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

She’d let her forehead rest on his chest as regret filled every crevice of her being. “I should’ve told you that night. I don’t know why I didn’t.” Or rather she had known. Fear was a cruel bastard that she wholeheartedly despised.

He’d lifted his hands to cup her cheeks, tilting her face up to him. “Everything I just said is still true. I still admire you and wholly support your career goals.”

Grace knew that; otherwise his father and possibly the rest of his family wouldn’t have been so open to her being here and writing the story. “I appreciate that, RJ. I really do.”

He’d kissed her again, a very soft and lingering kiss that had left her dreamy-eyed and hopeful. In the days that followed she’d continued with her interviews, speaking to Chaz and then conducting a third interview with Veronica. She and RJ had also continued with their evening trysts, most times after the family dinner that Grace no longer needed an invitation to attend. During the days when she wasn’t writing, she had an unspoken invite to everything on Riley’s itinerary. In fact, Riley had taken to texting Grace daily reminders so she wouldn’t forget and stay in her room working. But Grace liked being in her room, especially during the time that RJ was there with her.

That’s what scared her.

After talking about what happened that long-ago night, she and RJ seemed to be of one accord, just like they’d been before. In Manhattan, their private space had been RJ’s penthouse, because it was away from the RGF offices and his parents’ palatial home. It was where RJ could relax and be himself instead of being one of the top executives at the company, or the oldest son of the family. It was the one place where Grace could feel comfortable and not like she was in constant competition with her sisters.

Here, on the island, the villas that RJ and his family were staying in were much larger than Grace’s room, but in her room they had privacy. For all intents and purposes, her room was now like his penthouse had been, all except for RJ spending the night. She never asked him why he didn’t. She hated the thought that she was once again allowing fear to take up space in her life.

Her vibrating phone disrupted her thoughts and she rolled over in the bed again, catching herself before she tumbled over the edge. With a shake of her head, she reached for the phone on the nightstand and removed it from the charger. The notification was a text message from Riley.

Truth or dare at 2 p.m. in the café.

Grace groaned and buried her head in the pillow. Did she really want to play truth or dare with Riley and the gang, which was the name Maurice had given the group of four couples? Were she and RJ a couple again? Another groan escaped at the question because she was so confused. She was beginning to believe that was her natural state of being now—at least it had been since setting foot on this island.

Her phone vibrated and chimed in her hand. She startled and then lifted her head from the pillow to stare at the screen. “Dammit.”

She answered it with a bland, “Hi, Eddie.” Eddie’s gravelly voice was the last thing she wanted to hear this morning.

“What’s going on? Is the story almost done? I was thinking of sending Tiege down to get some pictures of the wedding. He says he has a connection that could get him onto the property without any detection,” he rattled off without pause.

She bolted up in the bed. “Absolutely not!” Shaking her head as if she thought he could see her, Grace frowned. “I mean, why would I need Tiege here if I’m just doing interviews?”

Tiege was Veronica’s former stepson, so Grace knew exactly how the guy would get in undetected. Veronica really was planning her exit strategy if she’d told him about the wedding being here this week.

“Don’t try that stunt with me,” he replied. “The only reason I’m sitting on the fact that Riley Gold’s wedding is taking place this week is because this story is a lot bigger.”

“Look, I’m getting a lot of good material. The story is coming along nicely and will be in your inbox early next week.”

The wedding was Saturday, three days away, and her flight out was already booked for early Sunday morning. She planned to give the story one final pass on Monday and send it off to Eddie that afternoon.

“Send me what you’ve got so far. I want to make sure you’re on the right track.”

“Not a chance. That’s not how I work. I’ll send you the complete story when it’s done and no pictures.”

“Do you have any idea how much circulation we’d get if we landed the first and only wedding photos?”

“Do you have any idea how powerful both these families are? You sneak into this venue to get pictures and they’ll come after you. I mean, they’ll go over your head to the owner of the paper and they’ll make his life a living hell as payback. How do you think he’s gonna react when he finds out you’re the one who brought that type of heat to his doorstep?” She was bluffing, sort of.

Grace really had no idea how RJ, his family or Tobias dealt with the media when they overstepped boundaries. That wasn’t a conversation she and RJ ever needed to have, because up until this point she’d represented his family and their business with the utmost respect on the few occasions she’d written about them. Sure, this story was a totally different ball game, and she’d taken a very calculated risk in coming here to do it in the first place. But she did know that after several recent debacles—the blogger who’d printed those designs from King Designs and insinuated Riley had stolen them from Chaz, the reporter who’d revealed Nina and Major’s business connection, and