Billionaire Rancher Heartbreaker (Steamy Small Town Romances #8)

  I've always loved him...while he has always loved someone else.

  Ethan and I started out as friends...until I started feeling differently.

  By the time I realized I was in love, it was also when I found out that he already had another woman in his life.

  Note: This is a steamy, angsty over the top STANDALONE romance.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Billionaire Rancher Heartbreaker (Steamy Small Town Romances, #8)

  Billionaire | Rancher | Heartbreaker

  Part One

  Part Two

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Epilogue

  Author's Note

  About the Book

  IT WAS THE LITTLE REDHEAD again, Ethan thought in pleased surprise, and his curious gaze went straight to the book in her hands. There had been too much distance between them yesterday for Ethan to see what she had been reading, but now he saw that it was an author he also read.

  He was already moving forward before he realized what he was doing. It had been a long time since he found something that stirred his interest like this, and it made Ethan realize just how empty his life had been lately.

  Anah was still lost in a world of serial killers and smart, handsome detectives when a deep male voice broke into her thoughts.

  "Hello."

  The sound startled her, and she automatically responded even before looking up. "Hel...lo." Her voice caught at the end, with Anah finally seeing who it was that had addressed her.

  The dark-haired stranger was incredibly tall and impossibly attractive, but it was his hazel eyes that had her heart nearly stuttering into a stop. There was something sinfully mesmerizing about them, and they gleamed at her in such a way that had Anah's pulse leaping crazily under her skin.

  "New intern, right?"

  Anah's eyes widened. "How did you know?"

  "I saw you yesterday at the community hall."

  Anah didn't quite know what to feel about this. He had seen her yesterday, and he still remembered her?

  "Aren't you a little too young to be working away from home?"

  Anah's brows furrowed. "Am I?"

  "You must be what? Fourteen? Maybe even—-" Ethan stopped upon seeing the girl shake her head.

  "I'm sixteen," Anah corrected him with a smile.

  Ethan didn't bother hiding his surprise. "Seriously?" A nod, and Ethan could only grimace in return. "I'm sorry. You seemed a lot younger."

  "It's fine," Anah was quick to assure him, and because she could no longer contain her curiosity, she then asked in a rush, "Are you a resident here?"

  "For some months of the year, yeah." Ethan offered his hand afterwards. "Ethan Blackwood."

  "Anah Blakely." She placed her hand in his, and a jolt of electricity sparked through her body at the hard warmth of his clasp.

  "It's nice meeting you, little Anah," Ethan said with a smile. "See you around."

  "See you around," she managed to respond in a steady voice, but as soon as Ethan turned his back, she released her pent-up breath and practically sagged in her seat. She watched him walk away, and the way her heart was still racing like mad scared and excited her at the same time.

  Prior to this day, most of her crushes had been on boys her age, and ones so famous that they might as well have been living in a different planet. Ethan, however...he was different. He was real.

  That night, Anah found it ridiculously difficult to sleep. Her senses were still stupidly tingling, and her mind unable to forget the man she had met in the library. Ethan Blackwood struck her as the kind of man who could charm the socks off anybody, but at the same time, there was a bleakness in him that she sensed, and it made Anah wish she could just wrap her arms around him and say...

  Stupid, Anah thought as she flipped to her back and stared at her bedroom's ceiling. She was being stupid, to think such stupid, unrealistic thoughts. Ethan Blackwood was too gorgeous to need someone like her to comfort him, and she'd only be hurting herself to think otherwise.

  No more thinking about men out of her reach, Anah vowed as she tried willing herself to sleep. But when the next day came, and Ethan showed up at the library once again, the promise she had made to herself was promptly tossed out of the window.

  "Good afternoon, little Anah."

  Anah wrinkled her nose. "Little?" He had called her that earlier, too, and she wasn't quite sure if she liked it. "I'm not a child," she pointed out as soon as he reached her counter.

  "I was referring to your height," Ethan said with a smirk.

  "Oh." Anah couldn't help grimacing. If that were the case, then he had every right to call her 'little'.

  Ethan glanced at the book Anah was holding. "Still not done?"

  "Just three chapters to go," she answered.

  "I read him, too," Ethan commented.

  Anah was pleased, thinking it was a good omen if they had the same taste in books. "Really?"

  Ethan was amused. "Do I look like I don't read?"

  Anah choked. "Don't put words in my mouth," she protested.

  "Then what did you mean?" he asked with a chuckle.

  "Just...you..." Too late, Anah realized she shouldn't have bothered correcting him, since the truth was open to even more misunderstanding.

  Ethan smirked again. "Can't think of a lie, can you?" He reached over the counter to ruffle her hair. "It's fine," he said generously. "You'll see soon enough that I'm more than just a pretty face."

  With Ethan even punctuating the outrageously vain claim with a suggestive wiggle of his eyebrow, Anah could only choke, torn between laughter and exasperation.

  Ethan was fighting back his own grin. The look on Anah's face was priceless. She appeared almost sick actually, as if she was unable to stomach the amount of vanity in his words. He was just about to remark on this, too, when they both heard the door of the meeting room at the back suddenly open.

  Anah saw the mayor's secretary poke her head out of the meeting room. "Calling Mr. Ethan Blackwood!"

  Ethan glanced over his shoulder and saw Frankie frowning at him. "In a minute."

  "Mayor O says now, Mr. Blackwood."

  Ethan turned to Anah. "You heard the tyrant..."

  Frankie rolled her eyes. "I totally heard you, too."

  But Ethan pretended not to hear this and flashed Anah a brief smile instead. "I'll see you around then?" Ethan began walking backwards. "I'd have loved to spend more time talking about books—-" Frankie snorted loudly at this, which Ethan ignored even as Anah couldn't help giggling. "But duty beckons..."

  Back inside the meeting room, Ethan was bemused to find the other members of The Hartland Initiative gazing at him with interest. "What?"

  Instead of answering, everyone instantly became busy, with Oliver Winterbourne, the town mayor, suddenly finding something to ask his secretary while the others rifled through the daily reports as if their lives depended on it.

  Ethan shook his head as he returned to his seat. Crazy motherfuckers. He picked up his own copy of the day's agenda but was unable to concentrat
e. Instead, he found himself remembering Anah's expression when he referred to himself as a pretty face.

  She really was an intriguing little thing, Ethan mused. She was like a little sister he never knew he wanted, and for the rest of the summer, he found himself indulging his explicable whim for her company.

  He liked how quiet she was without being shy. Most people mistook her for the latter, but Ethan had sensed from the start she wasn't what everyone thought, and his time with her proved that. The kid simply didn't believe in speaking unnecessarily, but it didn't make her any less friendly - or troublesome - when she was so inclined.

  When he was with Anah, it was hard to remember she was just sixteen and almost a decade younger than his twenty-five years. He could talk to her about anything, and in times when there wasn't anything to talk about, her presence alone settled the disquiet inside of him. If someone were to tell Ethan she was an enchantress in disguise, he would've been half-inclined to agree, with how Anah practically had him under a spell.

  Billionaire

  Rancher

  Heartbreaker

  by Marian Tee

  Copyright 2020 by Streak Digital Publishing

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Part One

  Ethan Blackwood had grown up in other people's shadows his entire life. With their parents having died early, he and the twins only had each other. And while he would die for his older brothers any day and vice versa, it didn't stop him from looking forward to leading a life separate from them, if only to get away from the constant comparisons.

  Unlike Aidan and Thornton, who had been born gifted in every way, Ethan was a terribly late bloomer. For most of his high school years, he had been this awkwardly tall and lanky boy beset with respiratory problems that kept him from getting involved in any sports. And while no one in town had been foolish enough to bully Ethan over it - this would've been suicidal, considering most of them either directly or indirectly worked for Ethan's family - the look of pity in their eyes said it plainly enough.

  When compared to his more accomplished older brothers, Ethan would always be found lacking, and it was this that had him packing his bags as soon as he graduated from high school.

  In England, Ethan - with the help of his mother's side of the family - was finally able to enjoy a life away from the twins' overwhelmingly large shadows. Free from other people's judgments, Ethan sought help for his respiratory problems, which turned out to be nothing but a psychological manifestation of his childhood trauma. Once this was taken care of, Ethan then focused on building his strength and stamina; he devoted hours each day to manual labor at his cousins' horse ranches, and in a matter of months was as ruggedly muscular as his older brothers.

  When Ethan finally flew back home, he was no longer the insecure boy he was once was, and no one was happier to see Ethan's growth than the twins themselves. They had always believed that Ethan had it in him to stand toe to toe with them, but men being men, they had been unable to effectively put their feelings into words.

  And now that Ethan was back in the fold...

  The twins invited the whole town to celebrate Ethan's homecoming, and it was on this fateful night that Guilia came back to his life.

  GUILIA SANTOS' BIGGEST regret was being born on the wrong side of the tracks. From the moment she became old enough to understand the difference between rich and poor, she had lived every moment of her life with envy that eventually fueled her ambition.

  She dismissed her Mexican mother as an idiot, with the older woman ridiculously content working as a housekeeper for the wealthy assholes that came up to Jackson Hole every vacation. Her mother was a hopeless case, but Guilia was determined to be different. Guilia knew she was meant to go places, and it was why she had set her cap on Travis Jones, whose father owned a modeling agency.

  Guilia knew she had what it would take to become a supermodel, but she also knew that she would have to toil a couple more years before getting the jumpstart she needed. She craved for success, and if she wanted it right now, she would need to use Travis to expedite things.

  She had seen the way Travis looked at her every time she served him at the local clubhouse, and she didn't even have to expend much effort in seducing him. Her plan was simple: make Travis fall for her so that he'd get her foot in the door with his father.

  And at that time, because she had thought herself so damn smart, Guilia had believed the plan would work.

  But it didn't.

  The world turned out to be dirtier than Guilia thought, and she had ended up fucking Travis, his father, and later on, Travis' friends and his father's friends...and sometimes, she had to fuck them all at the same time.

  She had been sixteen then, a nobody.

  A year later, she was somebody, a girl whose face was plastered on every magazine cover, a girl who had everything she once dreamed of, and as she made it to the top of the world, Guilia simply wished she was dead.

  IT WAS ONLY ON A WHIM that Guilia had come to attend the Blackwoods' party, and she found herself relishing the nasty looks she got from the other girls. They all thought her a gold-digging bitch, and that was fine with her. She would rather have them hating on her than let them realize the truth.

  After grabbing a flute of champagne from one of the servers, she headed straight to Ethan Blackwood to say hi. His time in England had clearly done him good; she remembered seeing him in high school, and he had been so pale and thin in those days. Now, he was just the opposite. He was all tanned and sexy, and simply oozing with charm as all the girls flocked around him.

  Guilia only had to clear her throat for the other girls to clear the way for her, but one in particular seemed to hold a grudge against Guilia. She stuck her foot out at the most opportune time, causing Guilia to lose her balance.

  She started to fall.

  That bitch!

  But instead of suffering an embarrassment, she fell straight into Ethan's arms instead.

  Looking up, Guilia intended to tease Ethan about staying true to his British side by acting like a knight to her damsel. But when her gaze met his, and she saw the look in his eyes—-

  Ethan was startled when Guilia suddenly jerked away from him. "Are you okay?"

  "I'm fine," Guilia said stiffly. "Nice party, by the way."

  Ethan hadn't any time to answer since Guilia had already spun on her heels to walk away.

  What the hell?

  He had always found Guilia beautiful but had never tried asking her out. In those days, he had thought her out of his league. But it was different now, and in just a couple of strides, Ethan caught up with the now-famous model and grabbed hold of her wrist.

  "Not so fast, love."

  He spun her around to face him and was only amused by the way her green eyes flashed with fury.

  "What do you think you're doing?"

  Her voice was cold, but the look of desire in her eyes belied this.

  She wanted him, Ethan realized with satisfaction.

  Guilia tried tugging her hand out of the younger man's hold. "Will you let me—-"

  But instead, Ethan pulled her even closer and took her mouth in a deep, hard kiss that had Guilia's knees knocking against each other.

  By the time the young billionaire lifted his head, the whole party had gone silent. Ethan's hazel eyes gleamed down at her, and Guilia's teeth gnashed when she actually felt her cheeks turn red. She couldn't remember the last time she had blushed like this, and for a boy like Ethan to make such a thing to happen—-

  She lifted her chin, intending to crush his balls with a few choice words, but everything she had to say was forgotten the moment she looked into his eyes.

  Fuck.

/>   Most men only had lust in their eyes when they looked at her, and she had thought Ethan would be the same. In the years that would eventually pass, Guilia would often think back to this day and find herself thinking if only...

  If only Ethan had been the same as the rest.

  But instead, he had been different. Instead of lust, she had seen something else in his eyes. Something she had thought she would never see again.

  And that had been the beginning of her downfall...and his.

  TO SAY THAT THE WHOLE town disapproved of their relationship would have been the understatement of the century. Everyone thought Ethan Blackwood was too good for a bitch like Guilia Santos, and even worse, the supermodel seemed to go out of her way to prove them right.

  In the beginning, the twins had been willing to give Guilia the benefit of the doubt despite their private misgivings. For Aidan, Guilia appeared too mercenary while Thornton thought her too sly. But because Ethan clearly loved the woman, the twins did their best to focus on what they remembered of Guilia in her younger years: proud, hardworking, and always giving as good as she got to those who tried to bully her.

  Things changed, however, when disturbing rumors started to reach the twins' ears, and Aidan finally paid for a private investigator to look into Guilia's personal life.

  When Ethan was confronted by his brothers with proof of Guilia's infidelity, it was like the past all over again, but instead of anger, he was filled with self-contempt. In his mind, it was his fault that Guilia had cheated, and he was grimly convinced that Guilia wouldn't have done the same thing if she were dating one of the twins.

  GUILIA KNEW THE MOMENT she welcomed Ethan to her home that something had changed. Ethan was usually outrageously charming, and with the craziest ability to make her laugh nearly every second. No other man had done that, and in some ways, it had her hating him for making her feel so despicably human.

  But this Ethan before her?

  He was quiet and grim, and when she saw the bleakness in his gaze—-