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“We have naval mines in place, yes, and a state-of-the-art ballistic submarine operates out of the boathouse.”

Her lips part. “What?”

“My guards patrol the outer fence and the shoreline.”

“Asshole,” she mutters, turning to face the water. A breeze catches her dark hair, lifts tendrils of it.

My hand tightens at my side. She’ll be staying here, week after week. Night after night. I’m going to have to ask Ernest to give her the wing farthest from mine. I need to put space between us.

Entirecorridorsof space.

“West!” My sister walks toward us, her strawberry blonde hair loose around her shoulders. “There you are. I’ve been dying to meet your date.”

Nora turns too. Her smile is back, like it never left, serviceable and charming. “Hi!”

“Hello.” She extends a hand to Nora. “I couldn’t believe it when Cecil told me that Mae had told him that my brother brought a date tonight.”

“Amber,” I warn.

“I have so many questions,” she tells Nora.

I narrow my eyes at them both. “No, you don’t.”

“Yes, I do.” Amber takes a step closer to me. “You should head into the library. Cecil is here, and he has news for you. Something about Calloway Steel and an investor meeting?”

Damn. That might actually be important. I find the closest security guard, who’s standing by the edge of the terrace, and nod to bring him over. “Keep your eye on these two,” I tell Sam. “You don’t let my sister or my… date out of your sight.”

“Yes, sir,” he says.

I give the two women one last glance. One dark-haired and one reddish, looking at each other with barely disguised curiosity.

How much trouble could they get into?

CHAPTER8

NORA

I watch West’s tall, retreating form through the masses. This ought to be interesting. The woman in front of me is about my height, and probably around my age too.

She smiles widely. “Nora, was it?”

“Yes, that’s right. Amber?”

“The very one.” She steps past me to the low stone wall that runs along the edge of the terrace. She puts a hand on the stone, considers, and then jumps up to sit on it.

In her luxurious silk dress.

Amber crosses her long legs, her heels high, and pats the spot next to her. “Come join me?”

I like her immediately.

I look back at Sam. He’s watching, glancing from Amber down to the dark garden below. He doesn’t like this. But maybe that doesn’t matter.

I jump up beside her and raise my glass to hers. “You have a beautiful home.”

She touches her coupe to mine. “I’d say thank you, but I didn’t build it and I didn’t decorate it.”

I chuckle. “Yeah. I can imagine. It’s been in the family for a while?”