Worth Any Cost: (Adam & Mia #4) (Gaming The System Book 6)

by Brenna Aubrey

  I clenched my jaw. “I’d never suspect you of wanting to sabotage the company whether or not you signed a paper. Or no matter how awful a situation we ended up in.”

  She kissed my cheek. “But that’s because you know me and you love me. The board doesn’t. It’s business. Marriage is for love. It’s for building families. Divorce is business. Since we are never going to get a divorce, this is all for show.”

  I said nothing as she combed her fingers through the scruff on my jaw.

  “So this was your big issue with Jordan? Because he sided with the Board?”

  I nodded.

  “He was doing his job, Adam. He was being a damn good CFO.”

  I blew out a breath I didn’t even know I’d been holding. “He didn’t stand by me.”

  “But can’t you see what a shitty situation this must have been for him? Put in the middle between you and the board. And if I know him, he was trying to find out any angle he could to prevent you having to go through this. Am I right?”

  I thought about it. He’d been doing the research—as he’d told me—asking his people to determine the case I might have for fighting the board. He’d been the lone guy out in the middle of two war fronts, waving a white flag and hoping nobody lobbed a grenade in his face.

  “He’s your friend—the friend who covered for you when you went on leave from your job when we first got together. Jordan held down the fort when I was sick and you weren’t working, so you could take care of me. And now, doing the same thing while you get better. Asking me regularly about your health, worried as hell. He does have your back.”

  I shrugged. His behavior was still irritating. And it still hurt.

  “You’ve been stressing out for months over this…and overworking to compensate. And you damaged your health. Totally not worth it. Let’s resolve this, okay? Let’s do the paperwork.”

  I mulled that over, but apparently not fast enough. She shifted to face me. “Tell your lawyers to send me something to look at, okay? A draft or something? We’ll hash it out.”

  I shrugged.

  She got in my face, putting the tip of her nose to mine. “Listen. I’m going to insist on this. It’s about time I get what’s due to me.”

  I raised a brow at her. “And what is that?”

  “You still haven’t paid me my 750K from my scandalous virginity auction. I refused to be stiffed.” Then she bit her lip to keep from laughing, an action which failed miserably after only a few seconds.

  Her laughter was infectious. I finally cracked a smile of my own. “Maybe I’m simply making sure I get the most out of that money.”

  “Oh, I’d say that you have.”

  Despite my exhaustion, a heated tongue of lust licked its way up my spine. If I had the energy—and a non-explosive spleen—I’d try something right this minute. My hands inched up her thigh, aching to touch her everywhere. Instead of acting on this, I simply took a deep breath and relished the feeling, like a thousand-pound weight had been lifted from my shoulders.

  “Come on, Adam. I know your stubbornness has gotten you far in life, but this is not the hill you want to die on.”

  I closed my eyes and opened them again, leaning forward to kiss her on her neck. “Fine. We’ll do it. But I intend to be extremely fair. As fair as possible.”

  She nodded in response.

  I held her gaze. “You need your own lawyer, someone not associated with my lawyer. It needs to be totally independent, okay? Peter could probably give you a name. Obviously, he can’t do it for you because he’s family, but I’m sure he’ll know of someone.”

  Her eyes widened. “Oh, I bet Lindsay would be a better person to ask for a referral.” It made sense. Lindsay was an excellent lawyer herself and had been through her own divorce a few years previously. Emilia had good instincts. I had no doubt she’d pick a competent lawyer for this.

  “Whoever you hire, have them send me the bill. I’ll pay it, no questions asked.”

  She shifted on my lap. “Sounds extremely fair, Mr. Drake. Now, about that 750K…”

  I leaned forward and caught her earlobe between my teeth. “I do recall that you said ‘no deal’ to that.”

  She rewarded me with a delighted sigh. “Maybe I figured out that getting the man was worth a whole lot more.”

  My hand was on her ass in less than a second flat. “Like…how much more?”

  “Like…worth all the bugs you kill for me—for life. And all the tight hugs. And the stimulation.”

  Now we were talking. I ran my other hand up her thigh. “Stimulation?”

  “Mental stimulation.”

  I pressed my mouth to her succulent neck.

  “I’m exhausted. Let’s cuddle.”

  “You’re still under doctor’s orders to rest. No work. No hanky-panky.”

  I fought laughter at the archaic term. “Hanky-panky? For real?”

  “Nope.” She shook her head, kissing my nose. “None.”

  I got my hand up her t-shirt. “What about a little…panky?”

  She snorted, pushing herself off my lap. “You need to go back to bed. You’re about to fall over. And I need to go get a lawyer.” She leaned forward, grabbed me by the wrist, and tugged to pull me out of my chair. “There will be neither hanky nor panky.”

  I sighed. But, admittedly, all my body wanted to do was collapse and doze for a few more hours. I’d fantasize about seducing her later.

  After a nap.

  ***

  Between long bouts of sleep and occasional phone calls to my lawyer, I spent hours over the next week working on my Dragon Epoch mystery.

  For the quest, I helped Lord Sisyphus gather his friends. When Princess Emma fell ill, I went on the hunt for a magic elixir to cure her. Once she was well, I escorted Princess Emma to a beautifully secluded beach at sunset, where he proposed to her and she accepted.

  I even helped his cousin win a duel so that the wedding date could be established.

  All uncomfortably familiar. But not in a creepy way.

  Whoever had set this up—and it was elaborate enough to have required some time to develop—knew a lot about Emilia and me. And they knew something of the trials we’d endured to get where we were today.

  Once I’d collected bottles of different types of tasty spirits from the different parts of Yondareth, I was on the verge of quest completion. It was almost time for Lord Sisyphus’s Wild and Crazy Bachelor Party.

  And with the drop of one simple line, I discovered the person responsible for the wedding quest.

  My gratitude to you, FallenOne, for all of your help. But you must be careful when arranging my honeymoon travels to the exotic city of Pah-Arees. My boss, the King, just might end up stealing my long-awaited vacation.

  Pah-Arees. That obscure reference could only mean one thing…because his boss had taken his long-awaited vacation from him—at his behest. To Paris. And though he’d been glad to offer it to us, he’d never ever let me hear the end of it when I’d taken Emilia to the City of Lights on the trip of his dreams—that he had spent months planning for himself.

  Jordan.

  Well. I’ll be damned.

  Chapter 14

  Mia

  Apparently, I was required to read through a full disclosure of Adam’s assets as part of the prenuptial contract agreement. Who knew? I certainly hadn’t.

  And though I’d never tell Adam this in a million years, the disclosure packet was, um, overwhelming.

  By California law, both future spouses had to fully disclose their assets to their partner before anything could be signed. As part of my due diligence, I read through the list of Adam’s assets and their estimated current value. The document, bound as a booklet, was easily the size of a sturdy medical school workbook.

  His collection of assets was as varied and interesting as the man himself. As I turned page after page, I’d tried to squelch feelings of inadequacy with the knowledge that my disclosure could fit on an average-sized Post-it note. And most of that
was gifts from him, like my car, my computer, and various other things.

  And, of course, there was my debt, too. Adam had the normal type of commercial debt associated with running a big company. He had no personal debt whatsoever, aside from the obnoxious mortgage on the house.

  Me? I had medical school debt accruing. In fact, Adam was footing that bill, too, without a word—and likely would be upset to hear me refer to it as a debt to him. But I’d always fully intended to repay it. I’d be adding that to the prenuptial documents as soon as I met with the lawyer I’d retained.

  But for now, per her instructions, I was supposed to read through all of this and highlight any items I wished to know more about.

  The more I read, the harder I was finding it to breathe as I sat at my desk in my study and pored over the seemingly endless list of assets.

  The gaming company, the virtual reality hardware company he had recently acquired, a heavy chunk of investment in a firm called XVenture—aa private space agency that intended to send astronauts on manned missions soon. He had partial ownership in hospitality industry properties, like Emerald Sky in St. Lucia, among others.

  It went on and on.

  Jesus. He wasn’t even thirty yet, and he owned half the country, it seemed.

  “How’s it going?”

  I jumped almost out of my skin. Adam’s bearded face hovered about a foot from mine, leaning over me to see where I was in the document.

  “Shit, you scared the crap out of me.”

  “Sorry.” He frowned. “I thought you heard me come in. I wasn’t trying to sneak around.”

  “You’re getting too stealthy. Might have to consider working for MI6 on top of all this other crap you’re involved in, because clearly, you need more projects.”

  “Huh,” he said, still reading over my shoulder. “You’re still only on page four. Everything okay?”

  I flipped back a page to point to a highlighted line item. “Sure. But I want to know why my future husband owns the complete licensing rights to PuffPuff the Pink Poodle.” I tapped at the item with my pen. “This might be a deal breaker for me.”

  “What?”

  “What what? PuffPuff the Poodle? Seriously?”

  “Hello Kitty got popular again, didn’t it? And the Smurfs? Why not PuffPuff?” I stared at him wide-eyed, and he continued, albeit slightly self-consciously, “It was a sound investment. Those are the full rights, movies, merchandising, video games, everything.”

  I snickered at him. “Are you going to write a new game? Retro games are all the rage. Maybe square-shaped PuffPuffs to incorporate into Minecraft? Maybe PuffPuff Pokemons to capture with your Poke balls?”

  He pointed a long finger at me. “Someday, you’ll eat those words, young lady, and I’ll be laughing all the way to the bank when PuffPuff makes a comeback.”

  I grabbed his finger and wrapped my hand around it, making a fist. “Them’s fighting words.”

  His dark eyes got that familiar gleam. “Wanna wrestle?”

  I let go of his hand and waved at the tome in front of me. “I’d love to take you up on that, but some douchebag rich guy dumped this big old encyclopedia of his immensely huge and girthy assets in my lap, and I have to handle it.”

  “Ohhh…handling immense and girthy assets in your lap.” He laughed. “I love it when you talk dirty to me.”

  “Especially when everything I say to you is taken in the dirty way.”

  “I can’t help it.” He bent over, planting a kiss on my cheek. “You’re too sexy.”

  I swatted the hand that was now groping my boob. “Go away before I start demanding half of the licensing rights to PuffPuff the Pink Poodle and foil your attempt at world domination.”

  He straightened, laughing. “Just you wait. You’ll see.”

  “I’m sure I’ll be eating those words.” I sighed, giving a dismissive wave of my hand.

  “And a whole lot more.” He leered before vanishing out of the room again.

  “No workouts. No working—not even phone calls,” I called after him.

  “Blah blah blah,” he replied from down the hall.

  Ahh, conjugal bliss. We were already enjoying it without the obnoxious over-the-top wedding and ridiculous paperwork.

  As the night passed, I made it deeper and deeper into the document. I found no lurid surprises, no secret support payments to illegitimate children, no illicit hideaways for kept lovers, no secret bribery or blackmail payments or the like.

  But reading through Adam’s accomplishments made me feel like I’d been standing still during these six years of my adult life. He was on a single-handed mission to change the world—investments in leading-edge and green technologies dominated the list. And space exploration.

  All this money. And all these decisions…no wonder he was so goddamn busy all the time.

  Cora, our housekeeper, brought me my dinner in my study instead of calling me down to eat. She told me that Adam was sleeping and gave me our chef’s instructions on how to heat his dinner when he woke up. I nodded.

  I’d mentioned to Chef the needed increase in his protein and caloric intake, and she’d said she’d noticed his weight loss as well. “We can’t have him not properly filling out that tux for the wedding.”

  Somehow, her words had caused a lump to form in my throat. Oh yeah, the wedding. I wanted to forget about it. Just jitters. Like the other night after the Real Housewives had triggered my freak-out.

  I picked at my dinner and, though it was good, couldn’t bring myself to finish it.

  Feeling the need for some fresh air, I took the disclosure document with me out onto the deck that wrapped around the back of our house.

  I snuck down the length of the deck and sank into the lounge outside our bedroom door. Adam had pulled the French doors ajar, like he often did, to bring in some fresh air. I kept quiet, continuing to plow through the damn paperwork, wishing the mounting uneasy feelings away.

  About an hour later, the natural light of the day was dying in a golden blaze, and my attention had been drawn away to the beautiful sunset. I became aware of the sound of stirring from inside the bedroom. The door to the deck swung open, and Adam stepped out onto it, wearing only a t-shirt and his underwear.

  He did a double take when he saw me there. “Hey. What are you doing out here?” His eyes flicked to the disclosure document lying open across my lap. “It’s getting dark. Still reading all that? How has it not put you to sleep?”

  I picked up the booklet and dog-eared the page I’d been reading, setting the thing aside. “It’s very interesting. I’m discovering all your sordid secrets. Your pink poodle fetish, for instance.”

  He busted out one of his signature cocky grins. “Just you wait.” He approached, sinking down onto the ottoman across from me.

  I eyed his bare legs. “You better put some clothes on, or our neighbors will be pulling out the binoculars. Trish Sinclair did inform me that you are very easy on the eyes.”

  He laughed. “I’m sure I look particularly fetching right now.” He ran his hand through his respectably thick beard. God, it was a disgrace to cover up that face, but it wasn’t like I could demand he shave every day while he was sick.

  “You hungry? Chef left you some dinner. I’ll warm it up.”

  He rubbed the back of his neck. “In a few minutes. I’ll get it.”

  I stretched my legs out straight, settling my feet gently in his lap. He took one in his strong hands and gently massaged the arch. Shocks of awareness zinged up my legs from that simple touch.

  “You seem quiet,” he said, sending me one of his careful looks under his thick, dark eyelashes.

  I reclined, enjoying his touch even though it had aroused me in seconds. Of course, these days, going without, I got aroused from passing him in the hallway, from smelling him. It didn’t help that he was so goddamn sexy all the time. And that beard held no small appeal. It was driving me half to distraction—especially when he wore his glasses. An…interesting look for
him.

  Relaxing in my chair, I sighed. “Mm. That feels good. And I’m quiet because I don’t have much to say. There’s a lot to take in. I didn’t realize that getting married was going to remind me of studying for the MCAT all over again.”

  His brow twitched. It had been a joke, of course, but as always, Adam picked up on every tiny subtlety—in the tone of voice, body language…

  Should I tell him about my concerns or give it a pass? He’d fought like a dragon from his game to prevent me from having to do this. He’d put everything on the line. I didn’t want to confirm that his fears had been right. That I wasn’t ready to face this after all.

  “You need to eat,” I declared, changing the subject. “You’ve lost weight.”

  “I’ve still got these to tempt you with.” He grinned, flexing his biceps.

  “I’m already a puddle of lust due to the outfit you’re wearing. Boxer briefs and t-shirt. Man lingerie. Mangerie?”

  He chuckled, but his eyes returned to the booklet. “I’ll go eat in a minute. Come with? We can talk about all that if you want.”

  I worried my lip, but nodded, getting up. Adam disappeared into his closet and came out in a clean shirt and pair of sweat pants. I gave him a smooch on his hairy cheek.

  “I’m proud of how you’re handling this no-work challenge,” I told him.

  He shrugged. “I still don’t really feel well enough, to be honest. And…I’ve been philosophical about it. Thinking about why it happened and what you said when I was diagnosed. That it was my body’s way of telling me to slow down. I mean…it could have been a lot worse than mono. It’s been a challenge to remember that work-life balance thing.”

  “Of course. You’re a natural-born overachiever.” I smirked, holding up the thick disclosure document as we made our way down the stairs to the kitchen.

  I pulled the tray that Chef had prepared for him out of the fridge and followed her directions for reheating. He flipped through the document that I’d left on the counter near where he sat.