Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 72543 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72543 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Damion
I know Alana, and she’s barely holding it together, bleeding inside over her parents, and I’m bleeding with her.
No one knows how the destruction of what you call family can rip you apart like I do. Exactly why I hate to tell her what awaits us downstairs. I capture her waist and steady her, aware that she’s on unsteady ground. “We have an audience downstairs. The press found us.”
“No,” she whispers, pressing her hands to her face for a brief moment. “This is nuts. I’ve never had this kind of attention.”
“It’s us together,” I say. “A fascination that won’t last. We just have to ride out the storm.”
“What about your board and all you have pending? Doesn’t this look like a circus?”
“It’s irrelevant.” I pull my phone from my pocket, and in an effort to draw her further from her mother’s visit, I hold it out to her. “But attention-grabbing. Mary texted.”
She accepts the phone and stares down at the newest photo of us together that’s all over the internet before reading it out loud. “Treat her better than you’re treating me.” She hands me the phone. “Can I call her?”
“I called her. I assured her I’m treating you like a princess.”
“And her?”
“The queen she wants to be. I told her we’d have breakfast with her Sunday morning to talk about the future.”
“Isn’t that premature when you haven’t had the board meeting? Or did something happen I don’t know about?”
I slide her hair behind her ear. “Plenty is happening, but we can talk about it at home tonight…or not. We can always save it for tomorrow.”
She surprises me by breaking into a charming, spontaneous smile, and damn, she’s beautiful—so fucking beautiful. “Yes. Home.”
I think I forgot how to smile this past decade without her, but I do so now, and do so with the ease of a man far more comfortable in her presence than I am without her.
I lace her fingers with mine, guiding her toward the door, and once we’re there, I say, “Any last-minute things you need to grab?”
“I took way more than I meant to. Honestly, my lease has almost a year left on it. There isn’t even a rush to get a mover over here.”
“I want to give the damn thing away so you can’t come back,” I say, “but I’ll add a more civilized option so you won’t get mad at me. We can pay it off and sell what you don’t want to keep, if you want.”
She laughs, pushes to her toes, and kisses my cheek. I catch her around the waist and hold her to me, just like I’m going to do for the rest of her life. “I prepaid for my lease,” she informs me. “I was ah—” She pushes out of my hold, her gaze averted as she adds, “I didn’t want to have anything put me in a bad spot.”
She means her parents, and I swear I want to go to her father and throttle him for allowing all of what has happened. The root of the poison starts with him.
“Maybe I can let someone use it,” she muses, “though I’m not sure who.”
“We’ll figure it out,” I say, capturing her hand and guiding her back to my side. “Let’s really go this time.” She nods eagerly, and I open the door.
We step into the hallway, where Adam pushes off the wall, on ready. I incline my chin, and Adam speaks into his earpiece. “On our way down.” He moves ahead of us and punches the elevator call button.
Once the doors open, he checks the car and then motions us forward. I slide my arm around Alana’s shoulders, and we enter the car. Once we’re sealed inside, she leans forward to eye Adam. “You have a big mouth.”
His brows lift. “Do I?”
She rotates out of my arms to face him. “You cannot follow me around if I feel like you’re going to repeat everything I say to Damion. And don’t say it’s your job. Telling him I said I’d do anything to protect him is not about my safety.”
I step between them, hands on her shoulders, and stare down at her. “It is about your safety, because that’s what your mother is going to tell my father. And everything that gets to my father frames his next action.”
“Then I probably screwed us all. I told my mother she’s made herself a target and me with her.”
I give her shoulders a gentle squeeze. “You said nothing but the obvious. Give Adam a break. He’s protecting you and doing a damn good job of it.”
Her lashes lower, and she nods. The elevator opens, and she whispers, “I’m sorry. I just—” Her eyes meet mine. “I feel like the entire world is watching me, really us, and I just have this sense it’s all going to blow up in our faces.”