Free Billion Dollar Milkmaid: The Complete Series by Simone Holloway

together.
     
    She rubbed her face and sighed. “He’ll be the death of us all,” she said out loud.
     
    “Yes he will.”
     
    Amy jumped out of her seat. Patrick stepped out of the shadows. “I assume you were referring to Hunter.” His voice was cold.
     
    “I was just-”
     
    “Digging for dirt.”
     
    Amy didn’t know what to say. She’d been caught red-handed.
     
    “We can’t go on this way.” Patrick rested against the desk and put his head down. “In all honesty, I don’t blame you for the things you’ve done. I’ve pushed you away and put you in danger. This is my fault.”
     
    Amy walked around the desk and stood before him. “I shouldn’t have slept with Hunter. It was wrong. Don’t apologize for that. If you want us to be close then you have to tell me what’s going on. Why am I in danger? What business dealings do you have with Hunter that are so important that you would keep up this charade? I mean, all of these lies and games over money?”
     
    “It’s not just about money. My families’ legacy is at stake.”
     
    “I don’t understand.”
     
    “My family doesn’t have much anymore, except our name- a name that used to mean something.”
     
    Amy was having a hard time following him. “All of this is over your family name?”
     
    “My family and Hunter’s family have a long complicated history. The recession wiped us out and this deal is a chance to restore what we once had.”
     
    “So you’ll marry Anna Belle then, for your family?”
     
    “I told you, I have no intention of marrying her.”
     
    “And what? I’m supposed to take your word?”
     
    “Believe me, don’t believe me, but understand, I’ve only done what I think is in the best interest of my family and you.”
     
    Amy was beyond arguing the motives of Patrick’s actions. At this point, all she wanted was a plan of attack. She needed to feel some degree of control in this whole bizarre situation she found herself in. “What do we do now?”
     
    “We wait.”
     
    “Will you tell Hunter that I’ve come clean with you?”
 
    “ No. He needs to believe everything is proceeding as he planned it. We should carry on as if nothing has changed.”
     
    “But they have changed, haven’t they?”
     
    Patrick stepped close to her and ran the back of his hand down her arm. His touch never failed to send shivers up and down her spine.
     
    “You’re the wildcard in all this,” he whispered. “I need you, but I can’t guarantee your safety. I know you wonder…”
     
    He swallowed hard and looked away.  Amy tried to hold his gaze, but he wouldn’t meet her eyes. She couldn’t read his expression. Patrick had a way of retreating into his mind and blocking her out. She found it maddening.
     
    Amy touched his face and ran her finger along his jaw and over his lips. His eyes searched her face. Could it be that he found her as enigmatic as she found him? The thought made Amy blush.
     
    Suddenly, his mouth was on hers. He kissed her softly. It was a delicate, intimate gesture. One, rarely experienced in life and made twice as tender by the hard road they faced. Times were difficult but it gave Amy hope to know that they were in fact in it together.
     
    He grabbed her by the waist and lifted her onto the desk. She felt as if she weighed next to nothing in his arms. He untied her robe and rested his head on her chest. Amy ran her fingers through his hair, petting him gently.
     
    It suddenly weighed heavily on her mind how much stress Patrick was under. She hadn’t stopped to consider the pressure on him.
     
    Maybe, she thought bitterly, it was because he didn’t let her in. She wanted to share his burden, but he closed her off.
     
    As she felt Patrick’s hot breath on her skin, she realized that as much as she wanted to stay angry at him, she couldn’t, he was the lost piece she’d been searching for; the indefinable part of herself that had been missing.
     
    He suddenly pulled away from