The Billionaire's Favourite Mistake: Billionaires and Bridesmaids 4 by Jessica Clare Read Free Book Online

and then headed down the stairs and into the main part of the castle, looking for her father. Finding a person in the Dutchman castle was sometimes like finding a needle in a haystack, but her father had a few favorite haunts. He wasn’t in the movie room, the library, or taking laps in the indoor swimming pool. She found him in his study, seated at an enormous glass desk, going over proofs of the next magazine issue.
    “Hello,
Vader
,” she called out as she entered.
    “Little Greer,” he greeted, putting aside the folder and getting to his feet. “I’m glad you made it. I have a lot of ideas for the party.” He extended his hands to her and she put her hands in his and they exchanged air kisses on their cheeks. “Come sit down, and I’ll go over my checklist.”
    That was about as warm as Stijn Janssen got with her, Greer thought wryly. She was treated more like an old business associate than a daughter. There was no asking how one was doing, what she was up to, how her wedding planning business was going. It was always—and always would be—about Stijn and Stijn alone.
    At sixty-five, her father was still an impressive figure. Over six feet tall, his hair had finally faded from pale blond to silver, but his shoulders were as broad as ever and his face just as tanned. His cheeks were unlined, but the set of his mouth got a little thinner every year, and he was starting to get a gut. Not that Greer would ever say that to him. “You look well,
Vader
.”
    He shot her an unreadable look. “I should. Those women are working me to the bone. So demanding, all three of them. You met them? My triplets?”
    Ah yes, nothing like getting reminded that her father didn’t really think of her as a daughter. As if she wanted to hear about his sexual conquests. “I did. They seem very nice.”
    “They’re stupid,” he said bluntly, sitting back down in his chair and digging through a few folders. “But they’re enthusiastic.”
    Calling them
stupid
seemed cruel. “You do have a type,” she said lightly.
    He shot her another look, and this time it was irritated. “I do not. Your mother was nothing like them.”
    Yes, and you discarded her and me.
But she bit those words back. “Speaking of mothers . . .”
    Stijn pulled out a piece of paper and then put on his reading glasses, perching them on his broad nose. “Now let me tell you my idea for the theme. I was thinking something with ice. Something elegant, though. This is a showpiece of a party. There will be very important people there and we don’t want to look trashy. So, ice. Ice can be elegant. Maybe diamonds. I think—”
    “
Vader
,” she interrupted. If he got started on work, she’d never be able to broach the subject of her pregnancy.
    He paused and angled his head so he could stare at her over his reading glasses. “What?”
    “You should know that . . .” She sucked in a breath, and then forced herself to admit the words. “I’m pregnant.”
    He blinked. “Can you work? Is it going to be a problem with planning my celebration?”
    “No, it won’t be a problem—”
    He tapped his glasses, pushing them farther back on his nose. “So I was thinking diamonds. An elegant theme. Like satin and diamonds. Or does that make you think of strippers?”
    She bit back her sigh of disappointment. Why had she expected her father to show any sort of emotion? He never called her unless he needed something. He never remembered her on holidays. He didn’t care about family. Of course he wouldn’t care about her baby. Maybe she was still reaching for that dream of family after all. Hope sprung eternal, and Greer had always been an optimist. She idly touched her stomach. She’d just have to be enough family for her baby without anyone else.
    “Greer? Diamonds?”
    She sat forward in her chair and pulled a blank piece of paper off his desk, and picked up a pen. “Perhaps we can tweak the idea,
Vader
. Maybe not satin and diamonds. How about black tie