The Billionaire From San Francisco Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter1

  chapter 8

  THE BILLIONAIRE FROM

  SAN FRANCISCO

  UNITED STATES OF BILLIONAIRES BOOK 5 By..

  CJ HOWARD

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  Summary

  When Natalie Davidson discovered her mother was getting married to a billionaire from San Francisco she was more than surprised.

  However, this was not the biggest surprise that was waiting for her in the golden city.

  When she arrived at the wedding she met her new stepbrother, Cameron Brookes and she was blown away by his gorgeous good looks.

  It was clear that there was an instant attraction between the two. They held off for as long as they could until eventually the flames of desire consumed them both. And a steamy night of passion resulted.

  Now they are addicted to one another and they spend every spare moment getting busy in bed.

  But how long can their secret sexual relationship last? And what will happen if things ever got into the open?

  Read on and discover what happens next in this billionaire romance with a sprinkling of taboo. This is an absolute page turner that will not leave you disappointed.

  Copyright Notice

  The Billionaire From San Francisco © 2018, CJ Howard

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

  This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher.

  Contents

  Chapter1

  Chapter2

  Chapter3

  Chapter4

  Chapter5

  Chapter6

  Chapter7

  chapter 8

  chapter 9

  chapter 10

  chapter 11

  chapter 12

  chapter 13

  chapter 14

  Chapter1

  Steam rose in undulating swirls off of the muddy brown river, slowly creeping toward the gritty banks of sand where long, narrow, wooden fishing boats were pushing off in the early light of day beneath an eggplant and dusky rose-colored sky. Engines on bigger boats rattled as the smaller boats wove deftly in between them across the water, pedaled by foot by Vietnamese men and women.

  Just above the bank of the Red River, roosters crowed, and small dogs barked up and down the dusty red road that meandered through the timeworn patchwork village. It was a humble place, made up of palm leaf thatched roofs here and corrugated tin tops there, with thin wood walls making a home for the meager, and crumbling brick walls for the poor.

  The remnants of a faded red rag hung as a makeshift curtain over the open square of a window frame on the small wall of one scant home. It wavered slightly, and as dim sunlight began to filter through the haze of pollution in the sky, the light sifted through the material and set the room ablaze in hues of fiery orange and buttery gold.

  The room was bare, save for a small wooden table weathered and worn, with four legs and a thin top. Sitting on it was a carry-on-sized suitcase which was laid open and partially filled with clothes that had been folded, moved, refolded, and pushed around again. The remainder of the clothes that would normally have filled the rest of the bag were hanging outside on a line.

  A few feet away, on the other side of the room, was a thin mat which was spread over the floor. There was a small pillow on it and a young woman with black shoulder length hair that was braided to one side, and dark mahogany skin that was only partially covered in thin gauzy material in a sandy beige color. There was a nearly transparent sheet draped over her lower half, though it didn’t cover her bare feet.

  On the wall not far from her head was a single electrical socket that looked as if it might have been installed when electricity was invented. Plugged into it was an international electrical converter, and plugged into that was a cell phone charger with a lifeline that extended to the base of a late model cell phone which was ensconced in a case with the protective equivalent of Fort Knox.

  Her eyes were closed, and she was dreaming strange dreams, but some distant sound filtered through her visions, and it felt like she was being dragged out of them the same way that the boats on the river outside dragged up their anchors from the riverbed. She surfaced slowly, confused by what she had been seeing in her sleep and what was coming into her mind as she woke.

  Her cell phone was buzzing. She opened her chocolate brown eyes and looked around as her mind rushed to make sense of where she was and what she was doing. Her heart skipped a couple of beats as she rolled over and reached for her phone, blinking a few times so that she could focus on the screen. She hadn’t been expecting any phone calls, and for that reason, it surprised her to get one.

  A smile formed over her full lips as she saw the identity of the caller and swiped her finger over the screen, praying that the extremely weak signal where she was in the little village would be enough to carry the phone call.

  “Mom?” she asked, sitting up and unplugging the phone.

  “Natalie!” Her mother’s voice came through the line and sounded like the sweetest thing to her. “I’m so glad that I caught you!”

  “Oh, Mom, I miss you so much! How are you doing?” She asked one question, as hundreds formed in her mind and tumbled over each other to get to her mouth, fighting to be spoken. She curled her fingers tighter around the phone and grinned widely.

  “I’m wonderful, darling, thank you. How are you? Are you capturing all of Vietnam with that fancy camera of yours? Getting lots of work done?” There was pride in her mother’s voice that sounded strong, even through the weak connection and the distance of thousands of miles.

  “Yeah, I’m getting great work done, Mom. There’s a lot here to document.” Natalie Davidson had graduated college with a degree in journalism and had specialized in photojournalism. She had taken off from California immediately and gone directly to Asia, where she had spent two years going through Thailand, Cambodia, Singapore, Japan, China, the Philippines, and had gotten as far as Vietnam, doing her photojournalism work almost every day.

  “Has National Geo picked up any more of your images and stories?” her mother asked with high hopes.

  “They have! I’m working on one for them now about the people of the Red River. I’m just about finished with it, actually.” She reached her hand up and absentmindedly smoothed her fingers over the top of her head and the braid in her hair.

  “Oh, that’s wonderful, sweetheart! I’ve shown your work to everyone I see. I’m really so proud of you!” Her mother, Charisse, bubbled over enthusiastically.

  Natalie grinned. It was always nice to get a pat on the back from anyone who appreciated her work, but it was especially nice to get it from her mother. Charisse was an accomplished woman
herself, and she was the one person who Natalie admired most in the world. It made her heart swell to hear her mother support her the way that she did. “Thanks, Mom. That means a lot to me. What about you? What’s going on for you right now?”

  She knew that there had to be a reason that her mother was calling. It was unlikely that she called just to chat. They did their chatting over email and social media. If Charisse called her, it was for a reason, and she wanted to know what it was.

  “Well, actually, I am calling you about some exciting news here on this end.” Her mother sounded as if she was about to burst with joy, and Natalie grew tremendously curious.

  “What is it?” Natalie pressed, not wanting to wait to hear it.

  “Wilson asked me to marry him, and I’ve said yes!” Charisse could hardly have dropped a bigger bomb on her daughter.

  Natalie’s mouth fell open, and everything inside of her froze for a moment. “Married?” she asked hesitantly, struggling to wrap her mind around the fact. “But Mom, you haven’t been seeing him very long at all, have you?” Natalie knew it couldn’t have been three months since her mother had started dating the Silicon Valley billionaire. She hadn’t been able to believe that they were dating to begin with, but her mother had seemed so happy about it that she hadn’t said anything to dissuade her.

  Her mother wasn’t ruffled in the least. “You know, it has been a very fast romance, but I guess when it’s right, when it’s really right, you just know it. He’s such a perfect match for me, and me for him, and I’ll tell you, I’ve never felt so strongly about anyone before in my life. I know it’s fast, honey. It’s right, though, and neither of us wants to wait. We’re both getting a bit older, and how does that old movie line go… when you find the person who you want to spend the rest of your life with, you want the rest of your life to start right away, or something like that? Well, that’s where we are. We both want it to start now, no waiting. We’re both so happy.”

  She sounded as if she hadn’t ever been happier. Natalie couldn’t fault her for wanting to grab onto something so good and hold on tight; Charisse had been a single mother right from the start after a mishap in college, and she had raised Natalie all on her own, working hard to make something of her own life and of Natalie’s. Charisse had dated here and there, but it was a rare thing, and it had never worked out into more than just a few dates with a few men over the years. She hadn’t been in a serious relationship until she had started dating the billionaire tech magnate out of the valley, and Natalie had been interested in meeting him, thinking that the first time they met would be at Christmas when she came for her annual visit.

  “Well, Mom, if he makes you that happy, then I say go for it. Congratulations! When is the wedding?” Natalie felt her whole world shift in tectonic layers, and she wondered what the future would be like. She knew deep inside of her that nothing was ever going to be the same again, but that was true of anyone’s life at any point.

  “That’s another thing that we need to talk about. I want you to be one of my bridesmaids, of course. Your aunt Caroline is flying in to be my maid of honor, but I want you as my other bridesmaid.” Her mother paused and cleared her throat. “The wedding is set for three weeks from today.”

  Natalie’s mouth fell wide open. “Three weeks?” It was a sudden proposal and an even more sudden wedding. “That’s so soon, Mom!” She began to wonder if her mother had rushed things just a little too much.

  “I know it seems sudden, sweetie, but it’s what we want to do. We’re having the ceremony here at the house in Silicon Valley. I hope you can come home right away so that you can help me prepare for it and join in all the wedding celebration fun.” Her mother’s tone was desperately hopeful. “Actually, you’ve been gone so long that I was hoping you could stay with us for a while and get in a lengthy visit.”

  Natalie closed her eyes and put her hand over them. Taking a deep breath, she sorted through her work in her mind and sighed. “Well, I am just about finished with the piece that I’m working on right now, and I have enough photos and stories that I could work from anywhere for the next four to six months and still have content to submit to publications all over. So, I guess I could wrap up the one that I’m working on and come back. I could leave in two days if that works.”

  It was astounding to her that she was even saying it, but her life was a life on the road, and it wasn’t really very uprooting to her to pack up her bags and get on a plane and go, though it was much further than she had gone in a long while.

  “Oh, Natalie, that’s wonderful! Thank you! I’ll email you the address, and you just let me know when you’re arriving. I’ll have your new room all made up for you. I can’t wait to see you, my girl!” Her mother was completely elated.

  Natalie was still recovering from a stunned shock. “I can’t wait to see you, Mom. Congratulations again. I’ll check flights and let you know when I’m arriving.”

  “Perfect! I love you, darling, and I’ll see you soon.” Her mother ended the call, and she slowly lowered the cell phone in her hand to the thin mat she had been sleeping on. Blinking, she shook her head. It was almost impossible to wrap her mind around it. Her mother was marrying a man she had only been dating for a few months, and the wedding was in three weeks. It sounded like something out of a movie. It was too unreal to fathom. Her mother had never been the kind of person to dive right into anything; she had always taken her time with big decisions, thinking things over carefully and for a while before she opted one way or another on anything, but that was obviously not the case this time.

  The biggest question in her mind was why. Why would her mother rush into something so important and so big? She thought about what Charisse had said about knowing when something is right, and she realized that she had never felt that way about anyone before, knowing without question that a person meant a great deal to her in such a short time. She was going to have to trust her mother’s instinct on it and have faith that Charisse really was making the right decision for herself, even if it was something that seemed reckless to Natalie. She had always thought a great deal of her mother’s judgment, and she realized that she was going to have to have some faith in her mother’s choices this time and support her rather than question her.

  With another sigh, she turned her attention back to the phone in her hand and started checking for flights from Hanoi to San Francisco. She could wrap up her work there in two days and be on her way to the city by the bay, and a new epoch in her mother’s life. It was mind boggling, but her time in Asia had just come to a sudden and unexpected halt.

  Finding the flight that worked best for her, she bought a ticket and then got up to shower and start her day. She was going to have to work fast if she was going to get done what she needed to get done, and then get herself halfway across the world.

  When her shower was done, she sent a quick message to her best friend who lived in San Jose, not far from where her mother was with Wilson Brookes. She let Ophelia know when she’d be arriving at the San Francisco Airport and told her she would love to see her as soon as they could visit. Ophelia answered her right away and told her that she would pick her up, and asked what it was that was bringing her home. Natalie considered telling her for a moment, but they had been best friends for more than fifteen years, and she knew that she should wait and tell Ophelia in person. Natalie only sent a quick message back saying that it was a surprise and she would fill her in when she saw her.

  The rest of Natalie’s day was turned toward the villagers around her and the work that she was doing. She had a lot to do to finish the piece she was working on, and not much time to do it all.

  ***

  Two days later, Natalie got on an airplane and flew through a couple of other cities before she finally got to San Francisco. She was exhausted, even though she had slept as much as she could on the airplane.

  Ophelia was waiting for her right at the International Arrivals gate with flowers and balloons and a brightly colored welcome h
ome sign. They both cried out with delight when they saw one another, hugging each other tightly for a long while before they finally let go and began talking.

  “I can’t believe you’re here! It’s not Christmas, so what’s the surprise?” Ophelia was never one to wait; when she was excited about anything, patience was usually in short supply.

  Natalie could hardly believe the words as they came from her mouth. “My mom is getting married.”

  Ophelia gaped, staring at Natalie for a few long seconds before she could respond. “You’re kidding! Married? To who, to Wilson?”

  Natalie nodded. “Yeah. She just called me earlier this week and told me.”

  A frown formed over Ophelia’s mouth, and she furrowed her brow. “Didn’t she just start dating him a couple of months ago?”

  “Yeah, it’s fast. Not quite three months yet. I was really surprised too.” Natalie sighed. “But I guess we have to trust her judgment, right? I mean, no one has their feet on the ground more than my mom. She must know what she’s doing, even if it sounds crazy.”