Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 142976 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 715(@200wpm)___ 572(@250wpm)___ 477(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142976 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 715(@200wpm)___ 572(@250wpm)___ 477(@300wpm)
Now, months later, she stared down at the man who’d—unbeknownst to him—become the source of her dreams and nightmares, her most secret desires and deepest fears. The prospect of facing him again was terrifying. She did not know how he’d react to what she had to tell him—to offer him. All she knew was that she had no other choice.
With time running out for her, Cade Hawthorne had become her only hope.
Fern wasn’t sure she’d get the opportunity to have a private conversation with him. Not when Allie and Toni would attempt to dominate any spare moment he had. He didn’t seem too interested in either of her stepsisters, but they were determined women who usually got what they wanted. Even though they were both preening for Cade’s attention, Fern knew that they’d come to a mutual agreement that Allie would be the one to try and win him. But that didn’t mean the plan couldn’t change in an instant if he showed more interest in Toni.
It chilled Fern’s blood how utterly ruthless her stepsisters could be when it came to getting what they wanted. She’d seen them in action before, seen them grab their prize with impunity, regardless of whether it belonged—and was precious—to someone else.
She turned away from the window, sickened by their display, but also unable to look at Cade Hawthorne a moment longer, when her stomach was churning with anxiety at the sight of him and the knowledge of what she would have to do once she had him to herself.
Chapter
Two
“Aah James, Niall, welcome to my humble home,” Granger Abernathy greeted them a few hours later in the overly formal drawing room where Cade and his father had been left to cool their heels for nearly half an hour, with forced bonhomie and a huge smile.
The rest of the Hawthorne team had been asked to make their own dinner arrangements, because Abernathy had insisted that this night be only for family. No attorneys, assistants, or advisors. Which had been damned rude, considering they were all his guests.
Now, Cade watched in distaste as Abernathy spread his arms, as if to embrace James Hawthorne, but Cade’s father’s expression and general demeanor exuded so much hostility, the man wisely thought the better of it and dropped his arms. He settled instead for a thump on the taller, broader man’s back, as if they were old chums happily reuniting.
Cade nearly laughed at his father’s glare… his dad was about five years the other man’s junior, but looked at least a decade younger, and a hell of a lot fitter. Granger Abernathy was skeletally thin, with an oily gray combover that fooled absolutely nobody, hunched bony shoulders, and a pallid skin tone. Cade privately thought he looked like Mr. Burns from The Simpsons. A sentiment he hadn’t realized his father shared, until the old man had referred to Abernathy as that Mr. Burns looking cocksucker in a voice note a couple of weeks ago.
“I trust you’ve both made yourself at home? My home is your home and all that. I heard you put on quite the show for my girls earlier, young man,” he said, directing a lewd smile in Cade’s direction, while nudging his glowering dad suggestively in the ribs. “They’re quite taken with your boy. Allie is especially infatuated. We might have ourselves a little romance blooming, hey James?”
Cade had barely exchanged half a dozen words with the two women after exiting the pool. He’d been appalled to discover them both topless, and while he was by no means a prude, he’d found the entire scene distasteful and off-putting. Romance had definitely been the furthest thing on his mind when he’d grabbed up his towel and fled the scene with indecent haste.
Cade was a man of few words, and one of the reasons he’d always enjoyed having his younger siblings around was because they were chatty and sociable to the extent that people didn’t notice that Cade rarely spoke.
Nox was especially brilliant at filling awkward silences, and because he knew that Cade didn’t enjoy socializing and forced chitchat, he’d always picked up the conversational slack for him. And while Cade knew Nox needed this time away, he still felt a bitter pang of betrayal every time he found himself in situations like these without his brother there to act as a buffer.
He froze when Abernathy slung a chummy, skinny—surprisingly strong—arm around his shoulders, using his free hand to pat Cade on his chest with a familiarity that made his skin crawl.
“What do you say to that, Niall? Imagine uniting our dynasties. We’d be a force to be reckoned with, right? What do you think, James? One of my girls with one of your boys? I’d even knock a hundred million off the Lambecrete price tag. An engagement gift for the youngsters.”