“I’m surprised they let you in there with that.” Theo waved toward the bag, “They’ve been paranoid ever since the Santiago Rojas case.”
Dieter shrugged. “It must have been my kindly, non-threatening face.”
Theo laughed again.
That’s right, Theo was a laughing kind of guy. Dieter wasn’t sure how he felt about that. “Anyway, it turns out that I need some advice on the prenup agreement that you hammered out for Flicka von Hannover.”
Theo tipped into his leather office chair. “I assisted in drawing up that prenup. The French lawyers did the bulk of it. I reviewed it.”
“So noted,” Dieter said, absolving Theo if anything lawyerly went wrong due to his advice.
“Have you seen Flicka von Hannover?” Theo asked, gazing at his office wall as if he were not asking Dieter a very important question.
“Not lately,” he said, which was not quite perjury had their conversation been under oath, which it wasn’t.
“That’s not what Joachim Blanchard said.”
Damn that weasel French lawyer. “He must have been wrong.”
“He was wrong when he saw Flicka von Hannover in Paris, asking for divorce advice, in the company of Wulf von Hannover’s foremost security man?”
“Must have been.”
“That’s surprising.”
“Surprising things happen every day,” Dieter said. “And even if Flicka did consult with that lip-flapping jackass Blanchard, she still needs a second opinion about her prenup. The first opinion was unsatisfactory.”
Theo looked over Dieter’s head, outside the glass-enclosed office. “Ah, here he is.”
Dieter wrenched around in his seat to look through the windows at the hallway and the rest of the county attorney’s office.
A very tall, blond man strode through the admins’ area, his chest and head towering over the blue-upholstered dividers. Even from this far, Dieter could see his ice-blue eyes were narrowed in anger.
Dieter said, “Damn it, Theo.”
Wulfram von Hannover slammed open Theo’s office door, rattling glass. The vertical blinds swung from the force. “Where the hell is she?”
See In A Faraway Land
at Amazon.
A Note From Blair Babylon
Dear Reader,
These books deal with some pretty rough stuff.
The rough stuff started at the end of Once Upon A Time when Pierre rapes Flicka because he decides to assert his physical power over her body. As always, this rape is not about sex or love. It’s a crime, and it’s about power and violence.
I’m shaking as I’m writing this. I can siphon off experiences, emotion, and pain and use them for characters, but I’m not good at talking about things directly. Indeed, I’m really bad at it. Just know that I understand and I write the truth as I see it.
About one out of every six women has been raped. The statistic is about 14.8%, according to RAINN (Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network). Everyone reacts differently. Most women react with symptoms of acute post-traumatic stress disorder during at least the two weeks following the rape and often have lingering psychological effects.
If you want to know just a little more about me, when I’m upset about something, I retreat to dealing with it intellectually rather than emotionally. Things were getting hairy there, so I backed off until I could talk about math. Math is comforting. Math is impersonal. If it’s just me, if I’m the only one, then there’s something wrong with me or I’m horribly special. But it’s not just me. The math says that it’s not just me. And if it is you, then it’s not just you. It’s one out of every six women, approximately.
If we were talking about child sexual abuse, then it’s one out of every three women.
So, math. You’re not alone. Lots of us are carrying it.
Flicka deals with the trauma differently. Because she is so intent on divorcing Pierre, she channels some of that trauma into energy for her goal.
Not everyone reacts this way. Not everyone is as functional as Flicka is. If you were raped and didn’t react like Flicka, your story is valid as your story.
As Flicka reaches a place of marginal safety in the next book, In A Faraway Land, some of those effects will catch up to her, and she’ll have to work through them.
Here’s the thing I want you to know: Flicka is going to get through this, and she’s going to survive this. She’s also going to get some measure of revenge. Not petty revenge. Not superficial snark and come-backs. But she will put the pieces of herself back together and heal herself, and then she’ll go after Pierre.
As with every terrible event, Flicka won’t be the same person she was, but she’ll be whole and functional.
I promise: she’ll be okay.
Also, just to let you know, that’s the most description of the rape that there will be in the books. No book needs a graphic description of a crime unless it’s important for the plot and character development, and I think there’s plenty there. We all understand.
If you are in need of help, I highly recommend RAINN. You can reach them at: https://www.rainn.org/get-help.
~Blair Babylon
Blair Babylon Books
~
BILLIONAIRES IN DISGUISE SERIES
READING ORDER
Working Stiff (Runaway Billionaires #1, Casimir)
Stiff Drink (Runaway Billionaires #2, Arthur Duet, Part 1)
Hard Liquor (Runaway Billionaires #3, Arthur Duet, Part 2)
Rae Falling (Billionaires in Disguise: Rae) (The first, free part of Billionaires in Disguise: Rae) ~FREE!
Billionaires in Disguise: Rae, Complete Omnibus Edition (includes “Rae Falling”)
An Extravagant Proposal (Billionaires in Disguise: Charley) (A Side Story for Billionaires in Disguise: Rae)
Falling Hard (Billionaires in Disguise, Lizzy #1) - FREE!
Playing Rough (Billionaires in Disguise: Lizzy, #2)
Breaking Rules (Billionaires in Disguise: Lizzy, #3)
Burning Bright (Billionaires in Disguise: Lizzy, #4)
“Alwaysland” (A Prequel to Rock Stars in Disguise:Xan)
What A Girl Wants (Rock Stars in Disguise: Rhiannon)
Somebody to Love (Rock Stars in Disguise: Tryp)
Every Breath You Take (Billionaires in Disguise: Georgie / Rock Stars in Disguise: Xan, #1) - FREE!
Wild Thing (Billionaires in Disguise: Georgie and Rock Stars in Disguise: Xan, #2)
“Skiing in June, A Rae and Wulf Epilogue #1” (Billionaires in Disguise: Rae)
“Kidnapped, A Rae and Wulf Epilogue #2” (Billionaires in Disguise: Rae)
“Rae and Wulf: At the Hospital”
Lay Your Hands On Me (Billionaires in Disguise: Georgie and Rock Stars in Disguise: Xan, #3)
Nothing Else Matters (Billionaires in Disguise: Georgie and Rock Stars in Disguise: Xan, #4)
“Montreux, A Rae and Wulf Epilogue #3” (Billionaires in Disguise: Rae)
The Rock Star’s Secret Baby (Rock Stars in Disguise: Cadell)
“Dream On” (Billionaires in Disguise: Georgie and Rock Stars in Disguise: Xan, Epilogue #1)
“Keep Dreaming”
Santa, Baby (Rock Stars in Disguise: Peyton)
Once Upon A Time (Runaway Princess #1) (Billionaires in Disguise: Flicka)
In Shining Armor (Runaway Princess #2) (Billionaires in Disguise: Flicka)
In A Faraway Land (Runaway Princess #3) (Billionaires in Disguise: Flicka)
At Midnight (Runaway Princess #4) (Billionaires in Disguise: Flicka)
Happily Ever After (Runaway Princess #5) (Billionaires in Disguise: Flicka)
Stiff Competition (Runaway Billionaires #4, Maxence)
You don’t have to read everything perfectly in this order. I try to recap or make books as standalone as possible. The mini-series within this overall list, such as the Lizzy books or the Georgie books, should be read in order. ~BB
Also, just so you know what you’re getting up there, novel-length books are
in italics, like this, but “short forms,” like short stories and novellas, are in “quotation marks.”
Check for New Releases by Blair Babylon at Amazon
~~~
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From Blair Babylon!
Q. Are Blair’s Billionaires Books erotic romance or erotica?
A. Blair’s Billionaires Books are all erotic romance or contemporary romance.
Erotica generally centers around the sex act, a preponderance of the page count is given to the sex act, and the main characters usually do not build a life together after the sex act. The main character usually discovers or accepts something new about herself or himself, thus it is a journey of self-discovery.
Erotic and contemporary romance concerns itself with the two people falling in love and, usually, building a life together in a very, very sexy way. Romance novels generally end with an HEA (Happily Ever After) or at least an HFN (Happy For Now).
Q. I want to read more of The Billionaires in Disguise Books. How can I be notified when another one is published?
A. Sign up for the email mailing list HERE. Email subscribers get discounts or free episodes in addition to special deleted scenes and epilogues.
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A. The best way to support writers whom you enjoy is to leave a review at your ebook store, even a short one. Blair reads all her reviews at all the ebook stores and appreciates every one of them.
You can email Blair Babylon by putting her name in the subject line when you email Malachite Publishing. She loves to hear from readers, reads every email, and does her best to respond to everyone. You can also connect with Blair via her Facebook Group or Goodreads Page.
Q. Do you have a study guide for book groups?
A. Seriously? You’re reading The Billionaires in Disguise Books in a book club? Blair wants to hang out with your awesome dirty book club. Email her above. She likes to Skype or do Google Hangouts with book clubs.
About Blair Babylon
Blair Babylon is an award-winning author who used to publish literary fiction. Because reviews of her mainstream fiction usually included the caveat that there was too much deviant sex in her novels, she decided to abandon all literary pretensions, let her freak flag fly, and write hot, sexy romance novels. She’s having much more fun, now.
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Dear Reader,
Thank you for reading Billionaires in Disguise: Flicka.
If you’d like to know when my next books come out, please visit my website or sign up for my newsletter.
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Copyright 2018 by Malachite Publishing LLC
All Rights Reserved
This is a work of fiction.
Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s wild and naughty imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission from the author or publisher.
1st Edition: May, 2018
In Shining Armor Page 20