Page 35 of Undeniably Corrupt (Boston’s Irresistible Billionaires #7)

“ W ee! Higher!” Hazel shouts as I give her another push on the swings. Her hands fly above her head, and if she’s this much of an adrenaline junkie at two and a half, I hate to think about what she’ll be like at fifteen.

“Only if you hold on.”

She makes a displeased noise but quickly gets over it as she regrips the metal chains on either side of her baby swing. I give her another hard shove, sending her flying through the air like a pendulum when my phone rings in my pocket.

I slip it out between pushes and answer it without checking to see who it is.

“Hello?”

“Are you intentionally trying to play games with me?”

“Huh? Vander?”

“Turn around.”

“What?”

He sighs. “Turn around, Liora, and look up.”

I spin around and look up only to have the back of Hazel’s swing hit me between the shoulder blades and send me shooting forward and to the ground, belly flopping like a starfish in dramatic fashion. An oomph flees my lungs, and I can hear Vander curse through the phone that falls from my hand.

“Mama, you okay?” Hazel cries in concern, and I roll over and sit up, laughing because what in the hell? That’s twice now. Only this one was better than the first.

“I’m okay, sweetie. It was just a bump.” And a face-plant into old woodchips. Gross.

“Mama, push me!” Hazel flails, and I snatch my phone from the woodchips and stand to give her another push.

“Are you okay?” he asks as I bring the phone back to my ear. I can hear the amusement in his voice.

“Just great. Why are you calling me?” And then I remember and glance over my shoulder this time without losing focus on where Hazel is. “I don’t see you.”

“Look up. Top floor balcony. No. To the right. More right. There you go.” A tiny and faraway Vander gives me a wave from the balcony of one of the penthouses.

“Are you stalking me again?” I give Hazel another push.

“Nope. I happen to be at my friend Mason’s. You should come up and bring Hazel. There are other kids here, including Willow.”

“But that means I’d have to see you.” I’ve avoided him pretty much all week other than at work.

Today he took the afternoon off and told everyone to do the same.

None of us had to be told twice. I grabbed my kid, and here we are at the park.

There has been no more going near his bedroom.

At work we’re professional, and I’ve made a point to only see him in meetings and with others around us.

Otherwise, we communicate via text or email.

“Sometimes sacrifices must be made for the greater good.”

“Who said that?”

“I just did. Now get your pretty ass up here. I want to see you. Sixteenth floor. The Reyes penthouse. I’ll let the doorman know you’re coming.

” He disconnects the call, and I sigh. It is cold out here.

I mean, not terribly cold but still cold.

And I wouldn’t mind seeing Katy, and I know Hazel will want to play with Willow.

“Hazel, do you want to go play with Willow?”

“Yeah! Yeah!”

I wish I had her enthusiasm.

I bring the swing to a stop and come around to lift her out.

After I grab our things, we walk along the path through the park that leads to Beacon and cross at the crosswalk.

The building is tall and fancy, and though I don’t follow football or sports in general, I know the place we’re going belongs to Mason Reyes, the quarterback for the NFL’s Boston Rebels.

I met him once or twice when we were kids, but he wasn’t a professional athlete then, and I can’t help but be a little nervous.

“Hazel, this is so not our world,” I murmur as we step into the posh lobby. Hazel clings to my hand, but before I can speak to the doorman, Vander is there to greet us.

“Vander!” Hazel cries and goes running right for him before she launches herself at him. He picks her up, gives her a big toss in the air that has her squealing in girlish delight before he holds her against him on one side and stretches out his other hand toward me.

I don’t take it. “One sick day and one batch of cookies, and you’re her hero.”

He grins triumphantly at me. “I’d say she’s easier to please than her mother, but it’s not true. It’s just different.”

I nudge him with my elbow, and he laughs.

“So easy to rile.”

Truth.

He leans in and kisses the corner of my lips, and I give him a glare. “I thought you said the doorman would send us up. ”

“And I told you I wanted to see you. Besides, I knew you’d chicken out if I wasn’t here to drag you up.”

“I don’t like how well you think you know me.”

He winks as he walks us onto the elevator and punches in a code. The doors close, and he takes my hand, locking our fingers together.

“What are you doing?” I purposefully glance down at our joined hands and then back up at him.

“Stopping you from running out on me. I didn’t warn you ahead of time because I knew you’d say no if I did.”

“Meaning?”

He doesn’t answer. Instead his face meets the crook of my neck, and he takes a deep inhale. I can feel his smile against my skin when he smells his bodywash on me.

“This proves you’re not indifferent to me.” His tongue swipes out for a taste, and he kisses over the wet spot he made.

I jerk my shoulder up to shirk him off and pull my hand from his. “I’m trying to be, though, so quit it with all this hand-holding and smelling and kissing stuff.”

“No.”

“No?” I parrot, my eyebrows at my hairline.

“No,” he repeats sternly, but before I can argue, the doors open and he and Hazel step out. I have no choice but to follow him. The bastard is holding my kid hostage.

I peer up at him as we walk down the hall to one of the two apartments on this floor.

“Stone and Tinsley live there.” He juts his thumb over his shoulder, indicating the apartment at our back. “Mason and Sorel live here. But everyone’s over here because Mason and Sorel just had a baby, and Mason made an amazing playroom that Rory, Fen, and Willow love.”

“Fen?”

“Loomis’s son.”

Loomis. As in Loomis Powell, the famous actor.

Oh my Christmas morning. I’ve seen him in movies and totally celebrity crushed on him.

And by Tinsley, he means Tinsley Monroe, a famous pop star and actress.

Monroe. As in, yeah, Monroe. I sort of forgot the extreme of the people in Vander’s life.

I’m not sure I can take this if this is going where I think it’s going. “Um, I’m not sure I understand.”

“Everyone is here. All of my best friends and their spouses or significant others.”

I blanch and go to grab Hazel.

He laughs and swings her out of my reach. “Too late. You’re already here. And Hazel wants to see Willow, don’t you, kiddo?”

She nods enthusiastically, and I get a victorious grin from Vander. Sigh. His arm wraps around my shoulder, and he drags my reluctant body inside and into a great room where a dozen or so people are talking and laughing.

I’m blushing like crazy. Especially when everyone looks at me and smiles.

“I’m going to cut out your liver and kidneys and sell them on the black market,” I hiss under my breath.

He doesn’t get the chance to respond as a giant man with reddish-brown hair and green eyes comes over to me. “Hey, Liora. I’m Mason. You might not?—”

“I remember you. Hi. I’m Liora.” Then I cover my face because he already knows who I am. He just said my name.

Mason chuckles and tosses his arm around me like we’ve been best friends forever. “Aw, don’t do that. Come in and meet everyone.”

“Hi. I’m Hazel.”

“Hi, Hazel. I’m Mason. I’m a friend of Vander’s and your mommy’s.” Mason gives her a megawatt smile. “Do you want to come see the playroom? That’s where Willow, Fen, and Rory are.”

“Playroom!”

Hazel squirms out of Vander’s arms and immediately takes Mason’s hand so he can show her where the playroom is, and I have a bad feeling about all of this.

“Wow,” Vander muses as we go in to greet everyone else, and I’m blinking at Loomis Powell like a deer in headlights. “I never thought I’d see the day when Liora James is starstruck.”

“Shut up,” I snap under my breath. “I’m not starstruck. Just… off-kilter. You ambushed me.”

“No. I mean it. It’s cute. Mason is married to Sorel, and Loomis is in love with Keegan. Plus I’m the possessive-of-you type, so you’re stuck with me. Now I might have to kill my friends, but it’s still cute.”

I glare daggers at him.

“In addition to your kidneys and liver, you’re going to lose your testicles by the end of this.”

“Then how will I fill you with all my cum?”

I choke on my tongue. “I hate you.”

“Nah. You love me.” He winks at me, and before I can make good on my threat, Katy intercepts us.

“Hi! You’re here. I’m so happy to see you.

” She gives me an epic hug. “Come in. We’re having wine and eating a lot of yummy things.

Oh, and Wren baked these amazing…” She trails off as she takes my hand and walks me toward the dining room I hadn’t noticed—because I was too busy staring at freaking Loomis Powell—filled with women.

“Wren, what do you call those things? Everyone, this is Liora. Liora, this is everyone.”

I awkwardly wave, but that’s not good enough for them.

These women, with the exception of the blonde nursing the newborn, get up and hug me and introduce themselves to me one by one.

I’m not a hugger, but that doesn’t seem to matter.

Some of them I vaguely remember. Like Keegan and Kenna.

The others are new to me, and I’m not sure who they belong to or how they work in the group, but it doesn’t seem to matter. They all do. They’re family .

“They’re sugar-free raspberry oatmeal bars,” Wren tells her. “Hi. I’m Wren. You work with my boyfriend, Jack.”

She points across the room, and I turn and see him talking to Vander along with Bennett. I hadn’t noticed them there before either. Great. I work with them. More awkward.

“They’re sugar-free because I’m a type 1 diabetic,” Katy informs me. “But they’re still delicious, and you’d never know they didn’t have real sugar in them.”