No Take Backs: A Taken Novella by Kelli Maine

Author:Kelli Maine [Maine, Kelli]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: alpha male, short story, contemporary, romance, hot romance, steamy romance, erotic romance, novella, dominance
Publisher: Kelli Maine
Published: 2012-08-16T03:41:42+00:00

Chapter Four

Dessert is served, Fresh Fruit Pavlova with Passion Fruit Sauce, and you’ve still got your phone in your hand checking email and sending text messages. I lay my hand on your forearm. “What’s going on?”

“Max gets here in the morning and wants to get business out of the way early. I need Riley to get the paperwork organized, or I’ll have to excuse myself from the party for a short time to get ready.”

“What paperwork? I thought everything was done—all your properties sold.” I’m not looking forward to seeing Max again. He seems to like me about as much as Joan, but I guess it would be rude to not invite your lawyer who you’ve trusted with your business for so long to our celebration.

Your arm drapes over the back of my chair and you stroke my shoulder with your thumb. “After I sign these last few papers, it’s over. This closes the sale on the last property. It’s in Luxembourg. One of my favorites.”

I hate the wistful, longing in your voice, and the tortured expression you try to hide from me by turning away.

Damn your father for taking everything you love away from you.

Everything but Turtle Tear.

And me.

That man will never get either.

Your phone buzzes and vibrates with another urgent text from Max. “I’ll go try to find Riley,” I say.

“You stay and enjoy the party. I’ll go find him.” You don’t look away from your phone while you say this, and your thumbs move like lightning over the letters onscreen.

I scoop up a bite of the Pavlova and touch the spoon to your lips. “I’ll be back.” You open your mouth, take a bite, and I slip the spoon out. “Save me some of that…and I don’t mean the dessert.”

I kiss the top of your head and slip away from the table. Several people have finished dessert and are up from their tables milling around. Joan and Beck step out from the lounge onto the patio, and I make a beeline for them, weaving between guests with polite smiles and quick comments.

Beck smiles as I approach and slips his arm around Joan’s waist. “Have you guys seen Riley?”

“Not for a while,” he says. “Have you?” he asks Joan.

“I wasn’t exactly watching for him.” She refuses to look at me.

“Sorry,” Beck says. I’m not sure if he means for not knowing where to find Riley, or for Joan’s snub.

“That’s okay, I’ll find him.” I hurry inside, checking the ground floor, the lounge, restrooms, kitchen, entryway. No Riley. No Shannon.

A sinking feeling comes over me. I wish I knew which room was hers. If I can find that Jesse guy who carried the guests’ bags to their rooms, he can tell me. But, everyone seems to have disappeared.

I lift the bottom of my dress and run up the stairs. I can’t count the number of times Shannon’s woke me by having loud sex in the bedroom next to mine when we lived together. If something’s going on, I’ll hear her.

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