All Chapters of THE CEO'S VENGEFUL BRIDE : Chapter 101 - Chapter 105

“THIS is garbage.” Gage threw the printed papers back down on his desk, his muscles tense, his entire body wound up and ready to attack at any moment.Hearing Maddy’s voice, thick with tears on the other end of the phone a few moments before, had made him feel capable of very serious violence against the person responsible for spreading such venomous rumors.It made him feel physically ill, seeing the article written with such foul accusations. Accusations directed at Madeline. She was doing well now, had graduated from college, was finally coming out of her shell and putting their neglectful childhood being her. She’d been such a quiet little girl, as ifshe was afraid to step out of line. Afraid he might abandon her, too. But she’d grown so much in the past few years, and now this threatened to destroy everything Maddy had battled so hard for.“I agree,” Lily said. “It’s not news, and it’s a shame we live in a culture that thinks it is. But the simple fact is that we do, and this st

Everything about marriage and relationships severely unnerved her, and itwas hard to shake the anxiety that was coursing through her.“I was just incredulous,” she snapped.“So, what’s the story?”Right. Work. This she could do. Create a press release, get the right spin.She was good at this. She grabbed her notebook of the desk. “We’ve been working together for a while. We’ve grown closer, friendship, then, well more. And then you proposed last night after the gala, which is why I didn’to have a ring yet. Because that detail would have been noticed.”“Good. Take care of it. The ring will be in your office in less than an hour then you can make the announcement.”She could tell by the way he was sitting, looking at her, that she was dismissed. “As proposals go,” she said, unable to resist, “that one ranks right up there with a ring in the food.”“I thought women liked that,” he said, his slightly amused.“No. It gets the ring messy and if you don’t find it you might break a tooth.”

Let me handle the rest.”He snapped the phone shut. Lily was looking away again, her focus very firmly on the scenery out the window.He wanted to touch her. To see if he could make her melt. To see what it would take to get her to loosen her hair, to get her to unbutton a little bit. Or all the way. It was easy for him to picture her naked, her perfect, petite bodyon display for him. She was so pale the thought of all that milky white skin contrasting against his black sheets was the most erotic fantasy his subconscious had ever created for him.Two things kept him from exploring the fantasy. First, she was an employee, and that was a no-go as far as he was concerned. Second, she had serious written all over her. He didn’t do serious. Not in his sexual relationships. He’d done serious. Not in romantic relationships, but his entire childhood and young adult years had been nothing but responsibility.His mother had done okay raising him to a point, but Maddy had been a late in life s