Novels by UDwrites

EDWARD"Mom! What was that for?"My mother paused with one hand on her handbag clasp and turned to look at me, wearing the expression of a woman who has never once stopped when asked."What?""You said that on speakerphone." I dragged a hand down my face. "Chloe was right there. The line went dead halfway through your sentence. I have no idea how much she heard.""I said nothing untrue.""You said I'd have to 'pretend' to care.""Well, don't you?""No! I mean, yes. I mean...." I stopped. "That's not the point.""Then what do you feel for her?"I opened my mouth. Closed it. Opened it again, for the sake of dignity, and found nothing in there.My mother raised one perfect eyebrow. "That's what I thought."I'd been staring at my phone for ten full minutes before I called, if we're being honest, with her standing over my desk like a prison warden. I'd rehearsed three openings. By the time Chloe picked up, my brain had stripped them all for parts, and what came out was *yeah?*I will carry

CHLOEThe spa smelled like lavender, expensive oil, and the specific kind of peace you only buy when you're about to spend an afternoon with your mother.I wiggled my freshly manicured fingers, admiring the glossy nude polish. My toes had gotten the same treatment, and beside me, Elena sat with her feet soaking and her head tipped back against the recliner, wearing the blissful expression of a woman who had not been allowed to relax in about a decade."Okay," I announced. "After this, a full-body massage. Then facials. Then hair. Then accessories."Elena turned her head slowly. "Chloe, are we preparing for a bridal shower or a coronation?""Both. Why settle?"She laughed, and I felt it land somewhere warm in my chest. I'd forgotten how it felt to spend an afternoon with another woman without monitoring my posture, my volume, or my chewing speed. With Elena, I could just exist."How does it feel," she asked, lifting her glass of champagne with the careful elegance of someone who'd been

ELENAThree hours.That was how long it took for my life to become a trending topic.Three hours of strangers dissecting me, tabloids sniffing around the story, and gossip accounts turning my face into free entertainment. Apparently I was a seductress. A calculating gold digger who'd slept her way into a hospital. Someone had even called me a professional bed warmer, which I had to admit was creative.I would have laughed if I hadn't wanted to throw my phone at the wall."Don't read the comments."Chloe plucked the phone out of my hand mid-scroll."Chloe!""No." She held it behind her back like a mother confiscating her teenager's phone. "You are not going to sit here and let miserable strangers ruin your afternoon.""They're saying I seduce CEOs!""Then they can go seduce a dictionary. Maybe they'll learn what evidence means."A laugh escaped me before I could stop it. Chloe pointed at my face, triumphant. "There she is. Still breathing. Still Elena. Some anonymous account doesn't ge

ADRIANRage and efficiency turn out to be the same muscle. Pointed in the right direction, one becomes the other.I was out of my chair before the last word of that comment had finished loading."Betty.""Sir?""Clear my afternoon. Marcus from Legal, the head of cyber security, Priya and her whole media team, boardroom, ten minutes. If anyone's out of the building, put them on a call.""Yes, sir.""And get Eric on the line."Edward was already on his feet. "What did the last comment say? The one that just...""Read it yourself."He did. I watched his face change."That isn't gossip anymore," he said quietly."No."I didn't sit down in the boardroom. Nobody else did either."A post using my wife's photograph is circulating on at least four accounts," I said. "It makes false claims about her character and career. By tonight, I want every trace of it gone. Marcus."My general counsel straightened. "Sir.""Cease-and-desist to every account that has posted, shared or captioned it. Takedown

ADRIAN "You're obsessed with her.""I'm not obsessed with anybody.""Keep telling yourself that." Edward tipped back in my visitor's chair, arms crossed, a man with nowhere better to be. "A director nearly dropped his coffee this morning because you looked at him. You've been walking around like someone's stolen your favorite pen. Elena isn't going to die, and you can't keep...""Don't."It came out sharper than I meant. Edward's grin vanished."Don't ever say that."The office went quiet. I stared at the grain of my desk and saw a rug, a gray face, a wrist where I'd gone looking for a pulse and found only my own heartbeat roaring in my ears. Two weeks. My hands still remembered the cold of her skin."Sorry," Edward said, gently. "That was stupid.""It was.""She's recovering. Chloe's there, Mrs. Carter's there, Elias is there. You don't have to sit beside her bed like a gargoyle.""I do."It was out before I could dress it up. "The last time I wasn't there, I nearly lost her. I'm no

ELENA"Adrian, you need to go to work.""No."I looked at the man sitting on the edge of my bed and wondered whether the thing that had nearly killed me had somehow affected him too."Excuse me?""You heard me.""You have a company. Employees. Meetings you must have rescheduled the way other people cancelled dentist appointments.""And?""And you cannot sit here all day watching me breathe!""Actually," he said, ankle propped on his knee, phone abandoned face down on the duvet, "I can."Two weeks. Fourteen days since I'd come home from the hospital, and in that time Adrian Blackwood had cleared his calendar, and turned himself into the most unreasonably handsome nurse in the history of medicine. He knew my dosage schedule better than I did. He'd begun leaving glasses of water in places I would inevitably walk past. Yesterday I'd found a sticky note on the bathroom mirror, in his tidy, impatient handwriting: Eat something. This is not a suggestion.I couldn't decide which part annoyed