The Billionaire's Forbidden Desire
Read The Billionaire's Forbidden Desire Online
Authors: Nadia Lee
Billionaire Dane Pryce has spent the last three years keeping a promise to his dying grandmother—to take care of the family. However, the reappearance of an unforgettable blonde from three years ago changes everything…especially since his father wants to marry her.
Former skating star Sophia Reed is broke and running out of options fast. While seeking help from a distant relative, she runs smack into the one-night stand she had three years ago. She never forgot the magnetic, magical Dane, but their reunion is nothing like she imagined. Dane is now cold and unapproachable, and he’s determined to get rid of her.
When the Pryce family’s ugly secret explodes, it shatters their world. If Dane and Sophia can’t overcome their past pain, they may never have a future…
The Pryce Family Series Reading Order
Book 1:
The Billionaire’s Counterfeit Girlfriend
(Mark Pryce’s Story)
Book 2:
The Billionaire’s Inconvenient Obsession
(Iain Pryce’s Story)
Book 3:
The Billionaire’s Secret Wife
(Vanessa Pryce’s Story)
Book 4:
The Billionaire’s Forgotten Fiancée
(Shane Pryce’s Story)
Book 5:
The Billionaire’s Forbidden Desire
(Dane Pryce’s Story)
——
Billionaires’ Brides of Convenience Series Reading Order
Book 1:
A Hollywood Deal
(Ryder Pryce- Reed’s Story)
Book 2:
An Improper Deal
(Elliot Reed’s Story)
Book 3:
TBA
Book 4:
TBA
Book 5:
TBA
——
Billionaires in Love Series Reading Order
Book 1:
Vengeful in Love
Book 2:
Reunited in Love
Book 3:
Redemption in Love
Book 3.5:
Sweet in Love
Book 4:
Forever in Love
Book 5:
Merry in Love
——
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The Billionaire’s Forbidden Desire
The Pryce Family Book 5
Nadia Lee
For Darryl Lawrence. Thank you for the best gumbo I’ve ever had.
PART I
THE BEGINNING
–
Three years ago
Dane Pryce entered a sterile private room at the hospital. The air was comfortably warm, the light semi-dim. He inhaled sharply. All the disinfectant and flowers in the world couldn’t disguise the cloying scent of the dying.
In the center of the bed lay his grandmother—Shirley Pryce, the matriarch of the family. Her body seemed to have shrunk since the last time he’d seen her, the thin white skin hanging over her protruding bones like a cheap tent. Even her hair, usually the color of polished steel, looked dull. Tubes and wires covered her, monitoring her condition and giving her the fluids and medicines she needed to stay alive.
The doctor had said she’d had two cardiac arrests. Given her advanced age and generally poor health, she wasn’t going to last long. Dane clenched his hands. If it weren’t for the beeps from the machines, he might have thought she’d passed away already.
Why didn’t anybody contact me after her first heart attack?
He stood by the door, unable to take another step. He didn’t know how to behave before death. And he didn’t know if he could get through it without breaking down.
Being vulnerable.
Shirley was the only one he cared about. The only person from his family who’d ever given a damn about him.
“Dane…” came a whispery voice.
He stepped over and carefully, gently took her brittle hand in his. “Grandma.”
Her murky eyes turned to him, and she gave him a soft smile. “They said you were busy in London…but I knew you’d come.”
“Of course.” He kissed her knuckles, ruthlessly reining in his fury at whichever bastard had told her he was too busy. That was for later. “Of course I came. Where is everyone?”
Didn’t his family think she deserved that much?
Fucking assholes
. The fact that they could be this unfeeling stunned him. She wasn’t even inconveniencing them by dying in some foreign city. He knew first-hand how something like that could get in the way of his family’s “caring.” He’d experienced it when he’d been in a car wreck in Paris and the only people who’d visited him were Shirley and the lawyers the family had sent over to deal with the matter.
Sick as she was, a glimmer of fire appeared in her eye. “I told them to get out. Useless bunch, all of them.” She coughed weakly. “Geraldine’s still stuck at the airport. Some mechanical delay.”
Geraldine was Shirley’s favorite child.
Dane swallowed an unfamiliar lump in his throat. “I’ll send my jet immediately. She’ll be here soon, so just…hang in there.”
Her fingers tightened around his. “You’re such a good boy. Always were.” She wheezed, the sound sending a ripple of terror through his heart. “Don’t be sad. It’s only natural that an old woman like me die. It’s what the Lord intended.”
“Don’t say that.” The skin around Dane’s eyes grew hot, and he blinked rapidly. The last thing his grandmother needed was his tears. “You’re going to outlive us all.”
She chuckled weakly. “No woman wants to outlive her grandchildren.”
“Well, then live as long as I do at least. I’m your favorite anyway.”
“Wishful and fanciful. Always are. Doesn’t work that way.” She squeezed his hand with surprising strength. “Now, promise me something.”
“Anything.”
“Don’t marry someone like your mother. She never had the courage. Never deserved Salazar.” Shirley’s thin mouth twisted into a scornful line. “Although he isn’t any better, letting his emotions rule his head. Don’t be like him. Weak. Pathetic. He let her use him, and for what? I taught him better, but the moment he saw her…”
“I promise.”
“Still, he’s your father—save him from himself if you can. I’ve done what I could, but… I’m afraid he won’t know what to do with himself after I’m gone.”
“You’re not going anywhere. But I’ll keep an eye on him.”
“Your siblings, too. They aren’t strong like you. Especially Shane, that poor child. So needy.”
“I will.”
Shirley drew in a labored breath. “Be kind to Geraldine. She has no one. Those children of hers…horribly misguided. Worthless…every single one of them.”
His throat tightened. He rasped, “I will.”
“And one last thing.”
“Anything,” he said, putting both of his hands around hers. If he held on tight, maybe she would stay, at least until he was ready to accept the inevitable.
“Let it go.”
“What?”
She dragged in air, the sound loud and shuddery. “I know you think about Paris. Stop it. Get rid of that damn Lamborghini. That whole thing is in the past, and we took care of it.”
Dane almost froze.
The incident didn’t plague him the way it used to, but he still thought of it from time to time. It had been his fault—he’d caused the crash due to carelessness. He’d never told anybody how he’d felt, not even his best friend. Still, he should’ve guessed Shirley would know. She seemed to know everything about him.
“Not your fault…just bad luck. Five million dollars is more than enough to make up for it.”
Dane recoiled, his heart thudding. He’d never asked the lawyers how much the accident had cost. Money had never been an object in his family, but five million? What the hell could have happened to the other party? The family lawyers were ruthless, and would never have allowed that kind of payout unless there was no other way to reduce the damage.
Shirley squeezed his hand again. This time, her grip was so feeble he could barely breathe. “You’re the best thing that’s happened to this family. Don’t ever forget it.”
She was the only one who thought that, his stern but loving grandmother. Everyone else in his family probably wished he’d never been born. He knew his parents did.
She let out a soft sigh, her grip loosening. And then Shirley Pryce was no more.
Dane swallowed hard, his eyes burning with unshed tears.
Intellectually he knew Shirley was old and had lived a full life, but emotionally…
He looked around. If he hadn’t made it in time, she would’ve died alone.
He fell to his knees and pressed his forehead against her papery knuckles. If he stayed like this she might just reach over and caress his head, tell him everything was going to be fine the way she’d done so many times when he’d been a child.
“Sir?”
A soft touch on his shoulder startled him. He blinked.
“Sir, are you all right?” the nurse asked again.
“I’m fine,” he answered automatically. His legs felt rubbery, but he stood up anyway.
The grandson that Shirley Pryce had been so proud of would never show vulnerability to another.
His family dutifully showed up at the funeral, even though the weather sucked—skies the color of granite and rain, the bane of all Californians. Stoic and serious in their black suits and dresses, they stood under umbrellas in the drizzle like so many mushrooms.
Dane curled his lip at how ridiculous they sounded as they read scripted eulogies. His mother even held a pristine silk handkerchief in her perfectly manicured hand…as though she were actually planning to cry at some point.
When it was his turn, he got behind the microphone and looked at the small crowd for a few moments. Then he said, “Shirley Price had more balls than all of you put together, and I can never hope to meet the high expectations she set for me.”
Gasps could be heard over the rain. His mother turned pale with embarrassment. She was always embarrassed about him for not being the kind of son she’d needed to keep his father from straying.
When the funeral ended, a few sycophants came over to say a few words of faux condolence. But not one of them had felt anything for Shirley. How dare they show their faces?
“You know I’m here for you,” one of them said.
It was all he could do to not spit on the man. “Fuck off,” he snarled.
Dane spun on his heel and walked away fast, away from the farce before he did something he might regret later. He dug his phone out of his pocket and dialed his office.
“Cancel all my appointments for the next three weeks.”
There was an infinitesimal pause. “Understood,” his assistant said. “Where can—”
He hung up and turned off the phone. He was finished.
Sophia Reed drew warm, salty air into her lungs. The pristine beach called out to her, its waves gentle and edged with light white foam.
Still, the knot in her chest wouldn’t ease.
“You okay, champ?” came a low, gruff male voice.
She forced a smile. “Fine, Chad. I’m just enjoying being here again. It’s nice to escape the cold.” Mexico was where she’d come to recuperate after the accident a few years before. “Why don’t you go on ahead? I know you’re tired from the flight. I’ll take a short walk and then head back.”
Her bodyguard-slash-chaperone looked around, brows furrowing. Sunlight reflected off his head, which was as dark and as shiny as a bowling ball. “You shouldn’t be out here alone.”