AllFreeNovel
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Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Extended Epilogue
Deleted Scene
About the Author
Also by Jess Bentley
PREFACE
SULLY
It’s all arranged. I’ve informed the staff that she should be arriving any second now, and then I want her up here to meet Royce in ten minutes, exactly. I think she’s already downstairs. Probably walking toward the elevator.
The key is convincing Royce. He doesn’t understand that we need this. We need to have a woman in our lives. At first it seemed like a convenient thing, or a financial thing, but now it seems like the only way our family will survive is if we are unified.
It’s going to take a miracle.
Royce is predictably annoyed that I set it up without asking him. But August sent me surveillance video of her. There’s something to her. Maybe it’s crazy to think this, but I felt like I really saw something surprising in this one.
So we are going to try again, come hell or high water.
Royce is mad. He stands with his hands on his hips, his shirt in a crumpled mass in his hand, his chest streaked with sweat. His nostrils flare and that muscle jumps at the back of his jawline.
If we had more time, I would take him downstairs and spar in the ring for a little while. Maybe work it out. Because that’s part of who we are: we are physical. We may be the richest men in the country, but we are also just men. We need a physical reality, not just a financial one. Because what is money anyway, some kind of fairytale?
I hear the elevator mechanism engaging and find a reason to leave the room, ducking into the service hallway to watch from a distance. I shouldn’t do it, but I need to see what happens in person. I need to know if there’s any chance at all.
She comes in tentatively, wearing a feminine but sporty little dress that accentuates her curvy strength. She’s smaller than I expected, but also wound tight like a gymnast. Her calves flex with every step that she takes toward him. Her fingers pluck nervously at the hem of her skirt.
Royce is facing the other way, looking for a clean shirt to wear before she gets here, not realizing she is standing right behind him. He takes his sweaty shirt and tosses it over his shoulder, right into her hands. She catches it.
