Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 62394 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 312(@200wpm)___ 250(@250wpm)___ 208(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62394 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 312(@200wpm)___ 250(@250wpm)___ 208(@300wpm)
Read Online Books/Novels: | Just One Dare (The Kingston Family #5) |
|---|---|
Author/Writer of Book/Novel: | Carly Phillips |
| Language: | English |
| ISBN/ ASIN: | B09H69SM41 |
| Book Information: | |
A one night stand with no names exchanged. Six years later, she comes face to face with her baby’s father again. Aurora Michaels isn’t the same girl she was that spring night. No longer homeless and living in the back room of a diner where she worked, she’s now a member of the wealthy Kingston family. She has her daughter, a career and has adjusted to her new normal. Billionaire Nick Dare is a man who takes charge. He runs the hotel arm of the family empire and his life revolves around business and travel. A quick stop at his brother's movie premier has him doing a double take. The woman who haunts his dreams is there. He’s been given a second chance and is determined to make the most of it. When he learns about their daughter, Nick becomes a man on a mission. Aurora and their child are his. Even if he has to knock down Aurora’s emotional walls to prove it. | |
| Books in Series: | The Kingston Family Series by Carly Phillips |
| Books by Author: | Carly Phillips |
Chapter One
Standing in front of the bathroom mirror, Aurora Kingston put the finishing touches on her lipstick and stepped back to look at her handiwork. She barely recognized the woman staring back at her. Six years ago, she’d been pregnant and homeless, with no idea what the next day would bring.
Now she was wearing a sleeveless, cream-colored, satin gown with a strapless neckline, draped corset bodice, and an actual train, sent over by the designer, himself. A limousine waited outside to take her to Lincoln Center for a movie premiere. Aurora had curled her hair in long waves and applied makeup, doing her best to look as glamorous as possible for her evening with famous stars the average person would never meet.
This was her life and there were moments, like now, when she still had to pinch herself to be sure she wasn’t dreaming.
“Mommy, look! I’m going with you to the party tonight!” Her five-year-old daughter Leah stomped into the room wearing a pink, sparkly princess gown from her dress-up box, with matching shoes that were too big for her little feet and a handbag dangling from her arm. “Makeup please!” Leah closed her eyes and puckered her lips, making her I’m ready face.
Aurora laughed. Her daughter was such a little diva, she thought, as she picked up the tube of gloss and swiped it over Leah’s tiny pursed lips. “All set. You look beautiful!”
“I know!” Leah said with confidence that never ceased to amaze her. “So do you, Mommy.”
“Thank you, honey.” Smiling, Aurora reached out and tugged on Leah’s long blonde hair that was still damp from her bath. It curled around her adorable face.
Aurora saw her own features in her daughter’s smaller ones but she also caught glimpses of Leah’s father in her child, at least, in the unique indigo color of his eyes.
It had been a sizzling Florida summer. Nick had been visiting a friend who lived in Miami Beach. It had been the same day Aurora had turned eighteen and aged out of foster care. She’d had nowhere to go except the diner where she worked and had been lucky the owners had allowed her to stay in the back room.
While serving tables that afternoon, she’d met Nick-they’d exchanged first names only–and they had spent one night together. It had been incredible…and enough to result in her getting pregnant. But at the time? The hours she’d spent with Nick on the beach and later in his hotel room had been an unexpected, and pleasurable, escape from the painful reality of her life.
As usual, when she thought of her daughter’s father, a pang of regret hit her hard. Without Nick’s last name, she’d had no way to find him once she’d discovered she was pregnant. Although Leah would never know her daddy, Aurora consoled herself with the fact that her daughter had uncles who would stand in as father figures and male role models.
Men she’d never have met, if her oldest half-brother, Linc, hadn’t managed to uncover her existence after their father, the bastard, had passed away. When going through his father’s things, Linc had discovered checks that Kenneth Kingston had sent as payment to keep Aurora out of his life and in foster care.
Linc had then traveled to Florida, where Aurora had grown up, welcomed her into the family, and remained in town long enough to get to know her. And he’d allowed her the time to decide if she wanted to move to New York and be part of their clan.
Leah slid her hand into Aurora’s. “Let’s go to the ball!” she cried out in a high-pitched voice, pulling Aurora out of her musings about the past, and things she couldn’t change.
“Honey, you know Samantha is babysitting tonight.”
The girl was a high-school senior who lived in the neighborhood and occasionally watched Leah so Aurora could get work done.
“I know,” Leah said with a dramatic sigh. She released Aurora’s hand, stepped out of the bathroom and began to spin around the bedroom. “But I’d rather meet my handsome prince tonight. Are you going to meet your handsome prince at the ball, Mommy?” Ever since they’d watched Cinderella, Leah had been obsessed with the idea of finding her prince.
She kept spinning, saving Aurora from having to answer. There hadn’t been any princes in her life—handsome or otherwise—since the night she’d gotten pregnant.
Aurora watched as Leah pretended to dance across the ballroom floor. Samantha was going to have a rough time getting Leah to sleep unless she put on a quiet movie to chill her out first. She twirled around, nearly missing the dresser as she spun.
“Stop before you get dizzy or trip!” Aurora said, too late.
Thanks to her play shoes, Leah’s feet got tangled and she ended in a heap on the floor, giggling.
Aurora sighed. “Come on. Up you go.” She helped her daughter stand. “Time to go downstairs and wait for your sitter.”