HIS EX'S WELL-KEPT SECRET – Joss Wood
The Ballantyne Billionaires , Book 1
Harlequin Desire #2512
ISBN: 978-0-373-83839-4
April 2017
Contemporary Series Romance

New York City – Present Day

Eighteen months ago, Piper Mills and Jaeger Ballantyne had a brief, sizzling affair, but he walked out of her life and she hasn't seen him since…until now. She needs money and plans to sell some unique gemstones to raise the cash, so she's offering them to Jaeger's family business first. To her stunned surprise, he doesn't recognize her or even remember that they spent that hot weekend together. She later learns he was in an accident shortly after that weekend and lost part of his memory. Yet, the hot attraction still sizzles between them. Should Piper tell Jaeger that their affair produced their baby son?

The moment Piper walks into Jaeger's office, he's intrigued and wants her in his bed. He learns soon after that she has an infant and this should put him off wanting her because he doesn't plan to be a father…again. Years ago, he lost a child to SIDS and it has left him petrified of parenthood and marriage. But his attraction to Piper runs deep and hot, and he pushes aside his fears to take her to bed. He knows she comes with baggage, but he is not yet aware she has not one, but two big secrets she's keeping from him.

An instant attraction led to a weekend fling—and a pregnancy—for Piper and Jaeger in HIS EX'S WELL-KEPT SECRET by Joss Wood. Jaeger and his brothers run a company that specializes in gems, and when he met Piper in Milan, Italy, she was talking to him about selling some sapphires which belonged to her late mother. She never heard back from him and now she needs the money to save the house she is living in. The house was supposed to have been a gift from her late father, but the scoundrel was a criminal, and her home is now being sold to pay off his victims. Piper doesn't tell Jaeger this part because her father didn't publicly acknowledge her as his child. Piper knows she needs to tell Jaeger he's a daddy, but she is not sure how to approach him. When things start to get tense between them, she begins to entertain the idea of never telling him.

Jaeger ends up spending more time with Piper's son, Ty, and grows to care for him, not realizing he's the father. Piper has plenty of time to tell him, but just keeps putting it off. Meanwhile, the need for the money grows more urgent when the lawyer handling the estate informs her that the money is needed…now. The urgency of the situation only makes Jaeger a bit suspicious because he doesn't know her background (about her father) and wonders if she's trying to pull a fast one on him. But as they spend more time together, he starts to fall in love with her. How will he feel when he finds out she's not telling him about being Ty's father? There's sure to be an explosion when he does!

Secret babies and secret pasts fill the pages of HIS EX'S WELL-KEPT SECRET and make this an intriguing read.

Patti Fischer