Lillianna and Rosalia also agree. What the hell is going on.
I meet Ivy’s eyes across the table. Her shoulders are slumped. I can practically hear her thoughts. She’s glancing toward the door like she’s calculating the distance to her escape route. The woman planned on collecting her sister and running back to herlife on the East Coast. If she agrees, she’s stuck in Kentucky for three months working with a family she clearly can’t stand.
Wait until I tell them I’m staying until this mess is fixed. She’ll probably kidnap and smuggle Madison back to New York. Not that they’ll be living with me, with any of us. I’m not pushing them off on my brother. We’ll set them up somewhere out of the way. Madison should be used to that, given that’s how she lived with her mom.
And at least with distance between us, I won't have to deal with this ridiculous pull I still feel toward her. I'm a one-night guy. Always have been. The attraction should have died the second I came. Instead, she sits across from me in that professional armor, and all I can think about is peeling it off her.
“Fine,” Ivy sighs. “If my firm agrees.”
The words land like a gavel. Three months in Kentucky, when I should be back in Quebec by Monday. Three months cleaning up Dad's corruption with my name on the evidence. Three months playing strangers with a woman I can still taste on my tongue.
And somehow, I know with absolute certainty that nothing about this arrangement will go according to plan. Not the environmental cleanup. Not the housing situation. Not the careful distance I need to keep from Ivy.
I'm completely fucked.
Chapter Four
Ivy
Fucking Thorne Blackstone.
I fucked Thorne Blackstone.
No scratch that. I fucked Evander. The charming man on the train who made me laugh, who touched me like he'd been waiting his whole life to learn my body, who whispered my name like a prayer.
But Evander doesn't exist.
Thorne Blackstone does. And he’s a liar. A player. Even with my head buried in the sand about the Blackstone, I’m aware of his reputation. The man has a reputation so toxic that he probably has his own Wikipedia page under “corporate villains.”
I can't look at him. Can't process that the man who had me screaming his fake name twelve hours ago is sitting across from me in a boardroom, acting like we're strangers while my fourteen-year-old half-sister holds his family hostage with supposed environmental crimes. My life is officially out of control.
His gaze catches mine.
I should have looked him up. I know what Google is. But every time I'd typed "Blackstone" into a search bar since I was fourteen years old, I'd closed the tab before it finished loading. Self-preservation dressed up as indifference. The one photo I remembered was years old, a clean-shaven man with much shorter hair. Nothing like the man on that train.
I plead silently:Don't say anything about last night.
Fuck you, his eyes seem to say back.This is business.
“We’ll set you two up at our hotel,” Sebastian says.
Madison shakes her head. “No. How will we get to know each other if you hide me out of your way for the three months?”
“That’s the point. We don’t need to know you. You’ll never be family,” Thorne growls. His gaze returns to me, sharp and accusing. "Ms. West, surely you can’t be on board with staying here? Even if you took us on as clients, you can handle this remotely. Environmental law doesn't require you to be physically present in Kentucky. Take Madison back to New York and consult from there."
Ms. West.
The formality erases last night like it never happened. If only my body could forget. Last night, he moaned my name. This morning, I'm a stranger.
Before I can reply, Madison says, “No, we made a deal.” Her hands grip the edge of the table. "I'm not leaving. I told you, three months. Here. With my family."
“And there is no way I’m leaving her here with you. With any Blackstone.”
Thorne’s unreadable gaze remains locked on mine. Madison taps my arm, and I turn from him. “I’ll be fine. My dad—” She glances around the room. “Their dad taught me how to handle them.”
I glance at Thorne. “I’m not so sure about that, sweetie.”
“I am.” Madison points at Thorne. Her index finger shakes, but her voice is steady. “And I want to stay with you.”
