Total pages in book: 29
Estimated words: 27220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 136(@200wpm)___ 109(@250wpm)___ 91(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 27220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 136(@200wpm)___ 109(@250wpm)___ 91(@300wpm)
I tap the envelope that was just delivered against my palm. We’ve had a nice three days. I’ve asked her questions about her family. She hasn’t said a lot about them, and I could look it up, but I want to learn from her, not from what some PI company could scrape off the internet. She has told me that she loves prints, desserts that aren’t too sweet, and baby animals because regardless of what they look like when they get big, babies are always adorable. To prove her point, we looked at about a thousand photos on Instagram of the little mites. I conceded after seeing a photo of a baby snake. They were cute. When I mentioned that her babies would be extraordinarily cute, she agreed. I should have told her that I was going to give her that cute baby, but it didn’t feel like the right moment because she was showing me a photo of a baby bat.
For hobbies, she likes to walk, do her nails, and read—mostly romances but also whodunits. A favorite author of ours is getting one of her books made into a streaming series, and we spent an entire afternoon arguing about casting choices. As much as I like Luna, I wasn’t signing off on her male lead choices. They were all bad actors and not even remotely as handsome as she claimed they were.
On the second day, she broke a nail, so I ordered a bunch of supplies for her to do her own at the estate. She objected, arguing that I was spending way too much money. I explained I would be evaluating the product to carry in our companies, which isn’t true because I’m in real estate, not personal products, but it did get her to stop trying to cancel the order.
I am called to sign for a delivery, which I thought was the nail supplies, but it isn’t. I consider tearing it up, but that would mean there would be a more public attempt to deliver the envelope, and I don’t want that for Luna.
I slide the screen door aside and approach the gorgeous blonde. She sits up, the damned fabric sliding right over the curve of her breast like a caress. This is not the time to be getting a hard-on, I tell myself.
“Did my nail stuff come?”
“Not exactly.”
Her gaze falls to the large manila envelope in my hand and then tracks up to my face, where I don’t try to hide that I’m the bearer of bad news.
She puts out her palm. “Lay it on me.”
I like that about her. She confronts everything. Very sexy.
“He’s suing me for defamation and asking for $10 million in damages?” Her face is white with shock and anger. I take the papers from her trembling fingers. “How is what I did defaming him?”
I scan the lawsuit. “He’s alleging that by calling him a fraud in public and burning all the goods he bought you, you have created an atmosphere of hate and ruination of his reputation.”
“I didn’t even call him a fraud! I said I wanted him to add a penalty clause to the prenup.” She’s on her feet now, the gauzy wrap lying on the lounge behind her. She snatches back the paperwork.
“Look at this, too.” She flips to the last few pages. Attached to the petition are copies of receipts for bags, jewelry, clothes. “These aren’t mine. I never had a Chanel suit or a Dior necklace worth $35,000.” She almost chokes as she recites the price. “These are lies. He’s made it up! I don’t even have the fakes he gave me because I burned them and left the ring on the floor. God, I’m screwed.”
The purchases look legit, but Luna never received them, which means the asshole Montclair bought these luxury items for someone else and gave Luna fakes. But he was willing to marry her, which means whomever he was giving these goods to was so disreputable he couldn’t bring the girl to his mother. But she was experienced enough to be able to tell a fake from something genuine. The four bodyguards can chase this mystery down. My role here is to make Luna happy. I tear the lawsuit in half.
She gasps. “What are you doing?”
“This is making you unhappy, and that’s not allowed here.”
“Tearing it up won’t make it go away.” She advises me. “God, I need to get out of here and figure out what to do.”
“It doesn’t matter what the outcome of the lawsuit is. If you lose, I’ll pay the judgment.”
“It’s ten million dollars.”
I let the papers drop on the lounge and tuck her under my arm, walking her toward the house. “Not to brag, Luna, but that’s not even going to make my accountant flinch.”
“I can’t let you do this.”