Free Island Road: The Billionaire Brothers by Lily Everett

enough…”
    Her fingers went white-knuckled as she clenched them for purchase against the wall, and Miles forgot to be nervous about the thousand-plus-foot drop straight down into Midtown traffic. Stepping quickly, he maneuvered himself next to her and slipped a steadying arm around her shoulders, relieved when she relaxed into his side at once.
    “What did I tell you,” he said. “You don’t have to do this alone. Hell, you don’t have to do it at all—but since you’re determined, I’m right here with you. I’m not going anywhere.”
    “I want to look over the edge.” Determination hummed in her low voice, threading steel through her limbs, and once again, Miles could only marvel at her.
    Instead of arguing, the way he knew she half-expected him to, Miles silently nudged her forward and slid his body behind hers. Bracing his feet securely against the buffeting of the wind, he clasped his hands around her narrow waist.
    “Go ahead,” he told her. “I’ll be your anchor.”
    Greta folded her hands over his, shooting him a smile full of nerves, thrill, and the incandescent joy of doing something crazy for once in her sheltered life. And then she leaned out, trusting him to hold her securely.
    Miles was ready to pull her back against him the instant he felt her stiffen in fear or panic, but she didn’t. She laughed. Wild and carefree, with her arms stretched out to the sides like wings that would catch the wind and let her soar off into the night, Greta laughed.
    And Miles fell in love.
    “I can’t believe we’re doing this!” she called over her shoulder, eyes glittering and hair flying in tendrils around her shoulders. “Look, you can see all the way to … gosh, there are three bridges all lit up. Is one of them the Brooklyn Bridge?”
    “That one.” Miles risked letting go of her with one hand just long enough to point.
    “Beautiful.” Her sigh was lost in the breeze, but he felt the way the breath pushed out of her rib cage. She leaned back against his chest, and Miles crossed his arms over her torso to hold her close.
    “This is my island,” he said into the delicate pink shell of her ear. “I’m glad you got to see it like this. Thank you for coming here with me.”
    “I’ll never forget today, as long as I live. I’m the one who should be thanking you.”
    Guilt scoured out his insides with a merciless hand. “You don’t owe me anything, Greta Hackley. Today was for me as much as for you. I’ve lived in this city my entire adult life, and I guess I take the sights and sounds and smells of it for granted. You brought them back to life for me.”
    He paused, everything he wanted to say getting stuck behind the giant ball of emotion in his throat. But this was too important, he had to get it out.
    Dredging his voice up from deep in his chest, he rumbled, “You brought me back to life. I was dead inside, and didn’t even know it.”
    Miles felt, more than heard, the broken noise Greta made before she turned to wrap her arms around his neck.
    Right there, at the top of the world, Greta kissed him. And as Miles snugged her in tight and tried his best to breathe in her essence, he knew he had to do whatever it took to keep this woman in his life.
    From here on out, Miles would be honest and open with her. He wanted a relationship, a future, a chance to make Greta fall in love with him for real. He’d started this campaign of seduction for all the wrong reasons, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t work. He’d just keep it up until Greta was as head over heels, crazy in love as he was.
    And he’d make damn sure she never, ever found out the truth about how this all started.
    *   *   *
    Jittery anticipation made Greta fumble as she slipped off her heels and kicked them across the marble-floored foyer of Miles’s penthouse. She caught herself against a sleek, glass-topped display case that held what looked like an ancient family Bible and several framed photos.
    Greta nudged the