by Dani Collins
Harlequin Presents June 2021 Box Set 1 of 2
Her Impossible Baby Bombshell
The Playboy’s “I Do” Deal
From Exposé to Expecting
Queen by Royal Appointment
Dani Collins
Tara Pammi
Andie Brock
Lucy Monroe
Table of Contents
Her Impossible Baby Bombshell
By Dani Collins
The Playboy’s “I Do” Deal
By Tara Pammi
From Exposé to Expecting
By Andie Brock
Queen by Royal Appointment
By Lucy Monroe
“I thought you were taking me downstairs.”
“I will. You said this was a private matter.” The doors opened almost immediately. Jun Li escorted Ivy across a small foyer into a two-story mansion of a penthouse.
It was the kind of over-the-top luxury she’d seen only in reality shows about the rich and famous. He walked her down a spiral staircase made of glass into a living area where the wall of windows looked onto the night sky.
“Drink?” he invited.
“I can’t, thank you.” She cleared her throat and dug deep in search of the woman she’d pretended to be that day with him. Experienced. Detached. This was a compliance error, she reminded herself. That was all. “I’m not here to attempt an extension of our...” Relationship? “Association,” she decided in a strained voice. “I only thought you should know that I’m pregnant.”
Her heart pounded so hard, she thought the whole building must be pulsating with the sound. Her skin felt hot but clammy with sweat.
His expression didn’t change. “Congratulations?”
“It’s yours.”
Canadian Dani Collins knew in high school that she wanted to write romance for a living. Twenty-five years later, after marrying her high school sweetheart, having two kids with him, working at several generic office jobs and submitting countless manuscripts, she got The Call. Her first Harlequin novel won the Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best First in Series from RT Book Reviews. She now works in her own office, writing romance.
Books by Dani Collins
Harlequin Presents
Cinderella’s Royal Seduction
A Hidden Heir to Redeem Him
Confessions of an Italian Marriage
Innocent in the Sheikh’s Palace
What the Greek’s Wife Needs
Once Upon a Temptation
Beauty and Her One-Night Baby
Secret Heirs of Billionaires
The Maid’s Spanish Secret
Signed, Sealed...Seduced
Ways to Ruin a Royal Reputation
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.
Her Impossible Baby Bombshell
Dani Collins
For my son, Sam, who takes it in stride when his mother texts him out of the blue asking, “Why would a young man your age get a vasectomy?” And later brainstorms some scenes with me when I’m stuck. Thanks, dude. You’re the best.
Contents
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
EPILOGUE
PROLOGUE
LOVE. YUCK. IVY LAM was over it.
She wasn’t cynical by nature, but she’d only come to this engagement party to be polite. A DM to an old work colleague asking if she could buy him coffee to discuss a career shift had resulted in the invitation from Kevin.
If you’re in town, come to our party. Lots of leads will be there.
So she’d picked up a bottle of wine and spent way too much money on a dress. It was a “casual” afternoon barbecue in one of Vancouver’s most upscale neighborhoods, celebrating a society engagement, but she needed to make a good first impression on potential employers. Easy-peasy.
She had settled on a dusty pink knee-length floral dress that had a 1950s Sunday school vibe to it, but the darts and pleats gave it a tailored look and the scooped neckline made the most of her modest bosom.
For all the good the effort had done her. Most of the women were in daring halter tops with bohemian skirts and eyelet sundresses that hugged their curves. Ivy was both a sore thumb that stuck out and a wallflower to be overlooked.
It was the story of her life. Ivy was neither an introvert nor an extrovert. She was middle-of-the-road, which made her too boring to be the center of attention but perfect for filling out background laughter.
Kevin had been right about the guest list, though. It was brimming with Vancouver’s top commercial real estate developers, stock traders and financial investors. Even a real, live billionaire—if the hushed remark she’d overheard was to be believed.
Tsai Jun Li was—well, it didn’t matter that he’d made her blood heat when Kevin had seemed to make a point of introducing them. Ivy wasn’t here to find a man.
Therefore, it hadn’t bothered her a bit that Jun Li had been drawn away seconds later by a stacked blonde. Blondie was welcome to him. Ivy refused to get hung up on a man who didn’t want her. Not again.
Even if he might be, without exaggeration, the most beautiful man she’d ever seen.
No. Either way she sliced it, there was nothing here for her. Trying to network at such a celebratory event would be tasteless and Kevin’s effusive love for Carla only reminded Ivy of how spectacularly she had failed when it came to happily-ever-after.
Thirty minutes after she arrived, she quietly exited the Point Grey mansion without saying goodbye. As she emerged onto the stoop, the April sunshine made her sneeze.
Allergic to love, she almost said to the valet who blessed her.
“I’m ordering a ride share,” she said in answer to his offer to fetch her car.
She didn’t hurry to bring up the app, though. She wasn’t anxious to go back to her father’s. His new relationship was also loving and sincere and hard to be around. Ivy was happy for him, but she felt like a dupe for believing she had had anything like it.
What a waste! But no more kidding herself. She was moving on. That’s what this trip was about.
She went down the steps to stand in the shade of an ornamental plum tree, trying to read her email. She was hoping for an impromptu request for an interview, but there was nothing because it was Saturday afternoon and the sun was shining. The entire city was outside enjoying a startlingly beautiful and unseasonably warm spring day.
Ivy stepped into the sun and turned her face up, letting the warmth and brightness shine down on her with all its might. She was coming home. It wasn’t so much a do-over as the launch of a new and improved Ivy. One who wasn’t so gullible. One who made her own decisions. Bold, self-serving ones.
“It’s false advertising,” a male voice said.
The valet made an “eep” noise and said, “The Pagani?” He snatched up a key from his board and hurried away.
Ivy looked up the steps, and there he stood, surveying her the way an emperor assessed his domain.
According to Kevin, the thirtyish Chinese billionaire had been his “roommate from our time at UBC.” That made Jun Li sound very tame when he actually moved like a predator, gliding down the stairs in a panthe
r-like lope.
Ivy didn’t mean to stare, but seriously, she forgot to breathe, he was so good-looking.
He had short black hair with just enough length on top to be rakish. His brows were stern, his beard trimmed to a thin line that framed his square jaw and somber mouth. His cheekbones were so high and sharp, they should have shattered the screen on her phone. His skin held a warm golden hue set off by the lime-green color of his pullover.
How was that loosely knit but closely worn sweater not wearing him?
Ivy only noticed his clothes because they so elegantly hugged his muscled shoulders and accentuated his athletic build. He’d skimmed up his sleeves to reveal his forearms, adding to his air of being utterly unaware of how stunning he was. He was like a snapshot out of a men’s magazine. He only needed to tuck a hand into his bone-colored chinos and point at something off camera.
What would he look like in his underwear, she wondered sinfully.
He kept coming toward her, and her admiration sharpened to something more visceral. A tightness of danger with a thrill of excitement.
Lust.
It was a testament to how anemic her last relationship had been that she had never experienced anything like this surge of anticipation for the man she had wanted to marry, but heat built in her throat as Jun Li closed in on her.
Just as she wondered if he would overwhelm her completely, he stopped in the shade of the tree.
“The weather,” he clarified. His mouth might have twitched as though he was laughing at how mesmerized she was. “An arctic outflow will come through tomorrow and kill all these flowers.” He nodded at the planter pots filled with cheerful pansies. “Or a pineapple express from Hawaii will dump a metric ton of rain and drown them. Everyone who visits thinks this is what it’s like to live here. It’s not.”
He was making her feel exactly how she didn’t want to feel—like a tongue-tied adolescent with her first crush. Like a woman who allowed men to tell her things she already knew. She wanted to be one of those sophisticates like that blonde who hadn’t been afraid to make a play for a man who was clearly out of her league.
“I know” was all she managed to say. “I grew up here.”
His brows went up slightly. “I misunderstood. I thought Kevin said he knew you from his time in Hong Kong.”
“We worked together there, yes.”
Kevin had a very similar background to Ivy’s middle-class, second-generation immigrant upbringing. As a fellow Chinese Canadian boosting a banking career with a stint in Hong Kong, he’d taken her under his wing for the year she’d worked in his department, offering her a sibling-like bond of outward teasing and underlying support.
“I took his job when he left.” That felt very braggy, but she was trying to overcome years of allowing herself to be reduced. “Six months ago, I took a transfer to Toronto.” Huge mistake careerwise, but at least it had forced her to confront how poorly she was allowing herself to be treated and put a stop to it once and for all. “My father still lives here, so I’m moving back to enjoy the smooth traffic and affordable cost of living. Fabulous weather is not this city’s only selling feature,” she punctuated with a facetious smile.
“I would have sworn it had none, but I stand corrected.” His mouth curled with equal irony. The flick of his gaze to her shoes and back suggested male notice. The crinkles beside his eyes suggested he appreciated what he saw. “Do you need a lift?” he asked as a growling engine approached.
Her heart skipped, and she thought, This is it. This is what it’s like to be single.
The tendrils of attraction within her were sliding and coiling with possibility. A flattered blush warmed her cheeks, and she felt the rush of preparing to take a big leap.
At the last second, old habits had her stupid mouth stammering, “I’m in Richmond. It’s too far out of your way.” Because he couldn’t possibly want to spend a second longer with her than he had to. This was exactly how she’d wound up in a dead-end long-distance relationship for eight years.
“I’m looking for an excuse to drive,” he said as a cobalt-blue convertible roadster stopped before him. It was a two-seater with fins and muscles and spoked hubcaps. There was a hawklike beak down the hood. The windshield was slanted to an acute, aerodynamic angle, and the mirrors swept out like antennae.
Ivy couldn’t help biting her lip in temptation. “It looks like something a crime-fighting duo would use to chase supervillains.”
“Blame me for the crime rate, then. I forgot I owned it. I had to have it tuned up before I could drive it, but now that I have, I’ve decided to ship it home. I’m hardly ever here.” He opened the passenger door. “Are you really going to make me save the city all by myself?”
Ivy stifled a snort at anyone owning a car like this—likely worth seven figures—and not only forgetting about it, but having it sent around the world like an overnight package.
This man was not only out of her league, he was from a different planet. But when would she get a chance like this again?
“If the city needs us...” She dropped into the low-slung seat, feeling like a racecar driver must. She dug in her bag for her sunglasses, a cheap pair of cat-eyes that she’d grabbed while picking out this dress.
He put on a pair of designer wraparounds that made him look even more sexy and inscrutable. As he pulled away, she felt like one of those daring women who got on the back of the bad boy’s motorcycle. She felt sexy and self-possessed just by being next to him in this wicked car on this glorious day.
They wound down the hill through tree-lined streets, but when he reached the main road that would have taken them south, there was a detour arrow.
“This looks like a sign,” he said.
“Are you being literal? Or do you mean it’s a warning that I shouldn’t move back here because this is what I’ll be up against?”
“I’m saying we’re being offered a chance to seize this rare, fine day. How do you feel about taking the long way home?”
She waved her hand, silently deferring to him, bemused that she was here at all.
He proved his familiarity with the side streets, and they were soon across the bridge and skirting English Bay, heading into Stanley Park. From there, he took the Lion’s Gate bridge and ran through the gears up the Sea to Sky highway.
Her skirt fluttered as he picked up speed. Her heart pressed back into her spine and her hair snapped her cheeks. She grinned with delight as the music blared and he smoothly whistled past sedans and minivans. It was a sensation of absolute freedom and she should have let them both enjoy it, but she wound up ruining it.
“You know they’ll impound this car if you go too far over the speed limit?”
“They’ll have to catch me first,” he said cockily, but he eased off a little, glancing at his speed and the sign they passed.
“I’ve been working in compliance,” she said by way of apology. “Job hazard.”
“You’re still in banking?”
“Yes.” She understood he was asking because Kevin had left the bank in Hong Kong to take a private-sector position in asset management here in Vancouver. “What do you do?” She had an idea but wondered how a man like him answered such a question.
“The bulk of my work involves international infrastructure projects. We have a lot of contracts around the Belt Road Initiative. I’m president of a conglomerate with a diverse portfolio, though. My father started it with medical devices, and we’re still a global manufacturer for those. My aunt has a handbag supply chain that does ridiculously well.”
“Why is it ridiculous? Every woman needs something trendy in which to carry her husband’s wallet.”
It was a silly joke, a dig toward all the men who complained about holding purses in shopping malls but didn’t want to carry their own wallet.
Jun Li’s expression grew more alert. “I assumed you were singl
e because you were at the party alone.”
Whose wallet do you carry? he seemed to be asking.
A man who led me on for years and never really wanted me. That wallet has been sent to the secondhand store.
A worldly woman with confidence in her own worth didn’t blurt out a sob story about being taken for granted and rejected, though.
“I’m consciously uncoupled as of last Christmas,” she said in the most laissez-faire tone she could manage. “You?”
“Consciously uncoupled as a lifestyle choice.”
“Ah. Noted,” she said dryly, hearing the underlying warning. It stung more than it should, but she was still raw from her breakup. She didn’t need another man telling her she wasn’t good enough for forever. Kudos to Jun Li for being up front about it, at least.
She made herself enjoy the moment and they were halfway to Whistler before she realized it.
“How far are we going?” he asked and her heart lurched as the words ‘all the way’ sprang into her mind.
She didn’t have the nerve to say it and he wound up taking the next exit off the highway. It led to a tourist attraction with a gondola to summit and a dining lodge.
“I’ve never gone up there. Have you?”
“No.”
“Is today the day?”
“When will we have another?”
Minutes later, they were ambling along an interpretive path enjoying spectacular views of the mountains and the sound below.
“I don’t care if it is false advertising,” Ivy said as she stood at the rail of a platform that jutted out into thin air. “When it’s beautiful, it’s really beautiful. To me, that’s worth suffering the bad days.”
“I’d rather avoid the bad days and accept the good ones as the gift they are.” He turned to her.
He wanted to kiss her. She knew it and she wanted that, too. She turned and lifted her gaze to meet his. They were both smiling.
She didn’t let herself wonder what any of it meant. This day was a gift for both of them.