Free His Paris Affair (The Albury Affairs) by Christina Ow Page B

no.
    He stood and sauntered to the bar and as much as she tried,

she couldn’t keep her eyes away from his tight ass. Once upon a time, she had

an ass like that, but the cost was well worth the gain.
    “Not even a glass of wine?”
    Several glasses of wine were what led to her marrying

Antonio, so no. And anyway, she was breast feeding and the last thing she

wanted was a drunk baby. “No, I’m not much of a drinker anymore.”
    He turned around and stared at her with one raised eyebrow.

She stared back, communicating how serious she was about not drinking. He

sighed heavily and sauntered back to her, empty handed.
    “It looks like we are doing this sober then.”
      He reached his

hand out to her and she took it. He then pulled her up to her feet and led her

to the coach. He half lay, half sat with his back on the armrest one foot on

the ground while his other leg was knee bent on the couch. He then pulled her

to recline against his chest, her legs stretched out on the couch, her hip snug

against his crotch. It was hard thinking about anything else with his hard

shaft pressed against her.
    “You already know about our plans—my mother and I—but you

don’t know why. Clarissa, my mom, was a model from Argentina. She met my father

at the resort on one of her photo shoots. Back then it looked nothing like it

does now. I saw the pictures and it made me wonder why my mom went back there

on vacation. Anyway, they were married and seven months later I was born.”
    Melody rubbed his chest in comfort. “They married because of

you?”
    He laughed but there was no mirth in it. “That’s the funny

part. She got pregnant to trap him into marriage which played well for his

plans.”
    Melody sat up and looked down at him. His rage radiated off

him in waves, his eyes hard and livid, his lips pressed in a hard line. She was

even scared to ask but she did. “Which was?”
    “Get all her money,” he spat out with a sneer.
    She swallowed her apprehension. That was exactly what she’d

been afraid of her entire life, loving someone who only loved her family money.

It was exactly what she had accused him of. She never would have if she’d seen

his face as he spat those words. It explained why he was so hurt, so offended

when she’d charged him as a fortune hunter.
    “He did by the way. Then he renovated and re-launched

Albury’s Place into a five star resort for the rich and famous. Then once he

accomplished what he wanted, he asked my mother to leave.”
    Taken aback she said, “You can’t be serious.”
    He nodded and mumbled ‘I should have had that drink’ under

his breath before he audibly said, “You see, he wanted the love of his life

back, to share in his success not my mother. She was just a means to an end.”
    She nodded, finally understanding the whole Albury sibling

dynamic. She hadn’t wanted to seem nosey asking how he was older than Riana by

two years and younger than Reno by the same. Riana herself didn’t know how that

happened!
    “Cora was pregnant again and he wanted his new child to be

born in the same luxury I was, that Reno wasn’t.”
    “Did their mom—Cora—know about this?”
    He shrugged. “My mom says she did, that they planned the

whole thing together but I’m not so sure. There is no straight story yet about

Reno Sr. and Cora’s relationship—Riana and Reno’s stories aren’t quite the same

but Reno probably knows better, though he was just four then. But do you see a

woman who runs from the love of her life to protect her children to be the same

one who plots against the mother of her children’s brother?”
    Melody shook her head. The woman who’d raised Reno and Riana

couldn’t possibly be that heartless and devious, but people always surprised

her. Jeb, Loraine’s bodyguard since childhood, no one pegged him as Loraine’s

psycho stalker.
    “Did she know you existed?”
    Ruiz nodded. “She wrote to my mom, wanted us kids to get