girls appeared to be drastically different animals from what I could see. This was another time I wished Chelsea was still here. It had gotten slightly better over the last three years that I’d been doing this alo
ne, but I found myself missing my former wife’s presence a few dozen times a day.

  “Can we get ice cream after school?” Sophia asked, looking over at me, her tiny face hopeful.

  I grinned at her before putting my eyes back on the road where they belonged. I could see the school coming up on the right. I always dropped her off in the car loop, coming around behind it so I could actually put my car in park and watch her walk inside the building. I liked to wait in the same place when I picked her up after school. The way her eyes lit up when she saw me waiting was priceless.

  “You want ice cream in the winter?” I asked.

  She giggled, snorting at the end like she did when she found something hilarious. She had an odd sense of humor that she probably got from me. She was a pretty good mix of Chelsea and me, with Chelsea’s smarts and my impish wickedness. Well, my past wickedness. I’d buckled down considerably since our little family went from two to three to two again.

  “I want ice cream all the time, Daddy!”

  I pulled into a parking spot at the far end of the car loop. There was a crossing guard positioned at the edge of the parking lot to help kids cross to the entrance to the school. Sophia’s classroom was on this side of the building, so it made the most sense for her to use this door to get inside. It was also where she came out at the end of the day.

  “Let’s see what kind of day you have at school, little bit. If it’s good…” I shrugged and made a silly face, drawing another giggle from her. I got out of my side of the truck and went around to the passenger side to help her down. I gave her a big bear hug, lifting her off of her feet and spinning her in a circle while she laughed in my ear, a sweet sound on such a chilly, bleak morning. The sun was supposed to come out later in the day, warming the air, but, right now, Sophia was the only consistent light in my life, and I was just fine with that.

  “I love you, Soph,” I said, planting a sloppy kiss on her cheek that got her laughing again.

  “I love you, too, Daddy.”

  I set her down on her booted feet and she grinned up at me, looking silly with her crooked little smile.

  I held up a single finger, wagging it as I spoke. “I don’t want you talking to any boys today, do you hear me?”

  She rolled her big eyes, but grinned wider, showing off the dimples she’d gotten from Chelsea. I wondered if there would ever be a time when staring my little girl in the face didn’t remind me of my dead wife.

  “Daddy!”

  “Give me another hug,” I said, and she jumped to seize my legs with her little arms. I leaned over to press a kiss onto the top of her head. “Have a good day today. I’ll see you after school.”

  “Bye, Daddy,” she replied.

  I watched her walk away from me and cross in front of the cars in the loop with the help of the crossing guard. Once she was safely inside of the building — she turned to wave once before going in and I waved back — I got into my truck and drove to work.

  Brian was already in the office when I arrived. He was the assistant regional project manager and I was the manager, meaning we spent a lot of time in the office together when we weren’t out overseeing the work on various sites across the three states in which Orion Construction exclusively worked.

  “Morning, Drew,” he said when I came in. He was sitting at his desk drinking a cup of coffee. It looked like he hadn’t slept at all the night before. He did crazy shit like stay out into the wee hours on a work night, all to impress women.

  “Morning,” I replied. I poured a cup of coffee for myself and sat down at my own desk, right across from his.

  “Everything okay with you?” Brian had cut his hair since I’d last seen him before the holidays. It was only a bit of blond fuzz on the top of his head, which was pretty different from the shaggy look he’d sported previously.

  “It’s Soph. She didn’t seem very excited to get back to school after the break.” I rubbed the back of my neck to loosen up a muscle that had kinked overnight. “I don’t really know what’s going on with her lately, but she seems more bummed than usual. It just makes me worry.”

  I could tell by the look on Brian’s face that he was about to give me some advice. He was pretty close to Sophia, but didn’t have any kids of his own. He was uncle to five of his sisters’ kids, but he was notorious for letting them eat as much candy as they wanted and running around like crazy whenever they were with him.

  “Maybe it’s a boy,” he suggested, lifting his sandy blond eyebrows, his light eyes sparkling.

  “Shut up, Brian,” I sighed. “She’s six.”

  He laughed. “Kids are getting started a lot earlier than they did in our day.”

  I scowled down at my desk and my eyes fell on some reports that needed reviewed. It was an annoying task that had to be done once at the end of every month. Brian and I usually played rock, paper, scissors for it, even though I was the boss around here. In light of his comments today, I wasn’t feeling nearly as generous.

  “I’ve got some calls to make this morning. Take care of going through these reports, will you?” I moved them to the corner of my desk for easy access and smiled inwardly as he deflated in his chair, the grin drying up from his face.

  Chapter 2

  Abigail The Same Day

  I always enjoyed spending part of my winter break with my crazy extended family, but I was excited to get back to my students. If I’d ever doubted my dedication to the work I did, the anticipation stirring in my belly the moment my eyes opened at six in the morning told me how much I needed to be a teacher.

  I didn’t have any of my own kids, but all twenty of the boys and girls in my kindergarten class felt like my own. I loved each and every one of them and had missed their sweet faces terribly. I couldn’t wait to hear about how they’d each spent their winter break. We had a lot of work to do, of course, but I found a way to make it fun whenever I could. The kids were like sponges, sucking up every little bit of information I gave them. It was wonderful to bear witness to that dozens of times a day. I loved watching them grow into the first graders they would be in just six short months. There was a lot of work to do between then and now. The thought was both humbling and exhilarating.

  I arrived at the school an hour before the bell rang at eight. I’d brought each child a newly laminated nameplate that I’d designed and printed over the break. I spent my time before the students arrived taping them to their desks, which were arranged in groups of four. I’d already come in the day before, which had been a teacher work day, to redo the seating chart. I liked to mix things up every so often. It was a great way to encourage the children to get used to working with different people. I’d also brought a bunch of freshly-baked mini blueberry muffins for all of us to eat while we discussed our holidays. I was just so damned excited to see them I couldn’t sit still.

  Finally, the hour was up and the kids began to file into the classroom right before the bell rang.

  I greeted them all at the door with a smile and a hug. “When you find your name, you’ve found your new seat for this month,” I said after each one entered. I watched the kids skip from table to table, searching for their names as they laughed and chatted with each other, shrugging out of their coats and hats as they did so. I liked to give them this time at the beginning and end of the day to be a little crazy. Kids had so much energy that they needed to burn off. Without these crazy sessions, they’d explode.

  The last student to come to the classroom was Sophia Reid. I’d never admit this aloud, but she was my secret favorite. I worked hard to treat all of my students the same way, but something about this quiet, reserved little girl just undid my heart. She was sharp as a whip and one of the best readers in the class, but she was painfully shy. I was doing what I could to bring her out of her shell. I hoped that the more confident I could make her in her abilities, the easier road she would have to travel in the higher grades. I’d seen kids like her suffer before and was committed to doing whatever I could to help her succeed.
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br />   “Good morning, Sophia,” I said, giving her a sunny smile. She came over for a hug, and I patted the top of her head. Her chubby cheeks were red from the cool weather, but it was warm in here and she started to take off her jacket as we chatted.

  “I missed you, Miss East,” she said, speaking low. She was grinning, too, her dark eyes shining up at me.

  “I missed you, too. And, I made new nameplates for the desks.”

  She brightened at the sound of that, turning on the heels of her black boots to look behind her where most of the other kids had found where they belonged. There were a few stragglers — we had one or two students who needed more focused help with their reading skills, but most of the ones standing were just burning off the last of their restless energy before the official start of the school day when they’d be forced to sit still.

  Sophia turned back to me and I could see the trepidation in her eyes. She didn’t like change, but she was getting better as the year went on. I worried about how she would be when the academic year ended and she moved on to another class. The first grade teachers were great at Blaine Elementary, but the class sizes were often a little bigger — thirty kids instead of twenty — and they moved around for electives. It was a lot of change all at once.

  “It’s okay, sweetie,” I promised her. “Go find your desk.”

  She glanced up at me again uncertainly, hesitating for a few more seconds before she walked to her desk, moving with slow, deliberate movements. She tended to do this all day long, as though she was an adult stuck in a little kid’s body.