The Baby the Billionaire Demands Read online

  Pregnant, she fled...

  But she’ll be the Spaniard’s bride!

  Lola Price didn’t dare tell Rodrigo Cabrera she was pregnant, after he spurned her. But now that he’s discovered her secret, he’s determined his child will take his name! While their mutual desire in the marriage bed is undeniable, Rodrigo keeps himself at a distance. Yet fiery Lola won’t be pushed away again. She’ll show Rodrigo that their son and their relationship are worth fighting for!

  Indulge in this dramatic secret-baby story!

  “You tossed me out of your house. You said I disgusted you and you never wanted to see me again! You think I would ever ask you for help after that? I’d die first!”

  Her eyes were stinging. She blinked hard and fast. She wouldn’t let herself cry. Only weak people, or children, cried in public and she hadn’t been either for a long time.

  Rodrigo’s expression changed. He took a step toward her in the small apartment, his face half-hidden by shadow.

  “You don’t need to ask for my help, or anyone else’s, ever again.” His voice was low. “Because if the paternity test proves he’s my son, I’m going to marry you.”

  A rush went through her. A thrill of terror—or was it joy?

  “What?” she whispered numbly.

  “For his sake.” His dark eyes burned through her. “You will be mine.”

  Secret Heirs of Billionaires

  There are some things money can’t buy...

  Living life at lightning pace, these magnates are no strangers to stakes at their highest. It seems they’ve got it all... That is, until they find out that there’s an unplanned item to add to their list of accomplishments!

  Achieved:

  1. Successful business empire.

  2. Beautiful women in their bed.

  3. An heir to bear their name?

  Though every billionaire needs to leave his legacy in safe hands, discovering a secret heir shakes up the carefully orchestrated plan in more ways than one!

  Uncover their secrets in:

  Carrying the Spaniard’s Child by Jennie Lucas

  Kidnapped for the Tycoon’s Baby by Louise Fuller

  The Greek’s Secret Son by Julia James

  Claiming His Hidden Heir by Carol Marinelli

  The Secret the Italian Claims by Jennie Lucas

  Wed for His Secret Heir by Chantelle Shaw

  The Heir the Prince Secures by Jennie Lucas

  The Italian’s Unexpected Love-Child by Miranda Lee

  Look out for more stories in the Secret Heirs of Billionaires series coming soon!

  Jennie Lucas

  The Baby the Billionaire Demands

  USA TODAY bestselling author Jennie Lucas’s parents owned a bookstore, so she grew up surrounded by books, dreaming about faraway lands. A fourth-generation Westerner, she went east at sixteen to boarding school on a scholarship, wandered the world, got married, then finally worked her way through college before happily returning to her hometown. A 2010 RITA® Award finalist and 2005 Golden Heart® Award winner, she lives in Idaho with her husband and children.

  Books by Jennie Lucas

  Harlequin Presents

  One Night With Consequences

  Claiming His Nine-Month Consequence

  The Consequence of His Vengeance

  Secret Heirs of Billionaires

  The Secret the Italian Claims

  The Heir the Prince Secures

  Wedlocked!

  Baby of His Revenge

  Join Harlequin My Rewards today and earn a FREE ebook!

  Click here to Join Harlequin My Rewards

  http://www.harlequin.com/myrewards.html?mt=loyalty&cmpid=EBOOBPBPA201602010002

  Dedication

  To my wonderful editor, Nicola Caws. I never could have written this trilogy without you.

  Dear Reader,

  Which is more important—love or money?

  After a difficult childhood, Lola Price knows the answer: Money. Having lost her family to tragedy and poverty, she vowed when she grew up she’d have so much money she’d never feel helpless again.

  Then, at twenty-four, Lola fell in love with her boss, Spanish media mogul Rodrigo Cabrera. After a hot affair, she was thrilled to discover she was pregnant. Until Rodrigo found out about her shocking past, and coldly tossed her from his house.

  Heartbroken, Lola fled to New York without telling him about the baby. As much as he now despised her, she was afraid the ruthless billionaire might try to take her child away.

  What will happen tonight when Rodrigo finally learns her secret? Which will triumph—love or money?

  This is the final book in a trilogy about three friends. Hallie’s story was The Secret the Italian Claims. Tess’s was The Heir the Prince Secures. I’ve loved writing these stories about three vibrant, different women and their fiercely powerful men. I hope you love them, too.

  With warmest wishes,

  Jennie

  Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  EXCERPT FROM THE INNOCENT'S SHOCK PREGNANCY BY CAROL MARINELLI

  CHAPTER ONE

  MONEY MEANT EVERYTHING to Lola Price.

  Money was the difference between happiness and grief. Between joy and tragedy. She’d learned it at five years old, and every day since.

  Growing up in a trailer on the edge of the California desert, in a dusty town where jobs were scarce, she’d seen her mother’s daily struggles to pay the bills after Lola’s father died. Her mother eventually remarried, but it only made things worse.

  By the time she was eighteen, Lola had learned that there was only one way to protect the people you loved. One way to keep them safe and close—and alive.

  You had to be rich.

  So she’d dropped out of high school and moved to Los Angeles. Desperate to save what was left of her family—and without any talent or even a high school diploma—she’d hoped to instantly become a movie star, but her acting career never got off the ground. Without money, she’d lost everything.

  Now she had a four-month-old son. And nearly a million dollars. Lola took a deep breath. No one would ever take her family from her again.

  Sergei Morozov’s booming voice brought her back to the charity ball, where he’d been swaying with her on the dance floor. “Can I kiss you, Lolitchka?”

  “What?” Startled, Lola looked up at him. “Kiss me?”

  “Yes. When?”

  “Um...never?”

  The Russian tycoon winced. Burly and in his mid-fifties, with gray hair on his temples and a strong accent, he was CEO of a large Wall Street firm. He’d also been, until four months ago, her employer. “When you agreed to be my date tonight, I thought...”

  “I’m sorry. I don’t feel that way about you.” Around them, couples danced in the gilded hotel ballroom to the orchestra’s elegant music. The children’s charity ball was the social occasion of November in New York. She was just surprised her two best friends, Hallie and Tess, both newly married to billionaires, weren’t here. They loved fancy events like this.

  But Lola didn’t see them. As she danced with her former boss—keeping an old-fashioned, almost Victorian distance between them—she saw dark-haired men everywher
e in sleek, sophisticated tuxedos who reminded her of another previous boss, Rodrigo Cabrera. The Spanish media tycoon who’d coldly given her a million-dollar check, then tossed her out of his beach house, secretly pregnant and brokenhearted.

  Sergei cleared his throat. “If you just need a little more time...”

  “That’s not it.” She looked down at the marble ballroom floor. She never should have agreed to a date, she thought. She’d been swayed by her neighbor, a widow who occasionally babysat her son, who’d told Lola she ‘needed to get out and live.’ That, plus the weddings of Lola’s two best friends in rapid succession, had made her feel her own loneliness. When Sergei Morozov had invited her out, she’d convinced herself it might be a healthy step forward, after a hard, lonely year.

  Now she wished she’d just stayed at home.

  “Some man broke your heart,” he growled. “He abandoned you and your son.”

  Lola looked up in astonishment. She’d never spoken about Rodrigo to anyone, not even her best friends. “I never said he abandoned me—”

  “You had pregnancy alone. Had birth alone. No man.” His big hands tightened against her back. “Forget the idea of a date. Maybe I just marry you, eh?”

  She sucked in her breath. “Marry?”

  The burly man looked down at her. “I have wanted you for a long time, Lola,” he said softly. “If marriage is your price, I am willing to pay.”

  Lola stared up at him in shock.

  Marry him?

  Her stomach looped like a roller-coaster.

  Sergei Morozov wasn’t a bad man. She’d worked as his secretary throughout her pregnancy. He was rich, arrogant, but not cruel. When she was eighteen, she would have jumped at the chance to marry a man like that.

  Too bad for him that Lola was now twenty-five, with a pocketful of money and a scarred, bitter heart.

  “I’m flattered, truly,” she said awkwardly, “but—”

  “Marry me, zvezda moya. I will cover you with jewels. I will—”

  “I’d like to cut in.”

  Lola’s heart dropped as she heard another man’s voice, low and dangerous behind her. A voice she knew, though she hadn’t heard it in over a year. A voice she’d never forget.

  Slowly, she turned.

  Rodrigo Cabrera stood beside her on the dance floor, wearing a sleek tuxedo over his muscular, powerful body.

  Dark-haired, dark-eyed, with chiseled cheekbones and a five o’clock shadow along the hard, sharp edge of his jaw, he was even more handsome than she remembered. Power, dark and dangerous and sexy, echoed off him like shock waves.

  “Rodrigo?” she breathed.

  “Lola.” His cruel, sensual lips curved as he looked down at her. “It’s been a long time.”

  Unwilling images went through her of the days and nights of their brief affair. The pleasure. The joy. The laughter. The certainty in Lola that for the first time since she could remember, she was no longer alone...

  Now, pain twisted through her, pain she was careful not to reveal on her face. “What are you doing here?”

  “Cutting in.” He moved between her and Sergei with almost feline grace. He glanced at the Russian tycoon with casual amusement. “If you don’t mind.”

  Sergei scowled. “Of course I mind—”

  “It’s all right, Sergei.” Lola put her hand unsteadily on his arm. “I’ll see you shortly.”

  Sergei set his jaw. “Once the dance is done, I’ll be back.”

  Rodrigo’s eyes flicked to her. “As the lady pleases.”

  After Sergei’s grudging departure, the two of them looked at each other.

  “So you’re living in New York now,” Rodrigo said coldly.

  “Are you here on business?”

  He bared his teeth into a smile. “Is there any other reason?”

  In spite of everything, Lola’s heart was in her throat as she looked up at him. All the other people in the ballroom, all the laughter and music, faded away.

  Slowly, Rodrigo pulled her into his arms. She breathed in his scent, of woodsy musk and soap and something uniquely him. She tried to tell herself she felt nothing, but her knees trembled, and she was glad he was supporting her in the dance.

  He glanced back at Sergei, now glowering at them from the edge of the dance floor. “So he wants to marry you.”

  “Not everyone hates marriage like you do,” she said unwillingly.

  His lips quirked. “Another millionaire falls at your feet.”

  “Not everyone hates me like you do.”

  “I don’t hate you, Lola.” His voice was low.

  She tilted her head back to look at him beneath her lashes. “You don’t?”

  “I despise you. That’s different.” His dark eyes gleamed. “You must have spent the million dollars I gave you if you’re looking for a new sugar daddy. Do you intend to say yes? Are congratulations in order?”

  Lola narrowed her eyes. She wondered what Rodrigo would say if he knew the real reason she’d taken his payoff money: because she’d found out she was pregnant.

  Money meant more to her than pride. It meant safety. Her baby must never know, as Lola once had, how it felt to go hungry. He must never see his mother cry when she couldn’t pay the bills, or be mocked for wearing clothes to school that were too small, or harassed by teachers for falling asleep in class, because he’d spent another night taking care of younger siblings when his mother had the night shift.

  And most of all: Jett must never know how it felt to lose his family.

  Taking Rodrigo’s money meant no one would be able to take her baby away from her.

  No one, that was, except Rodrigo.

  She swallowed, her hands tightening on the shoulders of his tuxedo jacket as they danced. A father had rights. And although she still had most of the million dollars that he’d given her, she knew he had billions more. Enough to take whatever he wanted. Even Jett. And that made her afraid.

  Because she’d been his secretary once. For over two years before they’d become lovers. She knew how ruthless the Spanish media mogul could be. How he could turn on people savagely if they failed him.

  Rodrigo had good reason to believe the worst of her. Why wouldn’t he, after what he’d learned about her past?

  But he was in New York on business. He often came here. He even owned a house in SoHo. But they traveled in different circles now. He couldn’t know about Jett.

  If he did...

  No. He must never know.

  Rodrigo’s expression hardened. “Well? Do you intend to marry him?”

  “I haven’t decided,” she mumbled.

  His arms tightened around her waist. “Is that a lie?”

  Lola had no intention of going on another date with Sergei, let alone marrying him. But she wasn’t going to tell him that. She looked up. “Why do you care?”

  His dark eyes glinted. “I don’t. I’m just wondering if I should warn him about the kind of woman you really are.”

  She stiffened. “What kind is that?”

  “You’re very beautiful, Lola.” Rodrigo’s hot gaze traced slowly over her modest, long-sleeved black knit dress. As they danced to the music, he cupped her cheek. “Very.”

  Electricity ripped through her body from where he’d touched her. Sparks raced down her spine, shouting, Yes, yes. This was her man, and she’d missed him, oh, how she’d missed him. She’d dreamed of him unwillingly every night from the moment he’d taken her virginity and made her feel—

  Rodrigo dropped his hand. “But you’re ugly on the inside. You’ll do anything for money. Anything? Anyone.”

  His cruel words were like a blow.

  With a deep breath, she cut off the connection between her heart and her brain. She didn’t care if he insulted her, she told herself. She just had to get through this song. Then he’d leave.
And she’d make sure she never saw Rodrigo Cabrera again, or put Jett at risk of being taken from her.

  Lola tilted her head, looking at him sardonically. “Ah. There’s your famous charm. If you think I’m so horrible, why don’t you go dance with someone else?”

  “Why? Are you so eager to be back in your lover’s arms?”

  As if she’d ever let Sergei caress her! As the song finally drew to a close, she stopped dancing, nearly trembling with relief. “Okay, song’s over. Not that this wasn’t fun, but—well, it wasn’t. Go find some other woman to torture.”

  Rodrigo stopped, looking down at her on the dance floor.

  “And that’s all you have to say to me?” he said softly. “After a year?”

  Their eyes locked, and for a moment, in spite of her overwhelming fear, the truth rose guiltily to her throat. Once, they’d been so close; once, she’d told him everything.

  No. She hadn’t told him everything. And that had been what had destroyed them.

  A hulking shadow appeared beside her. “Song is over,” Sergei said sullenly. “I’m taking her back.”

  Lola looked at the Russian with gratitude, then glanced one last time at the Spaniard she’d once loved with all her heart. “I guess this is goodbye.”

  “I guess so,” Rodrigo said, his dark eyes unreadable. He turned away.

  The orchestra started a new song, and couples resumed swirling around them on the dance floor. Lola turned to Sergei. “I’m tired,” she choked out. “Will you please take me home?”

  “Konyechna.” Sergei’s voice was soothing. “I’m sure you miss your baby.”

  Lola sucked in her breath, praying Rodrigo hadn’t heard. No such luck. As if in slow motion, he turned back to her.

  “Baby?”

  “Nothing to do with you.” But her voice was strained, even to her own ears. She had to get out of here—fast. Tossing her blond hair as if she didn’t have a care in the world, she turned back to Sergei. “Let’s go...”

  But Rodrigo blocked her path. “How old is the baby?”

  “None of your business.”

 
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