offering breathtaking views of the Seine and the Eiffel Tower. A luxury private jet and a penthouse in the heart of Paris with such beautiful views, she couldn’t help be impressed despite her dark mood. She traced the concrete railing with her fingers, feeling uncharacteristically peeved.
Alexander King might have turned his back on his A-list Hollywood star parents when he was only seventeen, but the fact that he was filthy rich in his own right incensed her further. Why couldn’t he have been an abject failure like her?
And nothing she had seen so far indicated that he flaunted his wealth, unlike her father. No gold-edged trimmings in sight, no false imperiousness around his staff. On the contrary, his staff seemed too happy to follow his every command. He didn’t need constant validation of his success. For all she knew, the man had been born with the arrogant confidence he wore like a second skin.
She turned back to the living room. A surprising sense of comfort settled in her stomach. Andy Warhol’s turquoise Marilyn Monroe graced one wall. She passed by the Hollywood Diva with a grin on her face. The scandalous actress’s painting in Alexander’s penthouse looked as out of place as she had felt in the wedding gown.
“What are you grinning about?”
His voice behind her scrambled her senses. “I imagined it to be different.” Spying the leap of awareness in his gaze, she hastened to clarify. “This place has such a relaxed feel to it.”
“Meaning I’m uptight?”
She grinned again, unwilling to take the bait. “Meaning, is it yours?”
He glanced around the living room, as though looking at it anew. Something akin to affection danced in his gaze. “Emily decorated this place. She fancies herself an interior designer, so I gave her free rein last summer.”
The sister Alexander guarded so fiercely? He had sued his own parents for custody of his six-year-old sister the moment he had turned twenty and had launched his own small business. The courts had granted him custody. The ruthlessness of the story made Olivia shiver all over despite the sunlight streaming through the windows. “Your sister?”
He nodded.
“I didn’t see her at the wedding.”
It was his turn to shrug. “She’s busy.”
He was famous for the utmost security with which he guarded his younger sister. Nothing about her was known to the public, which of course, made them even more rabid for information on her. “Too busy to attend her brother’s wedding?”
Alexander shot her a warning glance, as Olivia raised her brows, her wide mouth an O. Emily would have enjoyed his wedding but he couldn’t take any chances with her safety now. “Considering the farce that went down, it’s better she wasn’t there.”
The censure in her words grated at him. And the fact that it did annoyed him even more.
It didn’t help that he was already on edge. Nothing was going as he’d planned. Carlos, his head of security, had no updates for him regarding Kim, and his contact in Paris had confirmed his suspicions. Isabella had been living incognito in Paris for more than three months and it had nothing to do with her work. The fact that his mother was here where Emily went to school was not a coincidence. At least, Emily was away on a trip to the Swiss Alps with her school. And he had to depend on the one woman on the planet who was like a ticking bomb.
Olivia spent every waking minute feeling every emotion that passed through her. Every small joy had to be celebrated, like the fifteen minutes she had spent gushing over his flight attendant’s wedding pictures. He’d expected her to rant and rage over him all through the flight for dragging her to Paris.
Instead, she had been unusually silent, her grief a dark cloud hanging over her. Any woman would have wanted to avoid the place where she’d had an affair with a married man, a man twenty years older than her, the place where her disgrace had made her notorious. He understood that.
Alexander King might have turned his back on his A-list Hollywood star parents when he was only seventeen, but the fact that he was filthy rich in his own right incensed her further. Why couldn’t he have been an abject failure like her?
And nothing she had seen so far indicated that he flaunted his wealth, unlike her father. No gold-edged trimmings in sight, no false imperiousness around his staff. On the contrary, his staff seemed too happy to follow his every command. He didn’t need constant validation of his success. For all she knew, the man had been born with the arrogant confidence he wore like a second skin.
She turned back to the living room. A surprising sense of comfort settled in her stomach. Andy Warhol’s turquoise Marilyn Monroe graced one wall. She passed by the Hollywood Diva with a grin on her face. The scandalous actress’s painting in Alexander’s penthouse looked as out of place as she had felt in the wedding gown.
“What are you grinning about?”
His voice behind her scrambled her senses. “I imagined it to be different.” Spying the leap of awareness in his gaze, she hastened to clarify. “This place has such a relaxed feel to it.”
“Meaning I’m uptight?”
She grinned again, unwilling to take the bait. “Meaning, is it yours?”
He glanced around the living room, as though looking at it anew. Something akin to affection danced in his gaze. “Emily decorated this place. She fancies herself an interior designer, so I gave her free rein last summer.”
The sister Alexander guarded so fiercely? He had sued his own parents for custody of his six-year-old sister the moment he had turned twenty and had launched his own small business. The courts had granted him custody. The ruthlessness of the story made Olivia shiver all over despite the sunlight streaming through the windows. “Your sister?”
He nodded.
“I didn’t see her at the wedding.”
It was his turn to shrug. “She’s busy.”
He was famous for the utmost security with which he guarded his younger sister. Nothing about her was known to the public, which of course, made them even more rabid for information on her. “Too busy to attend her brother’s wedding?”
Alexander shot her a warning glance, as Olivia raised her brows, her wide mouth an O. Emily would have enjoyed his wedding but he couldn’t take any chances with her safety now. “Considering the farce that went down, it’s better she wasn’t there.”
The censure in her words grated at him. And the fact that it did annoyed him even more.
It didn’t help that he was already on edge. Nothing was going as he’d planned. Carlos, his head of security, had no updates for him regarding Kim, and his contact in Paris had confirmed his suspicions. Isabella had been living incognito in Paris for more than three months and it had nothing to do with her work. The fact that his mother was here where Emily went to school was not a coincidence. At least, Emily was away on a trip to the Swiss Alps with her school. And he had to depend on the one woman on the planet who was like a ticking bomb.
Olivia spent every waking minute feeling every emotion that passed through her. Every small joy had to be celebrated, like the fifteen minutes she had spent gushing over his flight attendant’s wedding pictures. He’d expected her to rant and rage over him all through the flight for dragging her to Paris.
Instead, she had been unusually silent, her grief a dark cloud hanging over her. Any woman would have wanted to avoid the place where she’d had an affair with a married man, a man twenty years older than her, the place where her disgrace had made her notorious. He understood that.
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