Ruthless_A Billionaire Secret Baby Romance Read online

  She didn’t want to think Angie was right, but there was a part of her that was confused. She was so used to men hitting on her that she had become pretty desensitized to their lines and smiles. She never let herself get carried away with their attention and compliments and just thought of it as what it was—a job. But tonight, she felt a strange connection to this man in a way she had never before felt with one of the guests in the club. Did it mean something? Or was she thinking there was something there when there really wasn’t? Was she just attracted to the extremely handsome man with a lot of power and money?

  It was difficult for her to know what she was feeling, but she didn’t want to worry about it any longer. It was the end of her shift, she had her favorite bottle of wine, and she was going to go home and relax. The rest of the world could be shut off for a while.

  Chapter 7

  Sunlight spilled through the slits in the shades, blinding Chase. He hadn’t slept well that night, but he was still ready to get up and get his day underway. He had been busy over the past few days, attending the mandatory meetings at the club and going out with the guys.

  It was true, he didn’t have to go out with the guys, but he did have to admit that he was glad he did. Though their antics could get out of hand from time to time, the night before had been fun for all of them, and he was glad they had cut it short when they did. Though it was hardly a surprise for Jax to been so grabby with the waitress, Chase hadn’t realized he was so drunk and sloppy so quickly. He wondered if any of them would remember that he lost the bet.

  But then again, so had Jax. He hadn’t gotten close to taking her home any more than Chase had, and it was clear that the girl really wasn’t impressed with the way Jax was treating her. Of course, he couldn’t say much more for himself, though he did get the impression that she was happy with the way he had stepped in and stopped Jax from grabbing her.

  It was far better for both parties than getting any of the bouncers involved, and Chase knew it. He was disappointed that he didn’t get her number, but he did get her name. Though he didn’t frequent that nightclub, he knew that it was something he could change. Perhaps he would make an effort to get in there and see that girl every few days. He wasn’t that much of an idiot to make it seem so obvious, so he’d have to come up with legitimate reasons to go there.

  There was no doubt in his mind that if he were to see her often enough, she would eventually warm up to him and want him just as much as he wanted her. But he could think about her later. Right now, he had other things on his mind and other things that he needed to get done.

  He went downstairs to the gym in his apartment complex. Chase made an effort to frequent the gym weekly, making sure that he stayed in good shape. Though he was only twenty-nine, he knew if he started to let himself go, it wouldn’t be long before he didn’t like how he looked, and it would be difficult for him to find enough time to get back into shape.

  It was far better for him to stay in shape in the first place than to lose it and try to get it back again. After going through his routine on the treadmill and weights, Chase went back upstairs and stepped into the shower. He liked living just above the gym. It meant that he could work out when it was convenient for him, and it wasn’t going to take a lot of time out of his day.

  Though he could work from really anywhere he wanted to, it didn’t change the fact that he spent a lot of his time running around from one meeting to another. Whether he was meeting with a client who was interested in the furniture he was selling or if he was doing something for the club, it wasn’t unusual for him to be on the move nonstop from the moment his feet hit the floor in the morning to when he finally went to bed at night.

  Chase stepped out of the shower and ran a towel over his head. He draped it around his shoulders and stepped into his boxers, then he headed out to his living room. He didn’t have anywhere to be that morning, but he did have some sales calls to make. But, since he wasn’t leaving the house, Chase made the call in the comfort of his boxers.

  It was brief, but he closed the deal before the man had the chance to change his mind. “Thank you, Mr. Greeton. I know you aren’t going to be disappointed with your choice.”

  He hung up the phone and smiled to himself, proud that he had managed to close another deal in such a short amount of time. His father had started the business, sure, but even his father hadn’t been able to close deals or make sales with the same kind of success that Chase did. It was as though once Chase decided he was going to make a sale, there wasn’t anything anyone could do that would change his mind.

  He picked up his phone once more and called his father, eager to tell him that he had closed on the deal.

  “What do you think of that?” he asked, triumph in his voice.

  “I want to know how you did it,” his father replied.

  “It’s easy, Dad, you just gotta make it sound like it’s something they can’t live without. Then, when they sound a little bit interested, you’ve gotta bring it home before they have the chance to change their mind.” He laughed at the sound of his father breathing on the other end of the line. It was a rare thing for him to render his father completely speechless, but it had happened once more.

  “You’re doing better at this than I did when I was your age. Think about where you could be when you get to my age,” his dad said at last. It was a compliment that was given begrudgingly, but it was a compliment nonetheless, and it was one Chase would gladly take.

  “I know. I’m doing damn well for myself as it is, I can only go up from here,” he said with a laugh. His dad joined in, but there was a strain to his voice. Chase knew that it was difficult for his father to see him do better than he was doing, but it was also something Chase was proud of. He wasn’t going to hold back because his father wanted him to. He was going to rise to the top and keep going.

  Or die trying.

  He hung up the phone and poured himself a cup of coffee, sipping on it and thinking. He knew his father was proud of him in some way, but he wasn’t ever going to drag that out of him. His father just wasn’t wired the way most were, and Chase wasn’t going to lose sleep over it. He accepted it long ago. There were plenty of things to focus on instead. Penny, for one.

  He had thought about her off and on throughout the morning, but now that he finally had a few minutes to himself, she was all he could think about. She was so intriguing. So captivating. Even though he barely knew her, she was already so endearing. He had to get to know her better, but he didn’t know how he was going to do that.

  He had to find a way to get close to her, even though she was resistant to all of his advances the night before. There had to be some way to crack the code. There had to be some way to get into her life. Chase was always up for a challenge, and when it came to winning over a woman, he knew that he had to make it happen. It would eat at him until he finally did, and he wouldn’t be able to concentrate on anyone else. Until her, he hadn’t encountered a woman who didn’t want him, much less a waitress of all people. He welcomed this challenge, and he knew it would be so satisfying when he finally had her.

  He sipped his coffee, thinking about her beautiful body. There was nothing he would change about her. Nothing at all. As far as he was concerned, she was the definition of perfection, and he had to know what it was like to be inside her. Until that moment, he would make her his goal. He was a hunter, and she was his prey.

  And he absolutely loved the hunt.

  Chapter 8

  Penny sighed as she turned another page. She really wanted to get into this book, but it was difficult. The more she read, the less interested she was in the words on the pages, and the less she wanted to continue with it. But she was doing what she did every Saturday when she had the day off, and that was spending some time at the park with a book and a cup of coffee.

  Sure, there were definitely books she had gotten into and hadn’t been able to put down, but then there were books like this one. Books with characters that she just couldn’t
seem to connect with, and books that felt more like a chore to read than something she actually enjoyed. Of course, she was doing her best to get into it and was going to stick with it until she finished it, but she wasn’t enjoying it very much and she was looking forward to getting to the last page more than anything else.

  She sipped on her coffee, her mind wandering from the book with zero resistance. Though she was the kind of woman who was determined to finish what she started, it was going to be hard for her to think only about the characters in the book when there were so many other things on her mind. She wanted to get her clothing business up and off the ground, and thanks to her position in the night club, she knew a lot of people who could help her.

  The trick was to get the money she needed together first, then approach them for the support that she needed. There were those who would be able to give her business advice, and there were those who would be able to further connect her to the right people with money and influence in the fashion world. But right now, it was nothing more than a dream in the back of her mind, and one that she liked to visualize herself living.

  Penny was determined. She had worked hard to reach the point in life she was now at, and she was determined to push further on. She’d thrown pitches to investors already, and she had tried to get clothing stores to allow her to have a small space within them to get her work up and off the ground, but so far, she had been turned down time and time again.

  Each time that she heard a “no,” she had to admit that she felt discouraged. There was something about someone telling her that her idea was foolish for a woman of her status that made her believe she was not good enough. But, at the same time, there was a fire burning bright in the back of her mind, and she wasn’t going to let the negativity of someone else change the way that she pursued her own dreams.

  One of these days, she was going to find the person who would change everything for her, and when that happened, she was going to accomplish what felt to be impossible.

  She closed her eyes, lifting her head up and letting the warm sunshine kiss her face. She was a proactive kind of girl, and she had already put together a vision board that showed her clearly what steps she needed to take. It wasn’t going to be easy, and it hadn’t been, but she was determined to prove wrong all the people who told her she was never going to make it.

  Penny had shared her dreams with only her closest family members, not wanting to give anyone the power to tear her down. She was a visionary, and she knew what she wanted in her life. But, for as ambitious as she was to make it happen, there were still days like today that made it difficult for her to see whether it really would.

  Days like today made her fear that she was never going to accomplish her dreams and that she would be stuck working at the night club for the rest of her days. It was a good job and she felt bad complaining about it, even to herself, but the fact of the matter was that she was more than ready to get out of there, and she wanted to move on with her life. Plus, it wasn’t as if she was going to be young forever—who wanted a fifty-year-old waitress serving you at a nightclub? She was just glad to have a game plan that didn’t require wearing tight-fitting clothes and serving alcohol to thirsty men for the rest of her life.

  But, as she sat on the grass and sipped on her coffee, another thought ran through her mind. Chase Ellis. She looked around, surprised that he had crossed her mind once again. It seemed that she couldn’t go very long without him coming up in her thoughts one way or another, and she wasn’t sure what it meant.

  In the back of her mind, she thought about what Angie had said. Did she like him? She couldn’t like him, not after meeting him just once. She was intrigued by him, she would admit that. Sure, there was something about him that had caught her attention, but she didn’t feel she liked him in the way Angie had insinuated. She didn’t want to think that was true. How could it be?

  Penny had to admit, Chase came from a different walk of life than she did. He was wild and free. His friends were just the same. They were the kind of people who would go out and do something crazy just for the sake of doing it, consequences be damned. It was a lifestyle she didn’t understand, but one that she still found appealing. Appealing, that is, for someone else. It certainly wasn’t the sort of life she could live.

  Not alone, anyway. But with someone like Chase—ugh! There she went, thinking about him again. She was convinced that she didn’t truly like him, at least, not in the way Angie told her that she did. She refused to believe it was so. He was so entirely different than she was, so how could she possibly?

  Then again, did she? It was impossible for her to sort out her own thoughts when it came to him, and she didn’t even know where to begin with them. There was a part of her that wanted to like him. She was single and had been for quite some time. It was a necessary break after all she had gone through with her last ex, and she had been glad to have time to herself for a while.

  It wasn’t that things were terrible, but they certainly weren’t great, either. That was the way it went for her with any man, and she didn’t know how to stop the cycle. She would get close to a guy and it was only a matter of time before he turned on her in one way or another. Many of the men in her life had ended up being controlling, and there were many others who had cheated on her.

  She was often accused of cheating herself, though she had never once done so. She never would. Penny was the kind of girl to be fiercely loyal in a relationship, and she would never dream of doing anything like that to any of her partners. But it didn’t change the fact that they had done so to her, time and time again.

  But, for some reason, there was something about Chase that had caught her attention. She liked how smooth he was. He was smoother than the rest of the men at the table. Hell, he was smoother than any other man she had ever met. Sure, he was trying to pick her up like the rest of the men, but there was something about the way he spoke to her that left her feeling enchanted. Charmed, even.

  She didn’t want to tell him to go fuck himself. She didn’t want to close him down. She hadn’t exactly expressed these sentiments the night before, but she hadn’t told him that she wasn’t interested in him and that was something.

  She sighed as she rose from her seated position. It was getting late in the morning, and as she did every weekend; she was on her way to her parents’ house. Penny was close to both of her parents and always had been, and she looked forward to being able to spend some time with them that afternoon.

  She walked down the street, her mind still playing games with her. At times, she would think about Chase and that there might have been more of a connection there than what she wanted to admit. Then, she would dismiss the entire thing as though it was nothing at all. She didn’t know if she was ready to get into another relationship with anyone, and she didn’t know when she would be.

  “Penny’s home! Harold!” her mom called out when she walked through the door.

  “Hey, Mom, Dad,” Penny said as she walked over and gave her mother a kiss on the cheek. She kissed her father as well before sitting down at the table.

  “You look tired, honey,” her mom said with concern in her eyes.

  “I worked late last night, but I’m okay. It was Friday, and I don’t have to go back in until Tuesday,” Penny said with a smile. Her mother relaxed slightly, but Penny could see she wasn’t fully satisfied with her answer.

  “Did you have a good night at work?” she asked, and Penny nodded.

  “It can get tiring with all the people demanding your attention all at once, but I’m used to it,” she said with a grin.

  “I wish you didn’t have to work so hard,” her mother continued. “One of these days you’re going to find yourself a man and he’s going to take care of you so you don’t have to work anymore.”

  “I don’t want to be taken care of,” Penny replied tiredly. They had had this conversation many times. “I want to own my own business, remember?”

  “I know, but even that is going to req
uire an awful lot of work on your end,” her mother said. She walked over and started stirring the pot of soup she had on the stove, and Penny smiled as she shook her head. Her parents had always done their best in life, but they didn’t have much to show for it. They were both very hardworking people, and they had taught her that it was better to work for what she wanted than to have it handed to her. That was why it was so frustrating for her to hear her mother talk about some man taking care of her. She knew it came from a good place, out of worry for her only daughter, but it was still disheartening.

  Her parents’ house was modest and their furnishings simple. It was the perfect house as far as Penny was concerned, and she was proud she had grown up living in it. She wanted to make a name for herself, but she promised herself once she did, she was going to give back to her parents as much as she could.

  They had sacrificed so much for her in their lives, and she wanted to do something to show them she appreciated all that they had done. But, for today, she was going to take her seat at the table and spend some quality time with them, telling them the parts of her job she felt comfortable sharing and leaving the rest out so neither of them worried about her.

  It was the same thing she did every weekend, but Penny couldn’t complain. She loved her life, and though she was still full of dreams, she was going to make the most of where she was right now, with the people she was with right now. She didn’t know what was going to happen with that man she had met, but it wasn’t something she wanted to have on her mind just yet.

  She had more important people to think about right now.