by J. S. Scott
“Are you sure?”
I nodded. “When we passed the bank earlier, I knew it was time for a new start.”
This might be my hometown, but I was ready to spread my wings and fly. I’d shuddered when we’d driven by the scene of the shooting, knowing that it would forever be a place of sorrow for me. To everyone else, the city was back to normal after the incident, but it would never be the same for me.
“Bad memories,” he said gently as he pushed a lock of hair from my face.
“Yes. I think being here will always remind me of what happened.”
“Then we’ll live in Amesport,” he agreed readily.
“It’s not just the shooting,” I reassured him. “I want to be there with you.”
I’d come to adore Sullivan’s Restaurant, and all of the people I saw there regularly. I wanted to get to know my half brothers and my half sister without the necessity of hiding my identity.
I shared all of the reasons I wanted to go back to live in Amesport with Liam while he listened.
When I’d finished, he looked relieved. “Skip getting to know Xander,” he advised. “He’s a dick.”
I punched his shoulder playfully. “You don’t mean that,” I accused. “You wouldn’t spend as much time with him if you didn’t like him.”
“He’s a jerk.”
I snickered, knowing he and Xander loved to antagonize each other. “I do have other family there,” I reminded him.
“Yeah,” he said unhappily. “I know I’m going to have to get used to all of them being around. I don’t mind Micah so much, but I could do without Evan.”
I smiled broadly at him. I knew that no matter how much he protested, he’d welcome every one of them for me. “I love you, Liam.”
My heart felt like it was ready to explode with happiness, a feeling I definitely wasn’t used to.
He kissed my forehead reverently. “I love you, too, baby. Don’t think I don’t know how damn lucky I am.”
I was lucky, too, and I’d spend the rest of my life grateful for a man who was willing to make such a big sacrifice for me, even though I hadn’t accepted it.
I stroked his whiskered cheek as I suggested, “Let’s go home.”
“To Amesport?” he asked huskily.
“For now, we can use my apartment,” I suggested, my body clamoring for me to get the man I loved naked. “We can head for Amesport tomorrow.”
“We can head east whenever you want. I’m not averse to giving you all the time you want,” he answered hoarsely. “Right now, I’m not sure I’ll let you get out of bed in the morning.”
“I’m not sure I’ll want to,” I answered.
He picked me up and spun me around before setting me on my feet again. “We’ll figure it out,” he said, his eyes burning into me as he pierced me with a covetous glance. “Right now, I just want you naked.”
He clasped my hand and we started making our way back to the car.
Luckily, I wanted exactly the same thing he did.
CHAPTER 18
JADE
I knew he was there from the moment he entered the restaurant.
Not that I saw him. I didn’t have to. His presence made a zing of awareness move up my spine, a sensation that was so uncomfortable that I had to force myself not to squirm in my chair.
I turned my attention back to the large table of people, all of them family. Brooke had put her departure off for another day so we could all have dinner together before she left.
We’d picked a nice restaurant in San Diego, a place owned by Eli Stone. Even so, I’d figured the chances of him showing up personally had been almost nil.
I’d been wrong.
Dammit! What is he doing here?
Sure, he owned the place, but he owned plenty of world-class restaurants.
I turned my head and searched him out. It didn’t take long to see him being seated in a private booth with another man in a custom suit. I didn’t recognize his friend, but by all indications, he looked just as wealthy as Eli Stone.
“Jade? Are you okay?”
I had no idea how long my twin had been talking to me, but I was jolted back to reality at the sound of her concerned voice.
“I’m fine,” I said immediately.
“You don’t look fine,” she observed. “You look like you just saw a ghost.”
“I thought I saw somebody I knew,” I explained. “But I was wrong.”
Brooke was seated right next to me, her new fiancé on the opposite side. She shot me an inquisitive look, but I smiled back at her.
This was Brooke’s night. We were here to celebrate her engagement. I refused to let some asshole in a perfectly fitting suit spoil my evening.
I hated the fact that Brooke was going to be living on the other side of the country, but I was willing to suffer. My only sister was happy, and if I had to get my ass on a plane to go see her, I had no problem with that. It would be worth it if she stayed just as content and jubilant as she was right now.
“I’m worried about you,” Brooke said, sounding uneasy.
“Don’t,” I insisted. “I’m good.”
Hell, who wouldn’t consider themselves downright blessed when they’d inherited a fortune? Eli Stone was nothing more than a pest that I wanted to exterminate. He wasn’t worth thinking about.
“I don’t believe you. Something is going on.”
Brooke and I had always had a twin kind of bond. Just like I could tell she was truly elated about finding the man of her dreams, she could sense that I was nervous.
I hated that connection right now.
“It’s just work stuff,” I answered. “Nothing important.”
I loved blowing Eli Stone off as unimportant. Maybe because he was insignificant to me.
Brooke put a hand on my arm. “I might be living far away, but I’ll always be around if you need me. Travel isn’t really an issue anymore.”
I laughed. “It’s not a problem if you have the money to travel.”
I wasn’t quite used to being a billionaire. Sometimes I felt like I was trying to play a role that wasn’t all that comfortable for me. But I did like calling my own shots, and I wasn’t going to let a prick like Eli Stone get in my way.
“Is it the money?” Brooke asked.
I nodded. “It’s weird, right? One day we’re struggling to survive, and the next we’re all living the dream.”
“It’s weird in a good way,” Brooke agreed.
My sister turned her attention to Liam, and my eyes strayed to the booth where Eli was sitting.
I hated myself for looking at him, but Eli Stone was like a bad train wreck. I shouldn’t be gawking, but I couldn’t take my eyes away.
I startled when I noticed that his attention was turned my way. Our eyes met, and he raised his tumbler—which I assumed was filled with hard alcohol—in a quiet salute.
My head snapped back to my family as I burned with irritation.
I should have kept my eyes away from him. The smirk on his face had been more annoying than welcoming, like he knew something I didn’t.
Not that Eli had any desire to be friendly. He never had.
We were enemies. There was no room in my world to see him as anything but a threat.
“Excuse me for a moment,” I muttered politely as I got up from my chair.
“Something wrong?” Brooke asked as she looked up at me.
I smiled at her. “Restroom,” I explained as I dropped my napkin on the table. “I’ll be right back.”
I needed a minute to pull myself together, so I escaped across the room and darted into the elegant lavatory.
I stopped at the vanity once I got inside the fancy bathroom, staring at myself in the mirror.
The dress I was wearing had cost more than most people spent on clothes in a decade. I’d loved it when I’d tried it on. Now, I was rethinking the black cocktail dress that left me feeling half-naked.
I put on a little more lipstick, and washed my hands just s
o I had something to do.
I didn’t need to pee. It had just been an excuse to get away from Eli’s penetrating gaze.
When I was finished, I tossed the paper towel in the trash and took a deep breath.
I can’t let him get to me.
Eli would love nothing more than to get me rattled. His objective was to see me fold, and I wasn’t going to give him that satisfaction.
It wasn’t going to happen.
I had to ignore people like Eli Stone, rich bastards who thought they owned the world just because they had money.
Unfortunately, he made it really hard to ignore him.
I took a few more cleansing breaths, then exited the restroom, determined to enjoy my last night with all my family together.
Eli was a jerk, and I couldn’t change what years of recklessness and overindulgence had made him. I didn’t even want to try.
I slipped back into the chair at our table, trying not to draw any attention to myself.
It took an almost superhuman effort to not look his way again, but I managed.
By the time we got up to leave, he was gone.
EPILOGUE
BROOKE
Two months later . . .
I’d had plenty of help planning my wedding.
I talked to Jade every day by video conference, showing her samples of what I wanted for gowns, cakes, catering, flowers, and every other detail I hadn’t known existed for a bride.
In addition, I had every Sinclair wife helping me out. At least one of my half brothers’ wives had been around nearly every day, and more often than not, they were all with me at Liam’s house to help with planning.
I’d given up my apartment and moved in with him. We’d stopped trying to maintain separate residences since we were almost always together in the evenings, and every single night.
I’d become friends with every one of my half brothers’ wives, but the relationship I cherished the most was with my half sister, Hope.
She’d been the one to help me through a lot of the bad things that had happened to me. After I’d heard about her life as a storm chaser before she’d married Jason, and the horror she’d endured while she was in another country during a typhoon, my experiences had almost appeared tame. Not that Hope had ever made them seem like anything but a nightmare for me. She’d been patient and kind, empathetic since she’d been through her own trauma.
But my half sister was living proof that good things could come after tragedy.
Honestly, almost every one of the Sinclair wives had suffered her own private hell at one time, so bonding with them had been easy. They were so real, so easy to open up to that I felt like I’d known them all forever.
Yeah, there were times I missed my family in California, but having other family here in Amesport had taken the sting out of missing my sister and brothers.
But now they’re all here.
I sighed as I looked around the Amesport Youth Center, amazed that the large gathering place could serve so many purposes. My reception was in full swing, and the ballroom looked amazing. I had the Sinclair men in the town to thank for that. All of them had put a ton of money into the formerly dilapidated center, making sure it could accommodate a plethora of events, from youth basketball games to town parties.
It had been the best venue to have my wedding reception since there were so many guests that wanted to attend. Just the Sinclair family alone took up a lot of space, and I was pretty sure at least half the town was here. Liam and Tessa had grown up here, and they had a lot of friends.
My brothers, Evan, and Hope were all huddled at a large table in the far corner, and it appeared they were all getting along well. When I looked at them all together, the resemblance to each other was perfectly clear.
I wondered why I’d never suspected Evan. But I’d determined that it was difficult to see something that wasn’t even possible. Or at least, it hadn’t been remotely possible to me before I’d discovered the truth. I guessed when you weren’t looking for something, it remained hidden. The brain was funny like that.
I moved into the crush, returning to the ballroom after I’d spent a very long time trying to figure out how to pee in a bridal gown. It hadn’t been easy, but I’d finally gotten the deed accomplished.
Liam’s gaze was the first to find me in the crowd as I walked back toward the table. His head shot up and turned to look at me with the hot, possessive gaze I’d learned to love so damn much.
It was like he sensed my presence, just like I could feel him when he entered a room. We lost sight of each other as I worked my way through the crowd, but the feeling of awareness never went away.
Over the last few months, I’d slowly become more comfortable in my own skin, and I was learning to accept that I was ridiculously wealthy. Evan, after we’d patched up our argument, had been an amazing mentor to me as I started building my own personal wealth. He’d been there to calm me when I’d doubted myself and my investment sense. Hell, when a person was investing seven or eight figures in various opportunities, even though I’d researched and found them to be a good risk that would return well, it was pretty intimidating.
I’d decided against taking a work-for-wages job. Just handling my own wealth was more than enough to keep me busy. When I’d gone to college for my finance degree, I never imagined that I’d end up being my own investor. It was both freeing and daunting at the same time.
Evan helped. Having his advice was invaluable. Having him as a brother was even better.
I got a ton of advice from all of my half brothers. Every single one of them had amazing business minds, and so did Hope’s husband, Jason. I was like a sponge as I soaked up everything they shared with me. Someday, I hoped to be able to join the ranks of the business-wizard Sinclairs. But for now, I was happy to be an apprentice.
Surprisingly, I’d discovered how incredibly generous my half siblings were with their fortune, and how damn good it felt to give to worthy causes to help change the world. It was probably one of the most fulfilling parts of finding myself suddenly a billionaire.
Liam grinned at me as I finally reached the table, standing up so he could pull out the chair next to him.
He was breathtaking in a tuxedo, and I let myself absorb the pride I felt that he was now legally mine, before I took my seat.
I’d just married one incredible man, and I’d probably be pinching myself for weeks before I became accustomed to being his wife.
Liam had decided to hire a manager for Sullivan’s. It was almost the busy season, and he’d hired more staff, too. Not that he planned on being any less involved, but he wanted to focus more on growing the business than doing the day-to-day tasks.
I sat down carefully, and Liam settled next to me.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for the honeymoon,” he grumbled near my ear in a voice meant only for me.
I bit my lip to keep from laughing as I turned to look at him. “The reception has barely started,” I reminded him. “And we aren’t leaving until tomorrow.”
We were going to be gone for a month. There had been so many places I’d wanted to honeymoon in that Liam had included every one of them. We’d do a crazy trip around the world to visit all of them, but I knew it would be perfectly comfortable since we were using Evan’s private jet.
“Yeah, so we need to get to bed early so we’re rested,” he said gruffly.
I did laugh this time. I couldn’t help myself. “Liam, it’s barely five o’clock, and I’m starving. Can we at least wait until we do dinner and the cake?”
“I can wait, then,” he said immediately, his eyes roaming over my face lovingly.
I kissed him, a slow, sweet kiss that left me yearning to have this man gloriously naked so I could embrace him the way I longed to right now. If I wanted something, he was always patient. It made my heart ache to know that he was so damn willing to put my wants and needs before his own. I didn’t take advantage of that, because I was willing to do the same thing for h
im. But there was something so damn sweet about a guy who’d give so much just to make me happy.
“Thank you for waiting,” I said breathlessly, my voice touched with humor.
“I’d wait forever for you, Brooke. I feel like I already have,” he said in a quiet voice as he put his arm around me.
I sighed as I felt the heat of his massive body next to mine. “Me too,” I murmured.
My sister, Jade, was making her way through the crowd, and she looked flustered as she sat down in her chair across from me.
Her cheeks were as red as a ripe tomato as she took a large sip of her drink.
I leaned across the table as I asked, “Are you okay? Your face is flushed.”
She lifted a hand to her cheek, like she was trying to brush away the heat of her skin. “I’m fine,” she snapped. “I didn’t know Eli Stone was coming.”
I’d met the eccentric billionaire right after the wedding. “He’s friends with most of the Sinclairs here in Amesport. I didn’t know he was coming, either. But he seems nice enough.”
One thing I’d discovered about filthy-rich people was that most of them knew each other, and quite often they were friends. Or else they hated each other. I was pretty sure that my half siblings knew so many rich people because that’s how they’d grown up. Maybe other people with money were the only ones they could trust.
“I hate him,” Jade said vehemently. “We can’t even be civil to one another.”
“Why?” I asked.
She shook her head, looking like she regretted her outburst. “It’s nothing. I don’t have to talk to him again,” she said in a calmer tone.
“Did he do something to offend you?” Liam asked, sounding annoyed that a guest at his wedding might have upset my sister.
Jade and Liam had gotten to know each other over the last couple of months, and they had a mutual respect and affection for each other. If somebody hurt my twin, he’d be determined to make it right.
“No. Really. I’m good,” Jade said. “He just annoys me. I’m not going to let some pompous, arrogant, filthy-rich guy piss me off.” She smiled a little too brightly. “It’s a special day.”
Her lips were smiling, but her eyes looked troubled. I was worried about Jade, but until she was ready to talk about whatever was bothering her, there wasn’t much I could do.