Page 22 of Michael

“Daddy is clearly not doing a good job of keeping his wife happy,” Michael muttered. She grinned at hearing him echo her thoughts.

“What? That kid doesn’t know anything about sex yet. She dragged him closer to us because she wanted a front-row seat.” He shrugged.

Ambra tried to put her legs down when they got closer to shore, but Michael wasn’t having it and carried her like that all the way back to their spot on the beach. She admired the way he was able to carry her around effortlessly. She was not a small woman, yet he never seemed to mind picking her up and carrying her around like he was doing today. She felt feminine and dainty when he did that.

He grabbed the towels and began to dry her off.

“What are we doing today and later tonight?” he asked.

They had been going around and exploring Barbados and enjoying the food and drinks the island had to offer.

“I thought, what better way to end our trip here than going to the Stade’s rum tour and trying the rums there. We can have lunch there before taking a catamaran out in the afternoon. I rented one so we can go see the turtles and have some drinks,” she commented.

He nodded and gathered up their stuff to take back to the house.

She felt a twinge of guilt because originally, she was supposed to do this with Coco, but right now, Coco was busy dealing with her ex Colin. He had not given back the shares as promised. Instead, he was now getting his own revenge and was using the shares against her. That was one of the reasons Ambra wanted to go home in a hurry. She remembered her brief conversation with Coco when she finally called to warn her that Michael was on his way.

“You picked a real SOB to tangle with, Ambra. But a man in love will do crazy shit,” Coco had said.

“He’s not—”

“Uh huh. Even I saw the sparks at Zahara’s wedding.”

“Coco, he is not in love with me. The Brooks family is just wired a little differently than most, and I know they can be bastards—”

“Hold on a sec.” She heard heels hit what sounded like marble flooring and the creak of a door. Then she heard, “Oh hell no. What do you think you are doing?” Coco sounded furious.

“Moving my things in,” Ambra heard a familiar masculine voice say.

“You and that thing you call a chair can go back out to the dumpster where you belong.”

“My shares in your company says otherwise,” she heard Colin gloat.

“I—hey, don’t come any closer. Girl, hurry up and come back. I am going to need someone to bail me out of jail.” She heard a click as Coco hung up, then turned and marched back to the room she had left Michael in to scowl angrily at the cause of the problem Coco was now facing. He was about to sip his drink but paused, trying to look innocent.

“What?”

“You—”

He grinned. “How is Coco doing? Colin becoming a thorn in her side? Just like she was in mine.”

“Yes, and we should go back early to fix this.”

“No. One more day of her dealing with Colin won’t kill her.”

Ambra raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms. Michael put down the drink and gave her that look that was meant to make her melt at his feet.

“And besides, he will give them back shortly. He says he just needs them as leverage to get her to agree to something.”

“You spoke to him?” Ambra asked.

“Yes, as promised. I told him to give her back the shares or else.”

“Or else, hmm.”

“Yes.”

“Well, your ability to threaten looks like it is weakening, because from what I heard on the phone, he is not about to do that.”

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