LOGINYou really planned this whole thing without me catching a single clue," I say, still slightly stunned, looking around the room at the candles and the flowers that are decidedly not tulips."Yhup. It took me two weeks." Damian looks entirely too pleased with himself. "I told Addie on a Tuesday, although she made me sign something.""She made you sign what?" I ask, my face painted with astonishment."Let's say a verbal contract. ‘Extremely binding’, apparently, in Addie's legal system." His mouth curves. "I broke three dinner plans, canceled a deposition, and told my Claire I had a 'personal issue’ to attend to so many times she started looking concerned for my wellbeing.""And Addie kept it from me for two weeks? We literally went for dinner yesterday…that's just…aargh!”"Don't blame the poor girl, Addie kept it from you for two weeks. I must say, she's highly professional." He says it like he still can't quite believe it himself. "I didn't think that was possible. I told her that and
The champagne in my glass has gone warm and I notice it the way you'll notice small things when you're happy peripherally, almost fondly because Damian's mouth is still inches from mine and the quartet hasn't started again and I'm thinking, quite seriously, about dragging him to whatever room in this building has a door that locks.My subconscious is already removing her shoes."You were about to say something," I murmur even though my face is still fixed at the door. "I was?""Yeah…say it." His eyes do that thing… that slow darkening that makes my knees genuinely unreliable, and he opens his mouth then Addie's voice cuts across the room like a thrown plate."Absolutely not. No! Get her the fuck out!” And when I turn, Aurora's standing just inside the doorway in a dried-rose silk cloth with rose patterns detailed on it , her signature burgundy hair loose over her shoulders and she's holding a glass of champagne she clearly poured for herself on her way in. She pauses for a moment af
SELENE'S POVFor the first time in months, Damien is taking me to a place I don't even know of. This time, not with his driver. Just me and Damien and he still doesn't want to disclose where we're going. He had only told me to dress up for an event he'd like me to attend with him, and of course I had put on the red dress he bought for me. Damian stands close to his Mercedes Benz G-63 AMG Brabus, looking all tall and immaculate in his blue suit that so much compliments his dark grey eyes. There has never been a time where Damien doesn't look less stunning."Damian…""Oh, my world Lin, you look so fabulous in this dress.” His eyes glow with love and something darker. Something I love that makes me blush in luxurious confidence. God, he takes my breath away! “ Turn around” his voice is authoritative, low and sexy as hell. How can he infuse so much power into these two words. Willingly, I comply and his hands moves to mg hair. Gently he fixes the bow that was slightly out of place on my
"Rory, they're saying attempted murder." I keep my voice level. And for some reason, Rory has been the pet name I'd curated for her before I got married to Selene. "For the accident. For Selene's…" I stop. "For the baby." Something crosses her face which is not quite guilt exactly. It looks like something more complicated than guilt, the expression of someone who has constructed a very elaborate internal justification for something and doesn't even want to examine the foundation of it too closely."That's not what happened babe," she says."Rory, look…""That's not what happened." Her voice is firmer now. "And Richard will make that very clear." She takes my hand. Her fingers are so cold probably from the cell. "Xavier. Look at me." She cups my face with her delicate fingers and I look at her. Truly, she's beautiful in the particular way she's always been. So deliberately and architecturally, like beauty is something she puts on rather than something she simply is, and standing here
XAVIER'S POVShe calls at 11 PM while I'm still playing an online chess game I've played since my late twenties.One call from the holding cell, which is all they give her and she uses it on me, which tells me everything about where Aurora's mind goes when the performance finally stops and the real thing underneath it needs something.I look at the call and almost don't answer. I'm sitting in the apartment that smells like her perfume and canceled wedding flowers, three fingers of bourbon in my hand, Page Six open on my laptop showing that headline for the fourteenth time ‘BILLIONAIRE'S EX-WIFE TAKES DOWN THE WOMAN WHO STOLE HER HUSBAND’ and I'm thinking about Selene's face in the hospital lobby this morning, about the compassion in it that I absolutely did not deserve, and I'm in the middle of deciding to be a different kind of man when my phone lights up with a number I recognize as the Midtown detention facility and my hand picks it up before my brain can stop it. Really, Some hab
“Actually I named her before I could even see her. Yeah I named her Amber. Wheew!” I let out a breath and when I say her name Addie goes very quiet."Wait, you named her," she asks softly."Yeah, I did the very moment I knew I was pregnant and was super excited about it.""Selene." Her voice does the thing that means she's crying even though she'll never in a million years admit it. "That's beautiful, pookie."“Addie, please don't cry.""I have something in my eye." And yeah, she's definitely crying, and she's about to ruin that goddess makeup of hers. "This city has terrible air quality, it's a documented problem…" She clears her throat. "Okay. Okay, I'm fine." She refills both our glasses with the focused energy of someone redirecting. "Totally unrelated, but do you know Aurora's mugshot is the most unflattering photograph in the history of photography and it's been my phone wallpaper since yesterday morning." I burst out laughing and my stomach begins to hurt slightly. A genuine, s







