Give Me More--A Sexy Billionaire Romance by A.C. Arthur (detective books to read txt) 📕

and there was no going back. Not that she wanted to anyway. This current situation reminded her that walking away from RJ had been the right decision. The Gold and King families had rented an entire resort for a wedding. Reporters and fashion bloggers all over the world were clamoring for any clue about this very event because they desperately wanted to be the ones reporting on what promised to be a glamourous spectacle. Not because they wanted to see Riley and Chaz commit to their love and each other. No, that was buried beneath the prestige of being in this family, the same way she knew she would’ve been.

“So Veronica wants you to write her book?” RJ’s brow wrinkled, his eyes narrowed.

“Is that all you got from my notes?”

He angled his head and frowned. “It was the biggest bullet point, yeah. Are you kidding me?”

Now the cursing came.

“What’s she thinking?”

“If you ask me, she’s thinking that it’s just a matter of time before she becomes the ex-Mrs. Tobias King number eight and she’s trying to get her ducks in a row.”

In addition to the feud with Ron, Tobias was known for his many marriages. And Veronica, who’d been married twice before herself, was known for burying her husbands and keeping control of their estate. So Grace figured the two were in a standoff of sorts and in the meantime having “hot monkey sex,” as Veronica had described it.

“It’s unacceptable, and she definitely left that little detail out of the conversation I had with her last night after dinner,” RJ said.

This piqued Grace’s interest because she hadn’t really thought RJ was going to discuss the article with Veronica. She probably should’ve, though. RJ wasn’t known to mince words with anyone, for any reason. And as ticked off as he’d been about this story combined with Veronica’s open invitation to Grace, it made sense that he’d want a confrontation with the woman.

“What’d she say to you?” Grace opened a new document and kept her fingers poised over the keys, ready to take notes.

RJ’s brief hesitation and the leery look on his face she spied when she lifted her gaze from the screen said he noticed her actions and wasn’t sure about proceeding.

“Look, last night I had a thought.” She cleared her throat and sat up straighter. “What if I tell the story of Ron and Tobias, pioneers and visionaries reshaping the fashion industry. I start from the beginning—the best friends throughout grade school and college, the grooming of two dynamic leaders at the hand of Ronald Gold Sr. There’s a stumble in their path that ultimately spurs them on to the top of their industry. What were the steps they took to get there?” She’d started toying with the idea after she’d thought about what happened between her and RJ in the cabana for the billionth time yesterday.

He rubbed a finger over his chin, the hair of his goatee causing a rasping sound. “Focus more on everything they did to get where they are instead of the cause of the feud.”

Well, put that way it sounded like she’d gloss right over the feud, which wasn’t totally her goal. “The feud wouldn’t be the focus of the story. Your father and Tobias would be. The families they both built and oftentimes put before their fashion houses. The secret to their success. How these two, who were once best friends, became enemies and competitors, the best of the best, and now are becoming family once again.”

That sounded really good. She hurried to type it before she forgot the exact wording.

“Veronica said she didn’t see a problem inviting you here because the media would write what they wanted about us otherwise. This way, we had a semblance of control over the dialogue.” He made a sound that had her looking up at him. “I guess what she said makes sense.”

Grace agreed. “I mean, you’re sitting here right now sharing your conversation with her and I’m sharing my ideas for the story with you.”

“That doesn’t mean I have control over what you write.”

“Why would I go through all this if I planned to lie to you?”

She could see the moment his mind took that question in a completely different direction. The slow lifting of his brow said he probably believed she’d lied to him before about loving him when she had no intention of marrying him. That had always been her fear, that he’d believe everything they had together was a lie just because she refused his proposal.

“This is about business for me,” she hurriedly said. “It’s about me getting to the next step in my career. I’m going to write the very best story I can, revealing things about the families that no other journalist has revealed before while remaining in the parameters I’ve set. That’s all that matters to me.”

Not the past or the feeling that there was something totally new buzzing between them now.

“Yeah,” he said with a nod. “I know that’s all that matters to you. And all that matters to me is that my family doesn’t get hurt in the process of you tending to your goals. So we’ll keep checking in while you’re here.”

“Great!” She wasn’t able to hide her excitement at the agreement they’d come to.

“But first, answer this question for me,” he said.

“Sure, what is it?” She typed a note of his agreement but looked up when he hadn’t spoken for a few seconds.

“What’s the plan for dealing with this other thing between us?”

The way his gaze had grown darker, causing her heart to immediately thump wildly, told her the other thing was that scorching hot kiss from yesterday.

“It’s in the past,” she said quickly. Too quickly.

The blank expression he now wore didn’t tell her if he was okay with that or not, but she wasn’t going to elaborate on her answer. She couldn’t.

Not only had she and RJ moved on with their lives; there was still another bit of contention she’d just broached in their conversation