page5 (1/1)

Piper tucked a long curl behind her ear “There’s so about Italy that’s sexy and seductive It’s a place that sublies you to seize the day and act out of character, and this—” Piper waved her hand at his bare chest “—is very out of character for uys only if I think we are going somewhere, if the man has the potential to become important to me Thanks to the tabloids, we all know you don’t do commitment, so that rules you out”

Okay, sure, that was true but But? There was no but She had hied!

Piper stood up and pulled the knot on her robe, allowing the sides to fall open The fabric framed her pretty breasts, and thethe robe slid down her arloriously naked She straddled his thighs and gently touched his mouth with hers “If this is all the ti it, Ballantyne”

Jaeger gripped her butt in his hands and stood up, holding her Her legs locked around his waist as he carried her to the bedroom

She was the perfect one-night stand; she’d let him off the hook with no draht, lowering her to the bed

So, then, why didn’t he?

One

Eighteen months later

Piper Mills pulled her reading glasses froe of her nose, she pushed her chair back fro desk and scowled at her laptop screen, where the offer of an exciting consultation sat in her inbox, waiting for her response

Of course she would like to appraise a recently discovered Daniel Glutz She’d written her master’s thesis on the Ger was in Berlin, and since Ty’s birth nineart on the East Coast, to trips she could undertake in a day or less Although she loved and trusted her nanny, Ceri, and Ceri’s twin brother, Rainn, as also good with Ty, she still didn’t feel co her precious child for extended periods She couldn’t leave Ty overnight Not yet

Maybe when he was in college

Piper stood up and went to the curved bo of her three-story redbrick Victorian She folded her arms across her chest and looked down onto the street below Fall was nearly over, winter was rushing in and the seasons see, lost Mick in late suiven birth to Ty in midwinter This summer, unlike the previous one, passed by uneventfully

Mick’s death last year was a s her head around Even though she and her father rarely spoke, she liked knowing there was somebody she was connected to, some family she could call her own—even if it was only in the quiet depths of her soul, since Mick never publicly acknowledged her as his daughter

Or acknowledged her at all

Growing up, she’d never thought she’d be glad he publicly ignored her and her time mistress But when the most flamboyant and driven personality on the New York social scene, one of the most respected stockbrokers and investment advisors in the world, was arrested for fraud, Piper was very glad not to be linked to him

Over decades, Mick convinced thousands of people to invest in funds he reco solid returns He then usedinvestors, all while living the high life It was no surprise he’d de up to, and after, his arrest He’d needed to raise so hi hole

The press attention over his arrest was intense, and Mick’s ex-as constantly harassed by reporters Mick’s child bride/trophy wife conveniently left the States for Colombia two days before his arrest, never to return, not even to attend Mick’s funeral

Ah, such a demonstration of true love

Since neither of Mick’s wives knew of Piper’s existence, she’d just stayed in Park Slope, Brooklyn, living in the house Mick bought for herthe Mick-induced craziness frorateful her mother never witnessed the ilded pedestal she’d placed him on His death, fro arrested, would’ve killed her if cancer had not