Page 251 of Tormented Billionaire Romance Series

“You know,” Maggie said, “I’m a little jealous of you, Carter.”

Carter put his hand on my thigh and looked over at my best friend, eyebrows raised. “And why is that?”

“I’ve only been telling Megyn she can move in with me for ages, and then you come along and she jumps in your house at the first opportunity.”

I rolled my eyes, not that she would really be able to see that I did in the darkness. “This might shock you, but I don’t want to be anyone’s charity case. Except for Carter’s.”

Brian started laughing. “Look out, Carter. You’ve created a monster.”

Carter wrapped his arm around my shoulders and murmured to me, “You’d better watch out. I know where you live.”

I giggled and held his chin and kissed him.

Maggie whispered to Brian, “Are they going to get naked again?”

I laughed against Carter’s lips, and soon everyone else was, too.

CHAPTER35

CARTER

Saturday morning, I lounged around in the living room while Megyn took a bubble bath. She had invited me and I would have accepted, but I thought she deserved some time to herself after how hard she had been working as of late. Every now and again, I heard her splashing around and the smile on my face grew even bigger.

I had the TV on, playing old sitcoms. I watched with one eye while going through some work emails, typing out short replies to the ones that needed answering right away. The rest, I filed aside to deal with later. I wasn’t about to get stressed today and potentially ruin the fun, relaxing day of cuddling and sex I had planned.

A commercial came on, much louder than the old show I’d been watching. I flinched, startled, and grabbed for the remote. I pressed the mute button and tossed the remote aside again.

This is a commercial for toothpaste. Why is everyone yelling?

A sound slid through the silence. I tilted my head, wondering what Megyn could possibly be doing in the bath to make such a noise. The sound grew closer, more defined, and I started for the second time in as many minutes when I realized what it was.

Someone had driven up and was pulling into the driveway.

“The media,” I grunted to myself. I pushed up from the couch and went over to the window, craning my head around to get a glimpse of the vehicle. I expected a news van, expected to see camera men and reporters climbing out; how they had gotten past the gate wasn’t really a question in mind, since they technically couldn’t be turned away if they hadn’t done anything wrong or weren’t on the denial list.

But it wasn’t a news van of any sort.

It was a gleaming silver Porsche, a new model that looked to have just driven off the assembly line. An older man climbed out from the driver’s side. He looked familiar in a way I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

A much younger woman got out on the over side of the car. I immediately distrusted her as soon as I saw her. Perhaps it was unfair to judge her based on her purple hair and the big gold hoops in her ears, the giant diamond ring on her fingers, the designer clothes she wore; unfair or not, I was wary of what I saw.

The woman waved with impatience to the man. She went around to him and grabbed his arm with hers, and started yanking him along up the driveway, to the ramp.

My eyebrows furrowed, I went over to the front door to meet them. I opened it before they arrived, folding my arms across my chest.

The woman darted around the last bend in the ramp and shouted to me. “Hi! Are you one of Carter’s butlers?”

Oh, this person has a very incorrect view of me.

I hadonelive-in helper and he mostly cooked.

“Honey,” the man called, sounding tired and out of breath, “I think thatisMr. Bryant.”

The woman ignored him and came up to me, though she didn’t look at me so much as she looked around me into the house.

My hackles rose. I leaned into her view and stared down at her. “What can I help you with?”

“Are you really Carter?” the woman asked, her eyes big with way too much innocence for it to be genuine.

---