The Millionaire Affair (Love in the Balance 3)

Oh yes. Way to not sound like a machine.

But it was the truth. He’d cared about Lissa. He’d never loved her though. “By the time we were engaged, we were friends at best.” They’d been over each other. He’d thought they’d been friends, had a kind of understanding most couples didn’t have. They could travel, work, all without answering to each other. It’d been an ideal arrangement. Companionship, sex. A partner. But it hadn’t been enough. Not for Lissa. He’d learned that the night he’d seen the footage of her and Carson Robbins. The prick.

“Then why did you get engaged?” Kimber asked, interrupting his thoughts.

“Are you a reporter?” he asked.

Her cheeks tinged with embarrassment. “I’m sorry.”

He touched her knee, smiling for her benefit. “Kidding.”

“Oh.” He was rewarded by a small smile. He wanted to kiss her again; found himself wishing she would saddle him so he could once more grasp on to her cushiony, delicious body. Sounded like a better idea than them sitting here talking about his ex-fiancée.

“So… why did you?” she pressed.

She wasn’t going to let that go. He would have to tell her the ugly truth. Is there any other kind?

“Because, like the YouTube video, Lissa thought an engagement would be good publicity.”

Kimber’s eyes widened. Naïve to the ways of the world. If only she knew how many things were staged, arranged, and pretended. He watched her. She watched him back.

Would she be strong enough to handle this about him? Or would she stand firmly on her moral high ground and use his revelation as an excuse to leave? There was a reason no one in his family knew he and Lissa were about as in love with one another as Democrats and Republicans. Because they would have lectured and browbeat him a long time ago.

Like Kimber was planning on lecturing him now?

He liked her. Too much, he realized a bit belatedly. But then, there was no danger of losing himself to her, was there? His head was efficiently separated from his heart. As they’d clearly just established.

But she didn’t lecture him. She reached for his hand and squeezed. He wanted to turn his palm over and intertwine their fingers. Instead, he slipped his hand free and reached for his scotch.

“Don’t be,” he said after a thorough drink. “I am the Tin Man.”

Her brows lowered. “You think you have no heart?” she asked with a hint of disgust.

He knew he didn’t. At least, not in the way she was suggesting. “Lissa’s nickname for me.” He raised a shoulder dismissively.

“Well Lissa is a cheating, awful, horrible person who took you for granted. If I were you, I wouldn’t heed to her opinion.”

He sat up taller, felt stronger. Kimber coming out swinging in his defense? He didn’t need it, but he appreciated it. Other than his mother and sister—and they did not count—he hadn’t had a woman in his corner in a long, long time. If ever. Kimber was so real. Authenticity radiated from her like steam from a kettle. So different from the women he’d shared his life with before.

Nice to know he could count on the truth for as long as she was around. She’d never use him up for her own needs, whether he was willing or not.

A spark of hope lit within him and he snuffed it out. Hoping for a future with Kimber was pointless. The lure of fake bait at the end of a fishing line. He knew who he was. And getting a glimpse of someone he could’ve been before he’d endured his unchangeable past didn’t matter now. That man wasn’t real.

“Heads up,” she murmured, pulling him out of his darkening thoughts. He followed the direction of her gaze to the baby monitor. The screen showed Lyon’s tangled bedding and abandoned Superman figurine, but his nephew was nowhere to be seen.

A moment later, Lyon appeared at the patio door. Kimber stood and Landon had the inconceivable urge to latch on to her wrist and pull her down next to him, despite their pint-sized company.

“Let me guess. Water?” she asked Lyon.

Lyon nodded.

“Come say good night to your uncle,” she said sweetly. Landon’s heart pinched as she turned those soft eyes on him before walking inside. Then pinched harder when he caught his nephew against his chest and managed to wrangle the boy into the seat next to him.

While his nephew recapped his adventurous day of Legos, Gotham City, and peanut butter sandwiches, Landon couldn’t stop his eyes from going over Lyon’s head to the swing of Kimber’s bottom as she walked through the living room to the open kitchen.