Page 89 of Million Dollar High

Noah dialed his assistant director in charge of overseas ventures. “Gus, get me a list of all the clothes manufacturing ventures we’re involved in, primarily in Asia. Yeah, KL is good. Email me the name of the point person, would you?” Waiting for the email to come through, he kept a close eye on Leia as she paced the living room.

She spun the other way and her earpiece glinted. “Did we confirm that there were no casualties in the fire?” she asked.

Watching her take the news of her destroyed collection like a champ, Noah had never felt more proud of her. Or loved her more. Or been more furious on her behalf.

Whatever gods were supposed to be watching over her were doing a piss-poor job thus far. Which was why he intended to take over the job on a full-time basis.

He heard her audible sigh of relief. “Good. Make sure the compensation scheme La Carezza has in place is activated immediately.” She nodded to whatever response she got and executed another tight turn.

Her eyes caught his and she stopped.

He crooked a forefinger. She came toward him. Bending forward, he kissed her, quick and hard. She lifted her hand and traced his eyebrow with her fingers, then mouthedThank you.

“Thank you, Celia. I’m about to contact our nano-tech people in Kyoto. Send me the list of other manufacturers as soon as you have it.” She hung up and massaged the back of her neck.

Stepping forward, Noah brushed her hand away and took over the massage. “I’ll go and rustle up some lunch while you call Japan, then we’ll hit the list of manufacturers, okay?”

She nodded, then moaned when he kneaded a particularly difficult knot. “Noah?” Her voice was hushed, small enough to make his insides twist.

“Yeah, baby?”

“You’re… you’re the reason I haven’t fallen apart over this…” Her breath caught and she sniffed loudly. “I don’t know what I would’ve done if you weren’t here,” she finished.

He curled his arm around her shoulders, pulled her back into his body and kissed her temple. “You’re mine. I’ll go to hell and back for what’s mine. But the reason you haven’t fallen apart is because you’re strong. Much stronger than you know. It breaks my heart that you don’t recognize your own strength. Until you do, lean on me all you want, baby. I’m not going anywhere.”

Leia watched him stroll to the door. Unable to hold it in anymore, she took a deep breath. “Noah?”

He stopped. Turned. “Yeah?”

“I love you.”

Her words visibly rocked him. He stumbled against the door,caught himself. Gaped at her. In quick strides, he crossed the room to her and caught her nape. His eyes sparkled with a thousand raw emotions. His hand trembled. Hell, his whole body shook as his chest rose and fell in short pants.

“Only you would throw such a beautiful, life-changing earthquake into my world when we’re in the middle of a crisis,” he growled fiercely.

Her phone rang. She ignored it. “Do you want me to take it back?” she asked anxiously.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” he asked hoarsely. He kissed her, plunged his tongue between her lips and ravaged her mouth. All the while, the phone rang.

“Dammit!” He sucked in an unsteady breath. “Answer the phone. I’ll go order our lunch. We’ll pick this up later.”

They didn’t get a chance to pick it up for twenty-four hours. Noah flew in manufacturers from Kuala Lumpur to meet with Leia, and then they flew to Japan to consult with the nano-tech team on how quickly they could produce the spec for a new collection. Luckily, with the template already in place from the previous production, a new batch was promised for the next week. Between Leia’s team and Noah’s connections, they managed to find two manufacturers willing to combine their resources to reproduce the collection.

With the agreement of the US retailers, Leia pushed back the launch by a week.

Because they’d missed the return trip on the IL jet, Noah had his jet flown in. They were scheduled to fly back to Miami tonight.

“The world can hold on for one damn minute while I take you to dinner,” Noah had snarled earlier in the evening after they’d fielded yet another phone call.

Now she walked into the living room in a sleeveless burnt-orange dress with matching shoes and a black leather bolero, which she carried over her arm. She wore her hair up and completed the look with gold chandelier earrings and a long gold necklace.

Noah was waiting for her. He turned from the view and his breath visibly stalled. “Shit. Maybe we should stay in…” His voice was severely strained.

She gave a nervous laugh. “I look that bad?”

“You look like heaven, wrapped in sin, wrapped in a thousand dreams come true.”

She melted. “Oh, Noah.”

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