by Alyssia Leon
He’d had it made specially for her, a fiery oval-cut ruby surrounded by a halo of glittering black diamonds hung on a delicate gold chain. He’d told her it symbolized the two of them together, and she’d proudly worn it everywhere in the months they’d been together. Please don’t let him ask where it is, because if he did, she would have to lie. She had to get it back, and soon, otherwise things would never be right between them.
“Where are you staying tonight, Lilayni?”
She stared at him, nonplussed, the question unexpected. “Here. I have a room.”
Reaching out, he took the champagne flute from her hand. “Then I think it’s time you called it a night.” He glanced past her and gave a small nod. “Roger will see you to your room.”
She looked over her shoulder to see the familiar form of Roger, Damon’s bodyguard, coming towards them. Roger was ex-military, tall and lean, with cropped ginger hair and piercing light-blue eyes. He was solidly built, but was nowhere near as imposing as Damon. Seeing the two of them together, most people would wonder why Damon needed a bodyguard, but Roger was more than that. He was Damon’s right-hand man, and if Damon wanted something done, Roger made it happen.
“Make sure Miss Perrot gets to her room,” Damon said to Roger, who gave a brisk nod and then waited expectantly for her.
She glared at Damon. “I do not intend to go to my room. Not yet.”
“That’s enough partying, don’t you think?” He held up her champagne flute. “Or where you working up to ending the night with Cass Walker?”
She gasped. “I was not going anywhere with him, even if you had not shown up.”
“Then there’s no need for you to stay on here.”
He turned away, but she caught his arm. “Damon, I came to speak to you.”
“Get some sleep, Lilayni. You had a long flight today. You must be tired.” And with that he strode back into the hall, leaving her chagrined beside a patient Roger.
* * *
Lilayni waited for the elevator in the hotel’s wood-panelled lobby with Roger looming like an unnerving dark-suited presence beside her. She shot him a glance from beneath her lashes. He stood poker-straight, his gaze riveted to the closed door of the elevator, and his features deadpan. It was like being escorted somewhere for interrogation by the secret service. Did he think she was going to run?
She could have walked away from Damon’s high-handed order at the party itself, if she’d wanted to, but no matter how Damon had worded it, he had rescued her from Cass and he’d cared enough to think she might be tired after her flight from France. Was he finally thawing towards her? It was strings of hope, but it was far more than anything she’d had this past month.
She cast Roger another covert glance. She had to get Damon alone somewhere he couldn’t walk away from her. But how?
The elevator pinged and the doors in front of them slid open revealing the empty car. Roger indicated for her to precede him into the wood and brass lined interior, and the seed of a plan forming in her mind, she did so.
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All books are standalone reads and follow the stories of different couples, unless otherwise indicated.
Appleby Series
Never Too Late
Only You
Billionaire’s Desire Series
Be Mine
Never Too Late
Copyright © 2016 Alyssia Leon
www.alyssialeon.com
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
Published by Sagewood Publishing Ltd
First Digital Edition: July 2016
eISBN: 978-1-911519-01-0
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is purely coincidental.
Contains adult content, suitable for over 18s.