“You want to take a look? You can ask me if you have any questions.”
“I don’t feel like getting up.”
“Oh, come on. You’re such a baby,” she teases.
“Mmm… Can a baby do this?” I lift her nightshirt and kiss the side of her waist.
She jolts and shrieks with laughter. “Stop! I’m ticklish there!”
“Never!” I kiss the spot again.
She tries frantically to push me away, her small arms straining cutely against the top of my head. “Come on! I have it on my—agh!—tablet, so you can read itwithout leaving the bed!”
“Oh, all right.” I reluctantly push away from her so she can grab the tablet. I shouldn’t have given her the black AmEx to buy stuff. Who brings work to their bed?
She taps a few times and hands it to me. Glumly, I start to read, all the while mentally cursing. That fucking Beckman. He could’ve given it to her next week.
The agreement is fairly standard. Nothing egregious. Beckman probably whined that she should be more ruthless about taking my property. After all, he thinks I’m just a spoiled trust-fund baby.
Then I get to the section about her assets.
What the—?
The trust she’s fighting for is worthsixty-two billion? It isn’t a typo or math error. I add up everything in my head just to be sure. Then there’s a matter of the real estate, antiques and works of art that come with her family’s estate. The estimated value of those dumps another billion or so onto the total.
I stop reading and just stare. I’ve seen big numbers before, helping clients move hundreds of billions of dollars in transactions and deals. But to think…
When Lareina said her aunt wanted her money…No wonder they were willing to poison her to get it. I should’ve asked about the extent of her inheritance sooner and arranged for bodyguards. I didn’t think of it because Doris, Rupert and Vernon had been quiet since our marriage. But if theyhadn’t been plotting to steal Lareina’s paintings instead, things could’ve gotten ugly.
Suddenly the memories of times I thought Lareina might be after my money fleet through my head.Ugh. Talk about embarrassing.I want to kick the blanket, but thankfully I’ve never said it out loud. It’ll just be my secret shame.
I shake my head. “I’ve never thought I’d say this, but I feel kind of…poor.”
“What? Why?”
“Uh, sixty-two billion…?”
“Yeah, the trust grew a bit. Surprise!” She shrugs with an awkward smile. “Does it matter that I have more money than you?” She peers at me earnestly.
I smother the laughter bubbling in my throat. “Does it matter that I have less money than you?”
“No!”
“There’s your answer. You’ll always just be Lareina to me.”
“Aww.” She sighs softly, resting her cheek over my heart and looking into my eyes. “And you’ll always be Ares to me. My knight.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Ares
I nudge my wife, who’s resting on her side, then nuzzle her neck. She raises her shoulder, then pulls the sheet all the way to the base of her skull.
“Come on, babe.”
“Don’t youcome on, babeme,” she says, her words sluggish with sleep. “I’m tired.”
“We gotta celebrate your victory.”
