Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 79963 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79963 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
“Max,” I exclaimed, shocked. “You’re not planning on sharing a room with me in your parents’ house?”
He laughed. “What a little Victorian maiden you turned out to be! If we didn’t share a bedroom, I’d have to creep into your room in the dead of the night when everyone else had retired.”
I laughed awkwardly. My mother wouldn’t know where to look if I wanted to bring a man home to sleep for the night.
“Right. Us sharing a room would be normal at your home?”
“Us not sharing a room would be abnormal.”
“It’ll be nice to sleep holding you,” I said weakly.
“Don’t count on getting much sleep. I have plans for you… all night,” he replied.
I grinned. “Really?”
He looked directly into my eyes. “Really.”
I could feel the heat rushing through me. At that moment I wanted him to pull over and take me right there in the car. I needed to change the subject.
“How are the acquisition plans for La Zaire going?” I asked as I grasped for a topic that might interest him. I was also curious about that company. It had appeared on my desk as a well-researched complete file from Chris and was then never seen again.
His hands tightened on the wheel, and a strange tension came into his body. “It’s going well. Just a few snags which I’m confident will be taken care of.”
“That’s good,” I said and did not ask him to elaborate. I understood his cool tone and deliberately vague answer to mean he didn’t want to talk about work. Which was fine by me.
I turned to look out the window.
There was something marvelous about leaving the skyscrapers behind and seeing the scenery give way to stretches of woods and open patches of land. I stretched, slipped my feet out of my shoes, rested them on the sun-warmed dashboard, and wriggled my toes.
“Did I tell you I also have a foot fetish?” he teased.
“Nope, but suck away,” I said with a laugh. I was determined to enjoy this weekend.
Chapter 37
Lillian
The tall gates and long driveway should have alerted me that the house was going to be special, but I had no idea how special.
I’d seen luxurious homes, especially when I’d been called to my bosses’ homes to bring in some urgent paperwork or something of that nature, but I’d never seen a home of the kind which stood in front of me.
His family home was a mansion.
A French-style stone mansion with hundreds of windows and a grand pillared entrance. Lush perfectly manicured formal gardens surrounded it.
A rift opened up between us.
Max was downright horrible to the people around him, mostly because they were slowing him down with their incompetence, but he never gave the impression he was not their equal. Or that he was better. He was so good at making people believe they were his equal that even after I met his mother and she had looked down her nose at me, I didn’t truly realize how different both of them were from me.
I saw now that I was dealing with old money, the one percent, the elite ruling class of America. My yellow dress with its big playful bow felt silly now, and I wished I’d not worn it.
“Wow,” I said my voice filled with awe. “This is where you grew up?”
“Yes,” Max said in a flat voice. “Looks are deceiving. All this doesn’t matter when there is very little love in the house. I’d have swapped it for caring parents.”
My head whirled around at the bitterness in his voice. It was the first time Max had ever shown emotion about his family. My chest contracted as I imagined the little boy that Max was, roaming the hallways of this huge house, lonely and sad.
“Shall we?” he asked.
Nervously, I followed him out of the car and stood staring at the house as he fetched our bags from the back seat. He didn’t speak as we walked to the front door and rang the bell. I found myself apprehensively shifting from one foot to another.
“Stop fidgeting. No one is going to bite you… other than me,” Max teased.
I tried to smile back. He was about to say something else when the heavy door swung open, and a woman in a dark blue uniform, I assumed she must be the housekeeper, stood to one side, and invited us in.
“Welcome home, Master Frost.”
“How are you, Rosella?” Max greeted.
“Very good,” she said with a nod, then turned to me. “Welcome to Winterfell Manor, Miss Hudson.”
“Thank you, Rosella.”
She turned her attention to Max. “Your mother instructed me to prepare the Princess Anne room for you and Miss Hudson. She thought it would be quieter and more private than your old room. Would you like me to show you up?”
“Nah, we’ll find our own way there. Thanks, Rosella.”
“Shall I get some refreshments sent up for you and Miss Hudson?”