Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 132657 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 663(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132657 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 663(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
“Chloe, this is a marriage, not a corporate merger,” Ruby said and then shook her head. “Sorry. I’m just… Is he in the lifestyle? Does he know you’re in the lifestyle? How does he feel about two dads walking you down the aisle, and it’s not like a blended family situation?”
Oh, Julian and Finn blended. Often and intimately, but she got what Ruby was saying.
A flush crossed Chloe’s delicate features, answering the question before she did. “I’m easing him in. He comes from a conservative family. They don’t know about Papa yet. I mean, Tom does, but we’re figuring out how to tell his parents. Anyway, that’s not happening tomorrow. So Daisy’s getting married. Are we taking bets on what natural disaster will strike?”
This was a mess but one that would have to wait because if she pushed too hard, Chloe would shut down.
Or point out what a hypocrite you’re being. Again.
Because she was.
A vision of Niall in his leathers flashed across her brain as Ruby talked about how the betting book they kept in the bar was getting full of all sorts of apocalyptic possibilities for the O’Donnell/Carter upcoming nuptials. Given no one had guessed a helicopter filled with assassins would buzz the last wedding they’d all gone to, the bets were getting wild.
She’d thought about asking Niall if he would be her plus one to the wedding of Aidan O’Donnell and Carys Taggart. She’d wondered what he would look like in a suit. Wondered how it would feel to dance with him.
Now she was thinking about whether or not he wanted to witness the apocalypse that would surely be Daisy’s wedding. If she got an invite. She had fired the bride.
But that had led to her getting a superhot bodyguard and this whole wedding thing. So when she thought about it, Daisy didn’t get Nate without her. She should totally be invited to the wedding, and it would be a shock to everyone if she came with someone other than Ruby.
There it was. She could say it was all to win a bet. Maybe Niall would be into that and then, well, as long as they were there, she might as well become his sub for the night.
Then she remembered the last time she took on a Dom and how she ended up in jail. Not that he’d put her there. He’d simply left her in a situation where she had to call her reasonable dad to save her, and naturally he brought his insane twin and she now had a watchdog.
You’re going to kill yourself with this job. You can’t expect me to stand by and watch it happen. Can’t you see how worried your mother is? This is not what we wanted for your life.
Her father had chased her down to the café where she and Ruby had been planning strategies to grow their private investigation business, and to say he put a damper on the meeting would be an understatement.
After a moment Chloe stood and gave them a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “I think I heard your sister. We’re going to dinner at Top to discuss her doing a series for the new London office. You know my dad thinks having Dawson originals hanging in the place is lucky. You two have fun tonight. I’m going to pause my membership for a while. I’m spending a lot of time in New York. Gabe and John will be thrilled since they refuse to play on nights when I’m here.”
Oh, they refused to play at The Hideout when their sister was in the house, but she was pretty sure they went to Sanctum on those nights. Harlow sometimes went, especially when a new crop of Doms was released into the wild.
None of them affected her the way Niall did. Not a damn one.
“I don’t have to have super investigative skills to know that is a bomb waiting to go off.” Ruby kept her voice down since they weren’t exactly alone.
In the distance she could hear her sister greeting Chloe. Greer Dawson was pretty much the perfect big sister. Gorgeous and friendly and loving and unbelievably talented. She inherited their mom’s artistic skills and had already had two well-attended showings of her works here in Dallas and another in Austin.
Greer Dawson made her parents so proud. They didn’t worry about her at all.
“Chloe doesn’t explode,” Harlow replied as she pulled her T-shirt over her head. “That’s the problem. She stays as far as she can from big emotion. Honestly, her sniping at Seth is one of the healthiest things she does.”
Ruby went quiet for a moment, and Harlow had the worst suspicion her BFF/business partner had been making the same connections she had. But then the other woman sighed. “So are you watching or participating tonight?”
She always came in ready to participate and then something would happen and she would think about Jensen’s big, strong, lying hands on her body and she would offer to work a shift in the bar or help out the Doms with their scenes. Today had been a lot. They took a new case that connected to the one Daisy had started. While they had shut down the cartel that had come after Daisy, they apparently weren’t the only ones using the system put in place to move drugs through the city.