Total pages in book: 29
Estimated words: 28033 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 140(@200wpm)___ 112(@250wpm)___ 93(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 28033 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 140(@200wpm)___ 112(@250wpm)___ 93(@300wpm)
Red. Perfect. Absurdly romantic for a man who’d never pretended their marriage was anything other than a business arrangement.
On their third year of marriage, over breakfast one morning, they had somehow gotten to talking about the past. She’d shared how her father used to give roses to her mother every time he did something wrong. A peace offering. An apology in petals.
The next day, Leonidas had given her roses.
The note card had said: I’m sure I’ve done something wrong by now. But if I haven’t yet, keep track. I like to pay in advance.
It had made her laugh. Actually laugh, the kind that caught her by surprise and left her smiling for the rest of the day.
He’d been giving her roses out of the blue since then. No occasion. No reason. Just...roses. And it always made her laugh. Always. She had thought of it as their private joke, had even made her feel secretly special because she knew Leon wasn’t the type to indulge in cozy little traditions.
Roses made her smile because of him.
But now, as she accepted the bouquet with numb fingers and stepped back to let him in, all she could think about were the words that had turned her world upside-down in a blink.
Long-term companion.
Monthly financial provisions.
Six years.
And suddenly the roses in her hands felt like a lie. Like every rose he’d ever given her had been part of some elaborate performance she’d been too stupid to see through.
“Lexy.” His voice was low, edged with the kind of fierce protectiveness that she used to cherish. But now it made her wonder if she had misread this all along, and it was simply...guilt.
Tawny eyes tracked over her face, taking in the smudged makeup, the tear-tracks, the trembling hands. “What’s wrong?”
She looked at him.
Really looked at him.
The golden hair with its single silver streak. The leonine features that made strangers step aside without knowing why. The broad shoulders and sleek power barely contained in expensive fabric. A modern-day monarch who commanded billions with quiet authority.
Her husband of eight years.
A stranger.
The words rose up her throat before she could stop them. Before she could think them through or plan what came next. They just...came. Whispered into the space between them like a confession she hadn’t known she needed to make.
“I want a divorce.”
Leonidas
“Why didn’t you just wake me up with sex, darling? I missed you so much. It’s been months.”
The sultry brunette who entered the living room had the kind of confidence that came from years of knowing exactly what men wanted to see. Her silk robe was loosely tied, revealing strategic glimpses of smooth skin. Her hair fell in artfully tousled waves, as if she’d just rolled out of bed, though Leonidas knew she’d spent at least twenty minutes arranging it that way.
Lydia moved to wrap her arms around him, but he stepped back just as she was about to reach him. The evasion caught her off guard, nearly causing her smile to falter. But she caught herself in time and sat on the couch instead, crossing her legs as she did, in hopes of reminding him of all the wonderfully hot times that they had as lovers.
“I apologize for coming unannounced.” The billionaire remained standing, making no move to sit, making no move toward comfort or familiarity. “I should have called ahead.”
“Don’t be silly.” Lydia’s tone was bright, warm...and completely hollow. “You’re always welcome here. This is your apartment, after all.”
Technically true. He’d purchased the Milan property six years ago, placed it in her name two years later as part of their arrangement. She paid no rent, no utilities, nothing. Her lifestyle was funded entirely by the investments he’d made on her behalf, investments that had grown substantially under his management.
She’d done well out of their arrangement.
Better than she probably deserved.
“Would you like something to drink, darling? Scotch? Or that Greek wine you like? I can ask one of the maids—”
“That won’t be necessary.”
Lydia remained smiling even though she was panicking inside.
She’d heard that tone twice before in her life. The first time from her college sweetheart, Derrick, when he’d left her for an older, wealthier divorcée who could fund his medical school. The second time from her own lips, when she’d left her elderly husband for someone richer and even more elderly.
The tone of goodbye dressed up as courtesy.
“I’d like you to take a look at this.”
“Of course.” Her tone was steady, but her hands were what betrayed the real state of her emotions, shaking as they did as she accepted the legal envelope the billionaire handed her. She already knew what the documents inside of it were about, but seeing it written in black and white still had her seeing red.
“May I ask what brought this about all of a sudden?”
“Our arrangement has simply run its course.”