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He was right “It’s a loan, Jaeger”

“It’s a teh his hair “Once the gey report comes back, Ballantyne will offer you a lot more for those stones, and you will repay me the money It’s not rocket science”

Piper opened her ain and repeated the action He lifted his eyebrows and waited another thirty seconds before speaking again “Okay, that’s settled I’ll get the money to you, maybe by the end of day tomorrow, but definitely by Monday”

That sexy eous goldfish he’d ever seen Deciding it was past tiainst the couch and folded his ar very businesslike, Miss Mills How’s Ty feeling?”

“He’s fine, back to noret home he’ll be asleep”

Piper fingered the heton earlier and oner nearly offered to do it for her “Um, thank you For the advance I promise I’ll pay you back”

“I know you will,” Jaeger replied “That’s a given” If she kept looking at hirateful, then he wouldn’t be able to stop hi exactly how she looked wearing just boots and glasses and crazy curls “Tell me about the art you saw today”

Piper looked at hi this? You don’t even know me”

Jaeger stood up and walked around the couch to the , resting his forearlass and his head on his arm He felt the air behind him move, inhaled Piper’s perfume as she joined him She placed her hand on the center of his back He felt connected, for the first tier and deeper than himself It scared the crap out of him

He sed, thinking he could tell her he didn’t want the ge the sapphires was all he cared about The sapphs were important—of course they were—but he didn’t want her to lose her house, lose her connection to her mother He suspected emotional connections were vitally important to Piper It wasn’t necessary for her to be this stressed, this worried This was a solution he could well afford But his impulse to offer theto protect her Seeing her so frazzled caused his intestines to knot