Total pages in book: 15
Estimated words: 14744 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 74(@200wpm)___ 59(@250wpm)___ 49(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 14744 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 74(@200wpm)___ 59(@250wpm)___ 49(@300wpm)
There’s so much Phillip’s not telling us, and it makes me uncomfortable. He was too good to be true when Mom introduced him to me. He showed off his wealth, and that pretty much convinced me he used to be poor. He said he was into investments, and I didn’t believe him one bit.
And when he brought us to this estate, Mom immediately jumped at the chance to marry him despite not fully knowing where he got his money.
Christ.
I shake all of those thoughts away. No point lingering in the past. What matters is the here and now.
And the only here and now is this six-foot-something behemoth scowling at me as though any of these is my fault. Or maybe that’s just his default face. He doesn’t seem like someone who smiles or laughs a lot.
“Hi. I’m Lila.” I extend a hand to him, and he stares at it for so long that I begin to pull back just when he wraps his massive hand around mine. If he wants to crush my fingers, he easily can. Yet, for some unknown reason, I know he won’t.
Luca won’t ever hurt me intentionally.
“Luca.”
His deep baritone voice skims along my skin, and his touch sets off tiny sparks all over my body, making something flare low in my belly. My thighs automatically cinch together, and a whimper gets lodged in my throat.
“Do you have a wife or girlfriend, Luca?”
His eyebrows lift towards his hairline. The expression doesn’t fit him, so I smile despite his visible shock. “No. Why?”
“I just want to know if anyone has issues with you staying with me.”
“What makes you think I will stay?”
Even as the words leave his lips, we both know the answer, especially with the way his thumb grazes my knuckles. It’s nothing more than a prolonged handshake, and I’m reacting like we’re in some kind of weird foreplay.
The effect on him isn’t lost on me either.
His eyes darken, and a muscle ticks in his jaw.
“Well,” I say, “you haven’t left yet, so…”
Luca drops my hand, and I take it as a personal loss. “Why don’t you check into a hotel? I don’t know who my dad pissed off, but staying here isn’t a great idea.” He pushes his tongue on the inside of his cheek as his gaze wanders. “He’s never had to run away before, so this—whatever it is—freaks him out.”
“Never had to run away before?”
He raises a brow at me, and it somehow makes him look ten times hotter. “You haven’t figured out what he does for a living?”
Confusion descends on me. I had my theories, but my own mom tended to gravitate toward men with serious money. “Not really. Some kind of hedge fund?”
The laughter bursting out of him whips through the silence, the sound bouncing on the walls. “He’s a fucking grifter. He makes money off unsuspecting people.”
Goddammit. “Should we report him to the cops?”
“Only if you have enough evidence. Dad’s been doing this all his life, so you best believe he has his ass covered.”
Mom won’t care, though. Even if I tell her, she’ll shrug it off since the most important things for her are her clothes, jewelry, bags, and travels. She doesn’t care where the money comes from as long as it never stops coming.
They’re a match made in heaven.
“I’m serious about the hotel. Staying here is a bad idea.”
“Sorry to disappoint you, Luca, but I’ve never been known to have brilliant ideas.” I laugh softly, my heart dropping at the realization that I moved to this state for my mom, and now she’s off gallivanting somewhere. “I won’t stay at a hotel when I already live in something that looks like one.” I sweep my arm toward the sliding doors. “I have the pool all to myself. Now, why would I want to leave?”
Luca folds his corded forearms over his chest. “Because you might be in danger.”
“Ah, well, if only there was someone capable of protecting me. Someone highly experienced in the field of protecting high-profile people.”
His eyes glaze over, the little crease between his thick, bushy brows deepening. His gaze narrows just a bit as he tries to understand what I just said.
And it hits me. “You’re not actually a bodyguard, are you?”
His lips are slightly parted as he shakes his head slowly. “No.”
“Shit. I should’ve known.”
“What else did he tell you about me? I need to learn everything I can about myself.”
I’m beginning to understand his dry sense of humor, and it pulls a smile out of me. “Nothing else. He rarely talked about you, but he had to explain that photo of him with a kid. Anyway” —I clap my hands once and clasp them together— “what is it you really do?”
“It’s not something I want to talk about.”
I grin. “Okayyy, but I have to warn you. I have this uncanny ability to coax stories and secrets from people.”