TWO
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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