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LUMENIT WAS A STRANGE FEELING TO HAVE CHILDREN LOOKING AT ME LIKE Iwas some sort of beacon. A representation of hope for the future. For their future. Like, if I could make it, they could too.Like I was the opposite of a cautionary tale.Not surprising, really. I should have expected it when I’d requested to come here as a volunteer. It’d been six years since I’d aged out, and this had been the place where I’d done it. The dropping off point for kids who weren’t going to be adopted, or at the very least, put into long-term care. Usually teenagers. Often troublemakers.I smiled at each of the other volunteers as I passed them. A few had been volunteers back when I’d been one of these kids. Houseparents, drivers, cooks, servers…people who’d come in to help when there were too many kids and not enough adults.“Always wonderful to see you back here, Lumen.” Brie R
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The Billionaire Impotent son-in-law seventeen
ALECIF THERE WAS ONE POSITIVE THING ABOUT TONIGHT, IT WAS THAT ITwas beautiful out. A surprisingly dry evening in mid-August with barely any cloud cover. I always enjoyed walking the Fremont area, particularly Canal Park, so after my dramatic escape from the restaurant, I flagged down a cab to cover the four and a half miles quicker than I could on my feet, gave a generous tip, and set out to enjoy the rest of my night.Seattle was different from Scotland where I’d been born, though the weather was more similar than it had been in Northern California where I’d spent my adolescence. The frequent rain reminded me of Edinburgh, though it was a lot steadier here. The clouds made it far less hot than California, which I appreciated, particularly when I was in a full suit.I took a slow, deep breath and closed my eyes for a moment, smelling the salt from the sea. I’d missed the sea in Californi
The Billionaire Impotent son-in-law eighteen
LUMENWHEN I HEARD THE CHIME FROM THE LITTLE BELLS ON THE DOOR, Isighed. I had less than an hour until close. Why did people always insist on coming in right at the end? It never failed.I’d been busying myself by going over the day’s transactions in preparation for close, but I still put on my best customer service smile before turning around to greet the jerk who’d decided to drop in for a last-minute, late- night massage.The moment I saw him, every word I’d intended to speak flew out of my head.He was tall. Very tall. Well over six feet and gorgeous. Probably in his early thirties, he had a good head of golden- blond hair and a chiseled jaw that was surprisingly clean- shaven at this time of night. He was lean and tanned, with a scar through his right eyebrow that just added to his masculine appeal. Not to mention that the suit he wore looked insanely expensive. A far, far cry from the portly, hairy-backed b
The Billionaire Impotent son-in-law Nineteen
LUMEN“PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME HOW YOU, AN INTELLIGENT COLLEGEgraduate, forgot to ask a client to pay his bill before he left?”Lihua was no bigger than five feet tall, but when she planted her hands on her slender hips and gave me that look of complete disappointment and disapproval, she might as well have been a giant.We were both at the front counter, waiting for the next scheduled client. Saturdays could get busy, so two other MTs were already in the back room, changing into their uniforms. Lihua had changed a few minutes ago, wanting the chance to look over the books from last night before we opened.“My final client last night asked for an…ending,” I said. She knew what that meant, of course, but her expression held no sympathy.“You know the procedure,” Lihua said. “Tell him we are not that kind of establishment. Then you end the session and take the payment as normal.”“I know, Li
The Billionaire Impotent son-in-law Twenty
SIXALEC“WHAT’S WRONG, DADDY?” THE QUESTION CAME OUT OF THE BLUE ASI tucked Evanne into bed. She always came up with the best questions at bedtime.At eight years old, she was wise beyond her years, and I hoped that it wasn’t due to anything her mother and I had done, or hadn’t done, for that matter. Keli had primary custody, and I had enough visitation that I’d always had a relationship with my daughter, but I’d always felt like I was responsible for her missing out on something.I blinked at her. “What do you mean, mo chride?”Her blue eyes lit up at the familiar term of endearment, but then they faded again as she answered my question. “You seem weird.”“Maybe I’m the normal one, and it’s you who’s the wee odd one,” I suggested, letting my accent regress to my childhood simply because it made her burst into the sweetest giggles I’d ever heard. I’d been a serious child, and it took a lot for me to shake that off and give Evanne a father she would be comfortable talking to
The Billionaire Impotent son-in-law Twenty one
LUMEN“GUESS WHAT DAY IT IS!” MAI CALLED OUT AS SHE ENTERED THEapartment.I was sitting on the living room sofa – on the end opposite from where I’d caught Mai and Hob having sex – working on my upcoming lesson plans when her sing-song voice carried into the living room. School didn’t start until the Tuesday after Labor Day, but in two days, I would o cially walk into a school building as a teacher. Not a student teacher. Not a classroom assistant. An actual teacher.I was trying to ignore how nervous I was about it. “Uh, Friday?” I said.Mai beamed as she bounced into the room, still dressed in her black tunic and yoga pants from Real Life Bodywork.“Exactly!” she said. “You promised we would hang out and get drinks this weekend.”Had I? I thought back to last weekend. Right. I’d come home from work, already reeling from Alec asking me out, and I’d caught her and Hob on the sofa. I’d wanted to hide away in my room rather than go out to celebrate my resignation from RLB, but Mai had
The Billionaire Impotent son-in-law Twenty two
ALECTHIS WASN’T HOW I’D SEEN MY WEEKEND GOING WHEN I WOKE UPyesterday morning. Then Keli called last night to ask if she could have Evanne for the weekend so the two of them could do some back-to-school shopping and girls’ day things.I assumed that meant a spa, manicure, pedicure, that sort of thing. When I heard Evanne chattering excitedly in the background, I agreed. Keli had always been good at working with my schedule when I needed her to. I’d take Evanne for the three-day weekend over Labor Day, and we’d do our own special stuff then. She’d been begging me to take her rock climbing, so maybe we’d do that.The downside to Keli taking Evanne at the last minute was that I hadn’t planned on having nothing to do for the weekend, and I needed to stay busy to keep from thinking about Lumen. I’d been on my way home when I’d gotten a text from Duncan MacLean, an old friend of mine from Edinburgh, inviting me to stop in for a tasting of his new scotch.Duncan and I weren
The Billionaire Impotent son-in-law Twenty three
LUMENI’D THOUGHT THAT MY NEW JOB WOULD MONOPOLIZE ENOUGH OF MYtime that I wouldn’t be able to spend it thinking about Alec. I was wrong.It had been almost a full week since my…encounter with him, but the way my brain kept obsessing over it, it was like it’d happened last night. Then again, in a way, it did because every night, the moment I closed my eyes, I saw it again. Felt it. Experienced every bit of sensory overload as if it was happening for the first time. No matter how exhausted I made myself, I always dreamed of it and woke gasping, my body right on the brink of something explosive.I wasn’t an idiot. I knew what a climax was. I’d just never experienced one. Privacy had never been easy to come by in foster care. Shared bedrooms. Shared bathrooms, usually with a limited supply of hot water. I’d never considered it important enough to actively seek out the time and space to try to work myself up to one. I’d never thought I was missing something until I’d run away from Alec.I
The Billionaire Impotent son-in-law Twenty four
ALECNORMALLY, I HAD EVANNE ONE TO TWO WEEKENDS PER MONTH,depending on how work was going, but three-day weekends like Memorial Day or Labor Day, those were mine, and as inadequate as I sometimes felt when it came to parenting an eight-year-old girl, I loved having that extra day.A couple weeks ago, Keli had asked me to take an extra day this weekend, dropping Evanne off on Thursday evening instead of Friday night. At first, I’d thought about making an excuse, but I’d felt a flood of guilt after a few seconds. Keli had always been so good about our arrangement that I felt like a complete bastard telling her I couldn’t take a single extra day off from the company my family owned.I’d checked with my assistant, Tuesday Boswell, and she’d assured me that MIRI – McCrae International Research Institute – could survive without me for four days. I’d almost snapped at her for being so smug, but she was an excellent assistant, and I could be a di cult bastard to work for sometimes. Fortunately
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- The Billionaire Impotent son-in-law
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EOINI’D JUST BEEN READY TO CALL ALINE WHEN A TEXT CAME THROUGHthat she was coming back and we needed to talk. I went back and forth between anxiety and relief while I waited for her. We couldn’t keep doing this.Our lives were linked, and we didn’t have the luxury of waiting until we had our shit figured out before deciding to start a family. The baby was on the way, and no matter what she and I disagreed about, I had no doubt that we were on the same page when it came to being the best parents we could be. To do that, we needed to work this out sooner rather than later.Since I didn’t know if Aline had her key, I unlocked the door and then spent the next fifteen minutes or so pacing from one end of the living room to the other and back again.When she came in, I wanted to just blurt out an apology and explanation, but I also didn’t want to come on too strong. How the fuck did people do this? How did they know what to say or how to say it? I didn’t know the ans
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EOINTHE MOMENT THE WORDS CAME OUT OF ALINE’S MOUTH, I COULD SEEthat she wanted to take them back. Not because she regretted accepting my proposal or didn’t want to live with me, but because blurting it out like that had been like dropping a bomb.Now, we were just waiting for it to explode. I could read it on their faces. I read it on her face too. She realized the impact of what she’d done.And then Freedom turned on me, her expression furious.“What the hell did you do?!” She pointed at me, her clear blue eyes flashing. “How dare you take advantage of her when she was upset! Out on her own for the first time and vulner–”“We’re engaged,” Aline cut her off, clearly deciding to get it all out now that things were in motion for a confrontation. “And I’m pregnant.”Freedom’s jaw dropped, and her face went white. Aline’s jaw tightened. “So, back off.”“What?”The word came out as a whisper, confirming for me that Aline had never spoken to Freedom that way before.“Eoin is m
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EOINIF I DIDN’T QUIT SNEAKING LOOKS AT ALINE, SHE WAS GOING TO CATCHme and want to know what the hell I was doing. Then I’d be put in the very awkward position of either lying to her and her figuring it out or telling the truth and pissing her off. Neither scenario ended well for me.She’d agreed to tell my parents about our engagement and the baby, and I was going with her tomorrow to spend Christmas Day with her family. Both of those were things that I wanted, but I kept feeling like some other shoe was going to drop and ruin it. That she’d suddenly recognize the fact that she could do so much better than me and decide that, while she might want the baby, she didn’t want me along with it. Or she’d think about how pissed Freedom was going to be when she saw me and realize I wasn’t worth the headache.Death wasn’t the only thing that could take someone away.So, I kept watching her, paying close attention to every expression, to every shift in body language.I’d been worried at Marti
- The Billionaire Impotent son-in-law
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EOINTHE SCENT OF PEACHES WOKE ME UP, AND IT TOOK A MOMENT FOR MEto remember why my bed smelled like fruit. Aline. My eyes opened, my need to reassure myself that she really was here greater than me wanting to sleep a little longer. Once I saw her, I couldn’t look away.We were both on our sides, her back to my front. Her body was curled up, making her look even smaller than she was, and a surge of protectiveness went through me. I slid my hand from her hip to her stomach, wondering when I’d be able to feel the changes to her body, when the baby would start to move, how big it was right now.Was it a boy or girl? Would Aline want to know before or have it be a surprise? When would we be able to tell?I had a lot of research to do, I realized. I wanted to do this right, and that meant not leaving everything up to Aline. Some of the questions colliding together in my brain were the kind that she and I could talk about. I could find the answers for all the others myself. S
- The Billionaire Impotent son-in-law
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EOINI PUT MY PHONE DOWN ON THE COUNTER AND GOT A BEER FROM THEfridge. If I wasn’t driving anywhere tonight, I didn’t need to worry about how much I drank. If I couldn’t be with Aline, taking care of her, getting a little drunk sounded like a good idea. Not so much that I’d be hung over tomorrow, but enough to take the edge off.It was a hell of an edge. Pregnant.I was going to be a father.Maybe. Aline could decide to terminate the pregnancy, but after how her parents had struggled to have kids, I didn’t think that was going to be the route she took. If she did, I’d be there with her, but even as shell-shocked as I was right now, I was hoping she’d have the baby.My baby. Fuck.I needed to sit down, but the few chairs I had were covered with shit from my storage unit. The floor would have to do. I leaned back against my refrigerator and took a long drink.I’d never really thought about being a father. My parents never pressured any of us kids about giving them
- The Billionaire Impotent son-in-law
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EOINI DIDN’T UNDERSTAND WHY ALINE WOULD – AGAIN – THINK I DIDN’Twant her. I knew her family was really overprotective of her, but I couldn’t imagine that translating into any type of emotional abuse. She was a certified genius and one of the most selfless people I’d ever met. And she was gorgeous. The fact that she’d been a virgin – barely even kissed if Freedom had been right about that too – confused the shit out of me because she had to have had guys all over her.Just the thought of any other man near her made my arms tighten around her. I still had my hand in her pants, could hear her ragged breathing slow and even out…and I was jealous of men I didn’t even know, men who might not even exist.Men I didn’t want to exist.I wanted to be it for her. The only man who’d ever know what she looked like when she came.Shit.The thought should have terrified me, but it didn’t. Even though I was painfully hard, I was content to stand here, holding her, rubbing her back with my free hand.
- The Billionaire Impotent son-in-law
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ALINEEOIN’S PLACE WAS GORGEOUS. AND HUGE. NOT AT ALL WHAT I’D BEENexpecting, even after he’d told me that he’d leased a condo rather than an apartment. I’d already known that he’d come from a wealthy family, so it wasn’t the cost of a place like this that surprised me. It was more that this didn’t seem like the sort of place that a single, not-quite-thirty, former military man would live. This was more of a…family home.A beautiful one, but I was starting to feel like seeing all of it, being here with him while such a large question was looming over us, was untethering me from reality. I had experienced this strange disconnect only a few times in my life, most of them recently.“Hey.” His hands were on either side of my face, his skin hot against my cheeks. “It’s okay.”I looked up at him, and then his mouth was on mine, firm pressure without being aggressive, and the contact sent a wave of warmth washing over me, pushing away thoughts of anything else.This man could distract
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EOINMY BROTHER, ROME, HAD OUTDONE HIMSELF WITH THIS CONDO, ANDI’d made a point of telling him that when he’d met me there before I’d gone to pick up Aline this morning. I hadn’t, however, told him about what was going on.I wanted her to meet my family. I knew that by now, but I didn’t want it to happen with a question mark over our heads. So, until we got those test results, only Alec knew that this was a possibility. No matter what happened, though, I wanted her to see my new place because, at some point, I planned for it to be our place.Some of my tension had left when Aline had told me that she was okay and that the IUD debacle hadn’t been my fault, but it’d been such a small bit that as we moved into Playa Vista, my stomach was one giant knot of nerves. Most of it was because we still didn’t know for certain whether or not she was pregnant, but there was still a part of it that had to do with how she felt about my new home. I wanted her to love it.I took her hand as we w
- The Billionaire Impotent son-in-law
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ALINEI DIDN’T KNOW IF I’D THROWN UP FIFTEEN MINUTES AGO BECAUSE Ihad morning sickness or if it’d been nerves, but either way, it hadn’t been pleasant. I’d been able to force down some crackers, and they’d helped with my upset stomach, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to completely quell my anxiety until I had the results of the blood test. Even if I was pregnant, the waiting was far worse than either answer would be.Eoin seemed to share my sentiments as he arrived nearly twenty minutes early, and apart from the drive, hadn’t been able to sit still. Even in the car, he’d been moving, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel or on his leg, flipping through radio stations, that sort of thing.The latter would have annoyed me normally, but nothing about this situation was normal. And if I were to be entirely honest, I didn’t mind the radio being on because neither of us had said more than a few words, and I preferred the background noise that prevented a total awkward silence betw
