Aiden (Members From Money Book 8) Read online

  Aiden

  She's look after his child, but will they want a child of their own?

  A sexy, billionaire, single parent romance by Katie Dowe of BWWM Club. Features another free bonus book.

  Aiden had no idea he had a kid.

  But now little Holly’s on his doorstep, the product of a short relationship he had a few years ago.

  Her mother’s now dead.

  He gets onto hiring a nanny right away, and child psychology graduate Ciara is the obvious choice.

  Not only is she educated and great with kids, she’s got this something about her Aiden can’t stop thinking about…

  Soon they’re falling in love, but there’s a major problem.

  Both were raised by cold, absentee fathers, and neither of them wants to be vulnerable enough to say how they really feel.

  Ciara can’t deal with Aiden’s coldness, so she bails out.

  But then she finds out she’s pregnant with his child.

  Will everything fall apart?

  Or will Ciara and Aiden somehow find a way to create a happy family?

  Find out in this exciting yet heart-touching romance by Katie Dowe of BWWM Club.

  Suitable for over 18s only due to red hot sex scenes.

  Tip: Search BWWM Club on Amazon to see more of our great books.

  Free: Get Jason from the Members From Money series where YOU'RE the star!!

  Hi there. As a special thank you for buying this ebook, for a limited time I want to send a copy of Jason free of charge directly to your email! It's a personalized story, meaning you'll add a few details about yourself (these won't be shared with anyone else) and you'll become the star of the story!! :D

  You'll be emailed a new chapter once a day for 7 days. You can get it by clicking the cover below or going here:

  Direct link: www.afroromancebooks.com/personalized-jason-members-from-money

  This book is so exclusive you can't even buy it. As well as sending daily emails with the story, I'll also send you updates when new books like this are available.

  Copyright © 2017 to Katie Dowe and AfroRomanceBooks.com. No part of this book can be copied or distributed without written permission from the above copyright holders.

  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

  Bonus Book – The Other Side

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

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  Chapter 1

  The secretary kept staring over at them as if she expected her to run away with one of the expensive paintings on the walls close to her. She had been waiting for the past half hour and he was still not there. Who did he think he was, she fumed.

  “Nana, I am hungry,” Holly whispered in a stage whisper, causing the nosy secretary with her coiffed brunette hair to look at them.

  “Be quiet!” she hissed. “How much longer do we have to wait?” she asked the woman rudely.

  “He is in a meeting with some doctors, Ms. Lakeside,” she said coolly. “You happened to come by without an appointment.”

  “It would not do to interrupt Mr. Almighty himself to let him know that his own kin is here now, would it?” the middle aged woman said with a sneer.

  Melanie hid her distaste behind her professional mask and got from behind her desk. “How about I take you to the kitchen and get you something to eat?” she asked the little girl kindly, extending a hand.

  Holly looked at her grandmother uncertainly and the woman nodded ungraciously. Holly hopped off the padded chair quickly and took Melanie’s hand, eagerly skipping as she walked with her out of the room.

  Martha Lakeside fixed her shabby coat around her thin shoulders and looked around impatiently. She needed to get out of this rich atmosphere before it gave her hives. Her daughter dying of lung cancer could not have come at a better time! Holland Lakeside had come back home knocked up and morose four years ago but had refused to say who had done a number on her. She had left with the intention of becoming a supermodel and would have made it. She had had a tall slender body with dark brown hair and light green eyes and pouty lips, but apart from a small stint in some hair commercial, it had fallen flat and instead she had come home with a kid inside her. She had carried the baby and had gotten a job at the local supermarket and she surprisingly had loved and cared for the child. No amount of cursing and riding her to get the name of the low life who had gotten her pregnant had made her budge because as she had told her mother, the child was hers and she was not going to let him take her away from her. It was on her dying bed that she had told her mother the truth! Holly was Aiden Carter’s daughter, the Aiden Carter who owned the largest pharmaceutical company in the country, if not the world! The girl had a cash cow in her hands and had scraped and scrimped to take care of herself and the child. The idiot!

  “Make sure she gets to know him, Mom,” she had said, her breath rasping at the effort it took to speak. “If he wants her then please let him have her. She deserves to get the best, and I have been selfish to keep her to myself.”

  “You are damned right!” Martha had said furiously. “You have this billionaire’s kid and did not cash in?”

  “She is not a commodity, Mom,” her daughter had told her wearily. “He did not know about her. Just tell him I am sorry. His name is on her birth certificate.”

  “No wonder you kept it locked up!”

  Now sitting here in this big sumptuous office, she was wondering if she was making a huge mistake. She actually liked the kid who was as sweet natured as she was beautiful, but she needed money and she was not like her daughter! She had no intention of suffering in silence while the family had so much money lying around!

  *****

  Aiden nodded to the group of doctors as they made their out. It was a new drug they had come up with, something to get rid of allergies once and for all. They were waiting for FDA approval on the drug to go forward with it. Aiden Carter was a tall, athletically built man with dark brown hair tinged with blonde and dark blue eyes. His face was chiseled with a deep cleft in his strong chin. He hardly ever smiled and was known to crush his adversaries with barely a glance. He had taken over the company when he was twenty-seven after his father had been hit by a drunk driver on his way to work. That had been four years ago, and he had turned it into a conglomerate. Women courted him, but he had never found one he wanted to spend his life with, so he was between relationships now. He got to his feet as he remembered that his secretary had told him that he had a visitor. He frowned as he checked his watch. A part from the meeting with the doctors, he had no appointments until the afternoon when he had a luncheon with a business associate. Melanie had told him that it was a woman with a child waiting for him.

  He left the conference room and made his way back to the suite in his office. He came up short as he saw the bedraggled woman with shaggy brown hair and ill-fitting clothes sitting in his secretary’s office. Her face looked strangely familiar and he wondered where he had seen her before. She certainly did not belong in his circle!

  “How may I help you, Ms…” His blue eyes looked at her questioningly.

  She got to her feet and
stared at him for a moment. “She is the spitting image of you,” she said slowly.

  “I beg your pardon?”

  Before the woman could respond, his secretary came in with the little girl who was chattering away, causing the two adults to turn to her. Aiden stiffened as he looked at her. It was like he was looking into a damned mirror! The little girl with blonde pigtails ran over to him and stood there looking up at him. “You are my daddy,” she said with the confidence of a child.

  Aiden tore his eyes away from her and looked at the woman. “Into my office,” he said grimly, turning and walking towards the door. “Melanie, no calls right now, please.”

  “Of course. See you later, Holly,” she said, smiling at the enchanting little girl.

  Holly waved as she followed the adults inside the large sumptuous office with the huge desk on a raised dais.

  “What is going on?” Aiden asked as soon as the doors were closed.

  “I am Holly’s grandmother, and Holland was her mother.” His eyes flared as he recognized her name.

  “Where is Holland?”

  The woman looked at the little girl quickly, but Holly had pulled out a moth-eaten doll and was sitting on one of the chairs playing with it, oblivious of the tension in the air. “She died,” she said in a stage whisper, not wanting the little girl to hear. “Lung cancer. Two weeks ago.”

  “She told you that the child is mine?” He frowned at her heavily, wondering if he had been put into another galaxy without him knowing. Things like this did not happen to him!

  “Mister, without her telling me; seeing the two of you is like looking into a mirror.” Martha dug into her raggedy pocketbook and came up with an official looking paper, handing it to him. He scanned the document quickly and saw his name there where it said name of father. He was the father of a four-year-old girl and he was just now being made aware of the fact. Her name was Holly Aidenia Carter, and she was born on June 3rd, which meant that she had turned four four months ago since it was now October.

  “Why didn’t she contact me?” he asked furiously, holding on to the document. He was going to put his P.I. on it and he was certainly going to let his mother set up DNA testing although from what he could see there was no need for one!

  “She was afraid you would take the child from her.” Martha clutched the bag to her side. “Look, mister, I am in no position to take care of her, so it is your responsibility now and from what I can see you will have no problem doing so.” She paused and turned to stare at the little girl who had her blonde head bent over the doll. “I am going to need some sort of compensation and she is all yours.”

  Aiden looked at the woman in distaste. “You are selling your own grandchild?” he asked her in contempt.

  Martha felt the fear unfurling inside her at the look on his face. “I just need…”

  “How much?” His expression was granite like.

  Martha shifted her eyes away from his and wanted to run from the room. “Ten thousand,” she whispered.

  He strode around his desk and pulled out a drawer, taking out a checkbook. He opened it and wrote in the figure, signing it with a flourish before tearing it out the leaf. Her eyes followed the paper as he came around. “I don’t want to see you coming around here for another installment,” he told her coldly as he handed her the paper.

  She nodded and looked at the amount, practically drooling at the amount of zeroes. “I won’t.” She looked over at the little girl for a moment and then went over, crouching in front of her. “Girlie, I am leaving you now. You are in good hands.”

  “Will I see you again, Nana?” she asked, her blue eyes large in her pretty face.

  “Not really.” The woman got to her feet and handed her a little pink furry bag. “Take care,” she muttered, and then without looking back, she hurried away closing the doors behind her.

  The tall, formidable-looking man and the adorable girl with her blond pigtails and pink and white complexion looked at each other until Aiden leaned over and picked up his phone. “Melanie, please come in here.”

  *****

  Ciara took several deep breaths as she opened the door to her apartment. She was not going to panic and behave as if it was the end of the world! It was just a minor setback, no major harm done! She would get another job in a few days. She was qualified, more than because she had a degree in child psychology and she had no problem getting a job. She flung her oversized pocketbook onto the neat and trim sofa in her tiny living room. Her mother had been calling her, but she had avoided taking the calls. Clara Greene was the queen of drama and she could not deal with that right now. The Silverstones could have given her more notice than that since they were thinking of moving the entire family to Europe! She had been with the family since she had graduated college and Nate had been two years old. That had been four years ago, and she had bonded with the little boy in spite of the rough start they had had to begin with. She remembered the tantrums, the meals dumped all over her, and the pouts and wails when it was time to go to bed, but she was very patient and very good at what she did.

  Ciara went straight to the kitchen to put the kettle on to make some much-needed tea. She would miss the games they played and the stories she told him to get him to go to sleep. It was her first assignment and she had really enjoyed it. Her mother could not understand why she would go to college and come out with a degree, then decide to sit someone’s kid “who probably did not appreciate your services anyway,” she had complained. But Ciara loved children and had decided when she was in college that that was what she wanted to do. She had signed up with the exclusive Nannies Extraordinaire where they did thorough screenings of their employees and background checks. Her check at the end of two weeks was quite substantial and the only thing she had not liked about her job was the fact that the parents rarely had time to spend with the children. She had been Nate’s everything and he had come to depend on her heavily. She smiled as she remembered that he had cried and told her that he was never going to find another nanny like her.

  She jumped a little bit as she heard the kettle whistling and went to look about her tea, determined to relax and not think about her problems for a few minutes.

  *****

  “Where is she now, darling?” his mother asked him.

  “She is with Melanie, but I have work to do.” He sighed impatiently. “What the hell am I supposed to do with a kid, Mother?”

  “First things first, darling,” Angela Carter said in her soothing voice. “My shift finishes in a few minutes, so I will pop over and pick her up. We have enough maids at the manor to give a helping hand until we can interview for a nanny.” She paused. “You had no idea she existed before now?”

  “No, Mother.” He raked his fingers through his hair and felt his body tightening with the impatience of having to deal with a situation he was not familiar with! He had had a brief affair with the then up-and-coming model and it had lasted exactly one month. He had used a condom, but there was no doubt the child was his. She had the Carter’s looks! “I will see you when you get here.”

  Angela nodded to the intern as he made his way past her as she slipped her phone into her coat pocket and went to the doctors’ lounge to get herself a cup of coffee. She had a grandchild, and she had no idea how to take it, not just yet. Her son was thirty years old and she had given up on him producing one because of his addiction to the company and indifference to women after he had been with them for some time. She went to the coffee machine and poured herself some of the rich Brazilian coffee she had provided for the staff at the hospital and went to take a seat. Angela Carter had thought about retiring, but she loved what she did. She certainly did not need the money as the Carters were wealthy and powerful people in the society. But she had married Leonard Carter when she was still in medical school and had decided that she needed to be something more than just a rich man’s wife. It had been rough at times with all the entertaining and the looks she received because of her name, but she had proven herse
lf to be one of the top doctors in the hospital mostly owned by her husband’s company and the respect had eventually come.

  “You look deep in thought,” a deep voice said above her. She looked up with a quick smile and waved to the seat in front of her. William Romaine was the Chief of Staff and was an amiable African American who had encouraged her and been there through all the difficult periods in her life. He had been married and had lost his wife a few years ago to a brain aneurysm.

  “I have a consult tomorrow with a heart patient who is bent on not following the advice I give him.” She sipped her coffee, and her blue eyes met his kindly brown ones.

  “Mr. Alvin?” he said with a twinkle in his eyes.

  “The same,” she said with a laugh.

  “What else is bothering you?” he asked her shrewdly.

  “You know me too well,” she said ruefully, telling him of the grandchild they had only just heard about.

  “At least she will get the opportunity she needs in life.”

  *****

  “I hope you understand, my dear. It is a very delicate situation and requires the utmost discretion. That is why I have chosen you as the best candidate for this job,” Marjorie Grimes, the owner of Nannies Extraordinaire, said in a conspiratorial voice as she leaned forward. They were in her small and compact office with the door closed, but the woman was behaving as if she was disclosing top secrets! “I have received very good words about you from Millie Silverstone that you are the best. You have an appointment to meet with the grandmother of the child on Saturday. I know that this is rushed, but they need you to start working on Monday. And it is a live-in position, my dear. I hope that’s okay with you.”

  “It is, Marjorie, and thank you for the opportunity,” Ciara told the woman with a smile.

  “My pleasure, my dear,” she beamed.

  Ciara waited until she was in her car before she allowed her delight to show! She had told her mother that she would not be out of a job for long and she was right! It had not been quite two weeks since she had lost the job at the Silverstones and here she was with the prospect of working with another child in an exclusive neighborhood. The situation was unusual, but she could work with it.