ALECBY THE TIME I WENT BACK HOME, DROPPED EVANNE OFF AT HERschool, and made it to my o ce building, my head hadn’t cleared up in the slightest. I hadn’t really been thinking when I’d asked Lumen to stay the night. The rest of my day would be spent agonizing over what exactly I was going to say to her later today when we had our talk. Because we needed to have it. We couldn’t keep doing whatever this was that we were doing.“Good morning, Mr. McCrae,” Tuesday said as I stepped off the elevator. She held out a large black ceramic mug with Best Big Brother on it.“How do you always know when to be at the elevator?” I asked. I took a sip of my coffee. Black with a dash of cinnamon. Just how I liked it.“I can see your car pull up through the o ce window,” she confessed. “If you ever start driving a Honda, you’ll be able to sneak up on me.”Tuesday ran me through the morning’s updates and reminders as we headed for my o ce. I nodded at everyone in the halls, smil

ALECDESPITE THE FACT THAT TALKING TO DA HADN’T PROVIDED ME WITHthe clear direction I’d wanted, he had reminded me that the only person who expected me to put in insane hours was me. No one would think less of me if I took some time off. No one other than me, of course, because it didn’t matter how many times people told me to cut back, I kept pushing myself as if I had something to prove.The strange thing was, I never expected my employees to sacrifice their relationships, romantic or otherwise, for the company. In my head, I’d always told myself that I worked these crazy hours so they didn’t need to, but that had been a half-truth at best. Throwing myself into work was the easiest way to keep relationships at a distance. That reasoning had only grown after things between Keli and me had gone south.Lumen wasn’t Keli. In fact, Lumen wasn’t like anyone I’d ever met before. I just needed to figure out what I wanted to do with that information. Even after I’d called and l

Alec: Lumen is amazing. She brings out the playful, relaxed side of me, but fate doesn’t seem to agree we belong together. And now, my ex pops back into my life and wants to make a go of it again so our daughter can have a real family. I’m torn between what’s best for my daughter or following my feelings for Lumen.Lumen: Just when our relationship was going great, Alec basically blows me off the minute his ex is back in town. He texted that he needs a break while he figures out what’s going on with his family. And to add fuel to the fire, someone told my principal about the massage parlor job I had before I started teaching, like it was something illegal. Who else knew about that job but Alec? I’m crushed. This is why I don’t do relationships.Third-grade teacher Lumen Browne and multi-billionaire CEO Alec McCrae are an unlikely couple, but they’re willing to defy the odds. As they struggle to fit into each other’s lives, they must decide if they’re willing to fight for their love…or

ALECThe tight grip I always held on my emotions was threateningto crack. I always had the answers, knew the right things to do or say. On the rare occasions I didn’t know, I had the means and the drive to find someone who did.Now though, I was at a loss.I’d never imagined that this sort of thing could happen at my daughter’s school. Then again, I’d never actually thought about it at all. School had been Keli’s thing to handle. I’d just assumed that she’d made certain that Kurt Wright was safe.Common sense said I should wait until I found out what really happened before I made any rash decisions. Like taking Evanne out of school entirely and hiring a tutor to homeschool her so she’d never have to leave the house.Better idea.If I hired Lumen as the tutor, I could keep them bothsafely locked away.Somehow, I doubted either of them would appreciate it very much if I followed through.Evanne, however, didn’t have to

ALECNoise and voices woke me up, and for several seconds, Icouldn’t remember where I was.Since Evanne had come to live with me, I’d come to give up my quiet life. I didn’t miss it most of the time, even when privacy occasionally became…tricky. It hadn’t taken long for me to recognize her sounds, though. What it was like when she got into the cabinets and refrigerator. The shows she watched. Her footsteps on the stairs.These sounds didn’t match.They echoed strangely. Came through the floor in a way that didn’t make sense. Only when I heard additional voices that I realized where I was and then remembered how I’d gotten here.And why.I rolled onto my back and stared up at the ceiling. My bedroom had become a guest room after I’d bought a place of my own. Actually, Theresa and Da had done that for each of us, giving us all a place to stay whenever we needed it, but without keeping our childhood bedrooms as unchanging s