Fearless In Love (The Maverick Billionaires, Book 3) (32 page)

They usually celebrated the holidays in Chicago at Susan and Bob’s house. But this year Susan claimed the house was in an uproar preparing for the wedding, and she didn’t think she could pull off a Thanksgiving dinner too. So here they were at Matt’s.

Ari settled the good-natured battle between Evan’s food-obsessed friends by sliding her arm through Matt’s. She was beautiful in a purple and white dress. Evan was happy that Matt had come to his senses and made the right move.

“I told Cookie there was enough to feed a herd of dinosaurs,” Ari said, “and we were all going to be overstuffed if she cooked any more.” She leaned into Daniel. “She’s gone home to be with her family, but if you want me to sneak into the kitchen and grab you a drumstick or a wing, no one would be the wiser.”

Daniel laughed as he threw an arm around her shoulders. “I’ll go fish around for myself, thanks.”

As Matt pulled Ari closer and kissed her, something inside Evan’s chest tightened at the look of love and adoration on the big dope’s face. He truly had his family now.

Evan had meant every word at the barbecue when he’d said that Matt was crazy to let her go. Matt had everything with Ari. And Evan was finally starting to accept that he had nothing at all with Whitney.

Just then, Lyssa walked into the room and wrapped him in a hug. “Why are you standing here all by yourself?”

Holding her away, he smiled. “You finally made it. Thank God they let you go for the holidays. We all thought that new job was going to be the death of you.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m toughing it out.” Daniel’s little sister had the same dark curly hair—though Lyssa’s fell past her shoulders—and the same dark eyes the color of chocolate. She knuckled him. “The really nice thing is flying out on Daniel’s jet. No waiting in long security lines or hanging around airports.”

“There are advantages.” He wrapped his arm around her waist. “How’s my girl?”

She laughed, a pretty sound he’d loved since the first time he’d heard it all those years ago when Lyssa had been a happy, gurgling baby. “I’m not a girl anymore,
Uncle
Evan.”

“Right. You’re becoming a pain in the rear like all women,” he quipped.

Lyssa gave him a look. He hadn’t meant to sound bitter. It was supposed to be a joke. Yet something dark had entered his voice. The same darkness that was starting to leach into his heart.

“Well,” she said brightly, trying to dispel the momentary blackness he’d dragged into the room. “Can you believe how much our group has grown in one year?” She waved a hand toward the assembly in the living room. Last year, there’d been only Mavericks, including Susan, Bob, and Lyssa.

“Now we’ve got Harper and Jeremy,” Lyssa enthused.

Harper had dressed Jeremy in a tux, and he looked fantastic. And happy. Which was Jeremy’s constant state as well as Will’s these days. By the new year, Will would be married to the woman he utterly adored. The look on his face was both proprietary and humble, as if he knew how lucky he was and didn’t take a moment for granted.

“Of course, there’s Charlie and her mom too,” Lyssa said, like a laundry list of the Mavericks Who’s Who.

Francine Ballard, Charlie’s mother, perched on the end of the couch. Charlie had given her a golden paper crown, calling her the queen for the day. Instead of tossing it away, Francine enjoyed every moment, popping it on her head and giving queenly waves every now and again. Evan felt a great admiration for her. Even with her gnarled fingers, she was always smiling, always with a sweet word to say, never mentioning her pain or the inability to do all the things she loved. She forced herself to walk a mile every day using her walker. How many people could say they tackled the hardest things in their lives—and beat them? Bob and Susan were tucked around her on a chair and the sofa, avidly detailing all the wedding preparations.

A loud squeal rose from the far end of the room where Noah was playing jets with Jorge and doing a damn good job of simulating the ear-piercing sound of engines. Evan thanked God that Whitney had flown the coop for this celebration. She’d definitely have made a scene.

“Ari’s friends Rosie and Chi are a hoot, aren’t they? It’s so nice to have people my age to hang out with at these parties instead of all you old fogeys.” All the Mavericks felt like they’d practically raised Lyssa, and she loved to tease them about the ten-year age difference. “Seriously,” Lyssa said, “have you ever seen Matt so happy? Ari is so good for him. She told me she’s teaching part time in the mornings at Noah’s school now. Did you know she has a degree in child development?”

Ari truly was the best thing for Matt and Noah. And she would make a fantastic teacher. Gideon Jones, on the other hand…

“What do you think about her brother?” The man stood by himself, his gaze moving over the group, from one to the next, watching, always on alert.

“He’s all broody and masculine,” she said dreamily enough that Evan looked down at her in surprise. “I overheard him say to Ari that she’d tapped into the mother lode with Matt.”

Evan’s hackles rose, though he was shocked Ari would have agreed with something like that.

He must have tensed, because Lyssa whispered, “Down, boy. I might have been offended when Ari agreed. Except that she wasn’t looking at the priceless paintings or the huge house. She was looking at Matt and Noah. And—” Lyssa sighed just like a woman dying to fall in love. “The look on her face was so adoring. She said she finally felt like she mattered to someone and that they meant absolutely everything to her. It kind of made me sad for what her life must have been like before.”

“I never thought it was about the money for her.”

“I’m sure it isn’t for Gideon either,” Lyssa went on. “Matt says he’s been asking around about work. But seriously, Evan, how do you tell whether they want you for the money or for yourself? I mean, it was easy for you with Whitney because you didn’t have any money back then. But now, it would be really hard to know for sure.”

Eight years ago, he’d been twenty-six and Whitney barely twenty. His first million was still a couple of years off. His first billion further out still. But Whitney had wanted him even without the money.

At least, that’s what he’d always wanted to believe.

But life with Whitney had become unbearable. They barely spoke—and when they did it was usually to argue about something. She did her own thing, and he did his. Even when they attended a party together, they were separate, she with her crowd, he with his.

He knew how badly the miscarriages had affected her. They’d affected him too, and those bad times had somehow become as huge between them as the Hoover Dam.

Whitney had never been what anyone would describe as sweet, but once upon a time she’d been fun and sexy. Until the aching loss of the children they hadn’t yet been able to create turned her cruel and mean. Now she had her own bedroom, and they hadn’t come together since that last miscarriage at the beginning of the year. He’d thought she needed time, but time had only made things worse.

The dam between them had burst the night of Will’s Halloween party. When Paige arrived at the house, dressed in that sexy, mind-altering Cleopatra getup, Whitney had gone ballistic.

He could still hear her voice screeching in his memory.
Why does she have to go everywhere with us? When is she going to get her own life instead of living off mine?

She’d stalked to her room and slammed the door. He’d planned to apologize to everyone at the party for her absence, but he was so damn sick of making excuses for her. He was terribly sorry for her pain—for the pain they both suffered over the babies they’d lost—but he was also tired of explaining away the horrible things she said and did in the name of her disappointment and grief.

Something had to give. Because Evan couldn’t stand any more. At this point, he wasn’t even sure he wanted to be married to her. Correct that—he was sure he didn’t want to be married to the woman she’d become.

On Halloween night, he’d finally seen beneath Whitney’s rage. And it was Paige herself who’d changed things, the sister who was always overshadowed, the sister who got the second look, never the first.

That night Paige had become a sultry seductress in her costume, bringing men to their knees.

And she’d made him look twice.

Not only because she’d been gorgeous, but because where Whitney had never fit in with the Mavericks, Paige made everyone laugh and listened when you needed to talk something through.

Paige.

Why couldn’t he stop thinking about her?

Why couldn’t he stop looking, even now that Halloween was long past?

As he glanced her way, the smile she gave him touched something deep inside. And he couldn’t stop the unforgivable thought that he’d picked the wrong sister eight years ago.

* * * * *

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* * *

BREATHLESS IN LOVE
(Will Franconi’s story) and
RECKLESS IN LOVE
(Sebastian Montgomery’s story) are out now!
IRRESISTIBLE IN LOVE
(Evan’s story) will be released in early 2017!

* * *

Enjoy an excerpt from BREATHLESS IN LOVE, Will’s story…

Will Franconi has a dark past that he’s kept a closely guarded secret—very few people have ever heard his real story and he plans to keep it that way. After surviving a hellish childhood, he’s now living the dream life where everything he touches turns to gold. But something’s missing. He doesn’t quite know what, until a simple letter from a teenage boy brings Harper Newman into his life—a woman who just might fill up the empty places inside him…if only he could ever be worthy of her love.

When a man has more money than he could spend in five lifetimes, Harper has to ask herself what Will Franconi could possibly want from a woman like her. She’s learned the hard way that rich men always get what they want no matter the cost. If it were only herself she had to worry about, Harper would manage, but she’s guardian to her younger brother, who depends on her for everything. After he nearly lost his life in a car crash, she’s vowed never to let anyone hurt him ever again.

Still, sometimes Harper can’t help but long to change her story from that of the always cautious woman to an adventurous tale of a heroine who’s wild and free…especially when Will’s kisses and caresses make her utterly breathless. And as he begins to reveal his story to her, she discovers that he’s so much more than just another wealthy, privileged man. He’s kind and giving, and he fills up all the spaces inside her heart that have been empty for so long. Together, can they rewrite their stories into a happily ever after that neither of them would have believed possible?

Harper was utterly gorgeous, the sun sparkling in her wind-tossed hair, ecstasy glowing on her face. She didn’t shout or cheer—but she did hold up her arms. And she smiled.

The most beautiful smile Will had ever seen.

He wasn’t even near freeway speed, yet the shriek of the motor, the rumble of the pipes, and the open sky above them made it seem as if the car were flying at over a hundred miles an hour.

Just as he’d promised, he took her around only once. He didn’t want to push her limits.

Not yet, anyway.

While harnessing her in, it would have been so easy to touch her, to let his fingertips graze her gorgeous skin. His heart had hammered with the desire to put his hands on her. Even now, his fingers sizzled with her heat, and her sweet scent filled his head. But he could tell that she wasn’t like the women he usually spent his time with—women who knew the score and were in it for what they could grab before he moved on.

Harper Newman was different. And he liked that, liked knowing that wooing her would be unlike anything else he’d ever done in his life. Even if a voice in his head reminded him that he shouldn’t be looking for anything more than a quick roll between the sheets with her.

Not because she didn’t deserve more, but because she did. So much more than a fundamentally broken man like Will could ever give her.

He slowed after the last turn, heading back to her brother. Back to sanity for both of them.

For now.

She let her arms drop, and her sleeve brushed his arm as she said, “That was fast.”

She was trying for a noncommittal tone, but he could hear the breathlessness she was trying to hide. She might normally be good at hiding her feelings, but Will was too interested in her to miss one single thing. Especially the thrill of the speed still coursing through her veins.

“Too fast? Or just right?”

Her eyes met his and sparks jumped between them again. Sparks that had been there from the very first moment they’d looked at each other.

Finally, she admitted, “It was good,” her words a little huskier than he imagined she wanted them to be.

Ahead of them, Jeremy was hopping, skipping toward the car. He looked so happy. Which, Will was glad to see, made Harper very happy, too.

They rolled to a stop and he said, “Let me give you a hand.”

But she didn’t wait for his chivalry, simply unbuckled before he could help her and said, “I’m fine, thanks,” then turned to grab the roll bar and hoist herself up.

Jeremy ran over to them. “Wasn’t it cool, Harper?”

“I enjoyed it.”

Her answer was far too tight-laced, but Will knew that for a few moments out there, she’d been one with the car and the rush of speed. Just as he had.

“But once was enough,” she added, smoothing her jacket, then her skirt, and finally her hair.

“Once is never enough,” he said softly.

Despite how hard she was working to rein herself in, he heard her breath catch on the slightly sensual undertone to his words. Will knew that if her brother hadn’t been standing right there, he would have done something crazy, like grab her and kiss her.