Page 43 of The Forever Promise

The last few pictures were of her staring at his retreating back. She appeared sullen, lost, and forlorn once we’d left.

The thing I hated the most about these pictures? She wasn’t pretending. She wasn’t putting on a show the same way that we were. It was clear from the photographs that she still had feelings for my husband, and they didn’t appear to be diminishing over time.

Bryce started deleting them, and Olivia cleared her throat. “That won’t do anything, silly. The team has the originals. Besides, you don’t have the authority to delete them.”

“My ass, I don’t.” Bryce kept clicking.

Olivia sighed. “Leave it alone, Bryce. If Felicia Jones helps garner interest for your family, so what?”

He palmed my hip. “My past is just that—the past.”

“No one needs to know what happened—all they need to see is Felicia’s face. It’s not like she looks good in these pictures. I mean, she looksgood, but she also looks like a jealous cow. That sells internet ad space. That’s what we want, remember? We want addictive drama. That’s what our partners want.”

“We have partners, now?” Bryce threw the phone down.

“Yes. Wait, you didn’t see the rest of them.” Olivia opened the pictures back up. “Checktheseout. They’re hot!”

Somehow, the photographers had managed to take pictures of usinsidethe boat, below deck.Oh boy.Me, straddling Bryce. Bryce, kissing my neck. Me, with a look of ecstasy on my face…

“No fucking way.” That vein throbbed in Bryce’s temple again. “I told you, nothing private—”

“Babe, they’re not that bad. See?” I scrolled through the end of the photos. They stopped discreetly, right before he’d ripped my dress off and we’d had super-hot, deep, penetrating sex. “No harm in it. We look good. These are clicky.” In fact, I hoped Felicia Jones herself clicked on them. Then she could see how happy we were together, even after seeing her sorry, rich, snobby, perfectly round ass.

I hoped she clicked on them and then went and died in a hole!

I smiled at Bryce, masking my vengeful thoughts, and he seemed to calm down. “Fine. If Chloe says they’re okay, they’re okay. But if my wife changes her mind, they’re out.”

“Fine.” Olivia looked pleased. “Now, what is this appointment we have?”

“We? No,Chloeand I have an appointment.”

“For what?” Olivia wasn’t going to let it go.

“For… Training.” Bryce did not so much as speak as spit the words. “Puppy training.”

She looked positively gleeful as she drained her iced coffee. “You guys are making this too easy. Let’s go, Bryce. Watching the grumpy billionaire and his hot, barely legal wife play with a puppy is gonna sell a ton of ad space. I might buy a wholefleetof Lexus SUVs after this job. Woo hoo!”

She clearly wasn’t takingnofor an answer. It was as if the wordnodidn’t exist for her.

So with that, we followed Olivia Jensen out to see the other Boss.

NINETEEN

so much more

Noah was alreadyout on the lawn with the instructor. Boss the puppy was wagging his tail, blithely ignoring the patient commands to sit and stay.

“Who’s that adorable little boy?” Olivia asked.

“That’s my brother—Noah.” I licked my lips. “He’s not really a part of all this, you know what I mean? He’s just visiting.”

“He’s so cute! I’ll definitely have them take some pictures of him. It’s a great angle.” Olivia’s fingers were already flying across her phone. “Is he here for the summer?”

I glanced at Bryce. He looked wary. “Yep. He’s just visiting.” I refused to get into the particulars of the custody arrangement. I didn’t want Olivia Jensen using my brother’s situation as an angle to sell ad space. The fact that Bryce had rescued him from my deadbeat dad and derelict stepmotherwasnewsworthy, but my brother’s life wasn’t for public consumption.

“Keep the pictures of him to a minimum.” Bryce’s tone was final. “He’s a minor. His image doesn’t need to be splashed all over the internet.”

“I agree.” Olivia looked up from her phone and smiled. “Ah. There they are! I took the liberty of making plans for your family for the rest of the day.”

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