Page 9 of Beyond Question

Cabot snorts. “Please. As if there’s any competition between Reed Publishing and her little house.”

Her little house. A company which is currently creeping up the romance charts across the board and giving Cabot’s beloved romance imprint a run for its money.

“She hates men like you,” he adds, clearly trying to rile me.

“I’m sorry?” I swivel my head to face him. “Meaning?”

“Generational wealth. Success. Good looks.” He shrugs. “Going by what Rylan has mentioned and the few times I’ve been forced to share a room with Paige Matthews, I think she just hates men in general.”

“Can you blame her?” I laugh, then realize I’m staring again.

My eyes seem drawn to her, seeking her out all damn day like I have no control over their movement.

As if sensing me, Paige lifts her head and meets my gaze.

We stay like that, locked in our stare, until Rylan says something and Paige laughs, breaking her hold on me as she looks away. God, that laugh. The way she tosses her head back with abandon. She’s so confident. There’s not an ounce of insecurity in her laughter. She laughs with her whole body, and it’s not even the sound but the sheer beauty of how she looks when she lets loose like that.

A man could get addicted to that laugh.

To that woman.

“Don’t do it, man.”

I swivel my head toward Cabot. “She can’t be that bad.”

Cabot sighs and I realize what he’s not saying. We know each other too damn well.

I shake my head. “For fuck’s sake, man, don’t tell me you looked into her.”

“My fiancée works for that woman, Wilder. Of course I looked into her.”

“And? She’s just this maneater disguised as a normal, middle-aged woman who loves books?”

Cabot’s eyes narrow as he meets my gaze. “She’s not who she says she is.”

I bark out a laugh, but it dies when he doesn’t join me. “Wait. You’re serious?”

“Do you often catch me joking?”

I snort. “Fair point.”

“Paige Matthews exists, sure, and there are records of her as far back as thirty years, but before that?” He raises his hands in presentation. “Nothing.”

I narrow my eyes. “Surely you’ve made a mistake.”

He levels me with an incredulous stare.

“Right.” I incline my head deferentially. I know what kind of reach the Reed men have. And this Reed man in particular is thorough and meticulous. He rarely makes mistakes. “Although…”

He lifts one brow as he waits.

“It’s not like you haven’t madeanymistakes, brother.”

Cabot’s lips tighten into a fine line. A muscle ticks in his jaw.

Lifting my hand, I begin ticking off one finger at a time. “Hiring your submissive, fucking your intern—”

“I don’t need a recitation of my wrongs, Travis.” He huffs in annoyance. “But you know I only hire the best. And my guys can’t find a fucking thing on the first twenty years of that woman’s life. She simply does not exist.”