Page 2 of Guarding My Love

Landon laughed at her. “He’s a client. I have to do those things.”

Client was laughable. She didn’t even know what Landon did other than to go work at his father’s firm. He didn’t even spend enough time talking to her about anything. She learned quickly she was more arm candy than a partner.

Should she have left the first time she said she was going to?

Yep. She was an idiot for holding on and hoping for something that just wasn’t going to be there.

Not anymore.

“Whatever,” she said. “You can do that until your heart is content now.”

She closed her suitcase. “I’ve got a party tomorrow night,” he said. “You need to finish getting it set up and host it with me.”

Which was what their relationship really consisted of in his eyes. A live-in assistant for him who got expensive gifts she was leaving behind because she never wanted them.

“You’re on your own,” she said. “Funny how you remembered that but not the birthday of your girlfriend who has lived here for over a year. The one you say you are just waiting to get a ring for. But since you’re forty-five, I should have realized it wasn’t going to happen.”

“You love being with an older man,” he snapped. “You like being taken care of. You enjoy everything I’ve given you like the greedy little bitch that you are. This is all about not getting something for your birthday. Is this an act to get more?” He pulled his credit card out and threw it at her. “Go buy what you want and we’ll call it even. Just make sure it’s nice enough to have on for the party tomorrow so we can show it off.”

She walked over to pick up his black credit card that he loved to take out in front of people.

She reached for it and his grin grew. He thought he had her.

All she did was bend it in half a few times until it was creased enough, then with all the strength she had started to twist it so that it’d break in two.

“What the fuck are you doing, you crazy psycho?”

The appalled look on his face was the best breakup gift she could have given herself.

“Have fun paying for your party withthattomorrow.”

She tossed it on the floor, then picked up her suitcase and marched out the door.

One problem. She had nowhere to go.

1

PLAY NICE

Eight Months Later

“You’re not leaving,are you, Foster?”

So much for his escape. His mother not only had eyes in the back of her head, but she had them all over her body. He wouldn’t be surprised if there were tentacles hidden under her clothing that she’d used to round them all up as kids too.

“The wedding is winding down,” he said. He’d already stayed longer than he’d planned.

“It’s your brother’s wedding,” his mother said with her hands on her hips. “There is family here from both sides that you haven’t seen in years. Just because dinner is done doesn’t mean you should leave. Unless you’re going back to the hotel?”

His oldest brother owned a hotel in the Hamptons and all family members were staying there for the big event.

“Why would I stay in a hotel when I live an hour away?” he asked. He’d said this to her a few times.

“Because it’s late and dark out,” his mother said.

He snorted. “I’m thirty-two years old. I can drive home safely.”

His mother pulled him to the side. “Do you need to breathe? We’ve been outside for most of the wedding. I don’t understand the reason for you to take off on your brother’s big day.”

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