Page 40 of Layne Closure Ahead

After she had a pen in her hand, she began initialing some pages and signing others. Most of the documents were typical arrangements tied to assets and liabilities. When she arrived at the last page, she paused at the sensation of a heavy weight settling in her stomach.

All her personal information alongside Eric’s was already listed there. There was just one last remaining field for the signature of the bride. Even the alleged officiant and witnesses had signed. Layne forced the pen to glide across the paper:

Layne Nicole O’Reilly

She dropped the pen and stepped away from the desk she had been using. This was what was going to be what kept Liam and her from being swallowed up whole by the city’s criminal factions all waiting to pounce on them. Layne should have felt a sense of relief. Instead, all she could feel was intense suffocation.

Eric looked over all the papers, double-checking that she hadn’t missed anything. Afterward, he approached her with a delighted smile. His hands cupped her face and without any hesitation, lowered his lips onto hers. He clutched her face there in his hands while he deeply kissed her, drawing it out far longer than it should have lasted.

When their mouths parted, he grinned at her. “Congratulations, Mrs. Ellis.”

The post-nuptial lunch had been some sushi from a five-star restaurant that Eric had splurged on in celebration of the joyous event. While he had been in great spirits, Layne didn’t have much of an appetite and merely picked at the rice of her spicy salmon roll.

“Now that everything is official, the process of fixing all the fractured pieces of the O’Reilly organization can begin. I will personally reach out to the heads of all the major entities to make sure it is clear that no one is to make a move against you. If they do, they will have hell to pay and me to answer to.” Eric was making a lot of bold promises, and she only hoped that he could deliver on them and it wouldn’t eat away at her spirit from the inside out.

Layne finally gave up on her lunch and rose from her seat across from him. “I told you I didn’t have time for a long lunch.”

He put his chopsticks down on his plate and quickly wiped his mouth with a napkin before rising from his seat. “I thought you’d be a little more eager to celebrate.”

Eric came over to her and wrapped his arms around her waist. “Maybe even pick up where we left off at the concert before your security guard rudely interrupted us.” The words he spoke were eager to try and manifest his desires.

Before she could knock him off track from his train of thought, he drew her in so their bodies were flush with one another. Her hands braced against the front of his chest. She should have had no problem blinking an eye at a potential good time, but something in her was holding her back. That ‘something’ had many tattoos and a voice that sank into her soul.

A delicate smile lifted her lips as she looked up at him. “I haven’t been sleeping well and all of this caught me by surprise. Maybe we can celebrate some other time.”

There was tension in his hands that were resting on the top curvature of her ass, but it released quickly as he rebounded from his clear disappointment. “That sounds like a great idea. I would rather we have all the time in the world to enjoy the moment. We can make an evening out of it, or perhaps, an entire weekend.”

Layne prayed that her face masked her true feelings on the idea of turning this into a celebration with him.

His hand came up to the back of her head as he dropped his head down and made sure to savor sharing another kiss with her. When he released her, he grinned. “We’ll talk soon about all the fun we’re going to have together.”

Before she left his office there on the forty-eighth floor, he had offered his men to drive her to where she needed. Layne adamantly declined, citing that she preferred to walk given Rebecca’s condo wasn’t too far and she could use the fresh air and sunshine.

The elevator ride down to the ground floor felt like it had moved at a snail’s pace. When the doors opened up, the anxiety that had been building up during the descent of all forty-something floors was quickly coming to an insurmountable peak.

She hurried through the lobby in hopes that the outside air would provide relief. Instead, what should have been a refreshing late autumn day felt too warm and muggy. Or, maybe it was just her disgust with herself.

Her palms began to feel clammy while her face paled. The twisting and spasming of her stomach was the only warning she needed. Layne ran over to the nearest trash receptacle and wretched up the little amount of lunch she had consumed into it.

The very thing she had been fighting against most of her life just became her reality.

CHAPTER TWENTY

For better or for worse, things over the next week moved quickly. Eric wasted no time in meeting with various figureheads across the city. One of those meetings is what had her pacing back and forth inside the office at O’Reilly Manor.

To hammer out some final details on the business end of matters, Liam needed to be involved whether she liked it or not. She tried to convince her brain to settle down while she waited. She wiped her palms against the thighs of her jeans before adjusting the bottom hem of her burgundy blouse.

“The office is right in here.” She heard Liam say on the other side of the door before it opened up, halting her pacing.

In walked Liam, followed by Eric close behind. While Liam had chosen comfort over business wearing a pair of jeans and a hoodie, Eric had gone with a more polished and professional look. He wore a charcoal set of pants with a matching vest overtop a light blue dress shirt and a navy tie.

Eric’s eyes immediately landed on her. “There she is.” He walked to her, smiling in excitement at her presence. Layne allowed him to greet her with a gentle kiss that left her feeling a little on edge given the discussions that were about to take place.

Noticing her apprehension, he moved his mouth to her ear where he whispered. “It will be painless, I promise.” He followed it with another kiss on her cheek before he left to take a seat across from Liam. She doubted that any business discussions between the three of them would be painless.

Liam was already behind his desk firing up the computer. He looked over at Eric. “Let’s talk about what I’m getting for allowing you to marry my sister?”

Layne did her best to stifle her snort that Liam had anything to do with this. He had no authority to claim he had allowed this whole damn order. Now, his only interest was what kickbacks he was going to get. Apparently, her sound of disagreement hadn’t been quiet enough seeing the way that Liam’s glare was shot over at her.

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