Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 109783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
“Ae!” Millie clapped her hands. “Ae!”
I laughed softly but looked up to see Callie giving me a look.
“What?”
She sighed heavily. “Please don’t waste time like I did.”
“Don’t even think about interfering like I did,” I said, referring to the fact that I’d deliberately brought Lewis and Callie together at a party in London because I was convinced they were both still in love with each other. I was correct.
Callie shrugged nonchalantly. “Well, it would only be fair. And that worked out great, FYI.”
“Callie …”
“Fine.” She threw her palms up. “Waste time dancing around each other instead of banging out your issues.”
“Charming.” Sloane threw her daughter a wry look.
Callie grinned unrepentantly. “What? Isn’t your problem that you’re worried Fyfe is only physically attracted to you and clinging to you because you’ve been such a help with Millie?”
“Stop reading my mind, woman.”
“Sleep with him. You’ll know after that if it was just an itch you both needed to scratch. Plus, you should have sex before you make any important relationship decisions. What if you’re not compatible in the bedroom?”
“There’s more to a relationship than sex,” I tried to argue.
Callie and Sloane exchanged a look and Sloane offered quietly, “Of course there is. But sex is a big part of intimacy with a partner. If you don’t have chemistry, things might get stale fast.”
Shit.
I never even considered Fyfe and I might not click in the bedroom. Maybe because of that infamous sex dream in which he was a phenomenal lover. But that wasn’t real. That was all in my head.
Oh my God.
Callie patted my shoulder. “Maybe something to think about.”
As soon as I pushed Millie’s stroller out of the bakery, I spotted Cameron exiting Flora’s with a to-go cup of coffee in hand. I ducked, veering a sharp left in the opposite direction.
“Eilidh!”
Shit.
Inwardly sighing, I glanced back and saw Cameron looking left and right before jogging across the street. His lanyard bounced against his stomach while his coffee valiantly held on.
That dread I’d felt yesterday during our altercation increased tenfold as he bestowed a white, charming smile on me.
“So glad I caught you before I return to work.” He slowed to a stop, searching my face happily like we hadn’t seen each other in years. His gaze dropped to Millie in the stroller. “She’s so adorable. Out for a walk?”
I gaped at him.
Like … what the actual fuck?
At my nonresponse, Cameron leaned in and pressed a kiss to my cheek.
I reared backward. “Whoa, okay.”
He laughed softly. “Sorry. I, uh … yeah, yesterday was odd. I thought we could just forget about it and start again. Why don’t we go for dinner Saturday night?”
True concern crawled down my spine in an unpleasant shiver. “I think I made it clear yesterday, Cameron, that I’m not interested in pursuing a relationship with you. Any kind of relationship.” I pushed the stroller to walk away, and he clamped his fist around the handle to stop me.
The warm, cordial doctor was gone. His expression was hard.
Seriously, he was like a real-life Jekyll & Hyde. I shivered again.
“You might want to rethink giving me another chance,” he said quietly, a tinge of menace curdling his tone. “After all, I am Millicent’s doctor. One call from me to social services and Fyfe loses his daughter.”
He did not just …
Rage clouded my mind.
He was attempting to blackmail me into dating him?
A cold laugh huffed from between my lips as I stared up at a man I’d thought attractive a mere week ago. Now I thought he was one of the scummiest things I’d ever laid eyes on. And I called him a thing because he was not a man. “You think you can threaten and blackmail me?”
“No one would dispute the word of a doctor.” He shrugged, taking a casual sip of his coffee.
Chuckling at his naivete, I watched his face flush with rage. Oh, he didn’t like a woman laughing at him. Safe in the knowledge there was nothing he could do to me in the middle of the street, I scoffed, “You have no idea who you’re dealing with.”
“A once-famous actor?” He guffawed.
Something snapped in me at that moment.
For years, I’d allowed my power to be taken from me. Allowed others, friends, strangers, to have power over me. Someone had planted a fucking camera in my home and watched me, had stolen power from me, and I didn’t even know it.
And I was done.
“No. I’m an Adair. You think we’re just a family with some money, a few businesses … You’d be wrong. Our estate isn’t some fluffy club for the rich and famous. There are powerful people in that club with connections that would blow your mind. And through them, my family has connections that reach the highest level of government. In multiple countries. One phone call and I could have your medical license stripped from you. Your car license revoked. Evicted. Credit score annihilated. In other words, Dr. Phillips, you mess with me, my family, or Fyfe, and I will fucking ruin you in every way that matters. You might have gotten away with threatening women in the past, but this time you chose the wrong one. Because I know my own power. And this part’s really going to enrage you since you’re a little, little man who clearly gets off on making women feel weak … but I have so much more power than you, that wee threat you just made is a joke my family will be dining on for years to come.”