Broken Justice (Justice Brothers)
Page 28
She hadn’t hesitated to alert the authorities to what was going on. The blowback had been dreadful and a major scandal ensued. Wallace had been detained and their relationship paraded through the nightmarish British tabloids with headlines like ‘Billionaire Earl Tricks American Plain Jane’. A particularly vile tabloid reporter had referred to her as a spinster as if being twenty-six and unmarried qualified one for such a loathed status. One minute she’d been the darling of the financial sector and the next a laughingstock.
To make matters worse, it came out that the mistresses knew about each other and were all too happy to join together to cry foul at her betrayal of poor Wallace. The whole thing was embarrassing, sordid, and ugly. She’d been the injured party yet, as the American outsider, she was shunned and ridiculed by everyone. Within weeks, the firm had paid her off handsomely to simply go the hell away. That was three months ago.
And now, here she was tucked away in the Arizona desert with a bunch of ex-Special Forces men. Her mother had some connection to the Justice Agency and through that association had asked for a favor. Discovering that Alexander Marquez was in need of an assistant experienced with technology, it seemed a perfect fit. Tori needed to fly off the radar for a while and losing herself in the desert with some nerdy computer geek seemed like the perfect solution.
When her new boss turned out to be more of a handful than the dweeb she’d imagined, Tori had welcomed the intense, thrown in the deep end quality of work she was confronted with. Alex was a brilliant man but something of a mess when it came to practicalities. She spent just as much time trailing behind him and the loveable dog that followed him everywhere, keeping things organized and running smoothly as she did working with the mind-boggling array of technology and cutting edge electronics that the agency had.
Right now though she was exhausted and feeling cranky. Knowing that Alex had been fully invested in making sure the intimate wedding event was something unique and special, she had been tap-dancing on the head of a pin all day, running from one challenge to the next. She was beyond tired but satisfied with how everything had turned out. Thank God she knew a bit of Spanish. Came in handy when she had to put out a particularly vexing fire between the obnoxious and uppity caterer and the troop of ladies from town that’d came out to work the reception.
There was an intense camaraderie amongst the people at the Villa that she privately envied. The radiant bride and handsome groom had smiled and kissed to the satisfaction of one and all before going on their merry way to a honeymoon that was so perfect it sounded like a movie producer had planned it. Their guests had been partying hard most of the evening. The place was a mess now that the festivities had wrapped up. Tomorrow would be soon enough to set about putting everything back in order.
She’d been stomping along, unconcerned that she looked like holy hell in a pair of sensible flat shoes and a non-descript skirt outfit, when she came up short spying what had to be the most beautiful man she had ever laid eyes on. Holy shitballz, the guy looked like a movie star!
About forty feet away and sitting on a swinging bench, he was staring at the sky. An empty champagne flute was on the seat next to him. She actually put her hand on her chest in both surprise and instantaneous attraction as she took in the whole of him with hungry eyes that missed nothing.
Wearing the same style black tuxedo that Alex and the groom had worn, he had opened the collar button and left the formal bow tie hanging around his neck. Bright silver cuff links, sparkling at her under the twinkling lights, adorned the sleeves of his impossibly white shirt. From where she stood it was easy to see the exposed skin on his neck as his head lolled on the bench’s high back. The chin angled up at the stars suggested a take no prisoners attitude making Tori shiver at the enticing visuals flooding her mind with that thought. Even without seeing his face, she knew he’d be gorgeous. And dangerous. Everything about him screamed of something wild and exciting.
She must have made a sound because quite suddenly his head lifted and searched the shadows. Not having more than a second or two to school her expression into passivity, she found herself trapped in the laser-like beam of his stare when ice-cold blue eyes zeroed in on her. Uh oh.
FIXING JUSTICE
Spring 2014
Suzanne Halliday writes what she knows and what she loves – sexy adult contemporary romance with strong men and spirited women. Her love for creating short stories for friends and family has developed into a passion for writing romantic fiction with a sensual edge. She finds the world of digital, self-publishing to be the perfect platform for sharing her stories and also for what she enjoys most of all – reading. When she’s not on a deadline you’ll find her loading up on books to devour.
Currently a wanderer, she and her family divide their time between the east and west coast, somehow always managing to get the seasons mixed up. When not digging out from snow or trying to stay cool in the desert, you can find her in the kitchen, 80’s hair band music playing in the background, kids running in and out, laptop on with way too many screens open, something awesome in the oven, and a mug of hot tea clutched in one hand.
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