Page 77 of Can't Fight the Moonlight

"I just wish he could have seen it all," he said, his voice heavy with grief.

"He would have been very impressed with his little brother. I'm sure your parents must be proud of you, too."

"They don't have a right to be proud. They contributed nothing to my success."

"When's the last time you saw them?"

"Three years ago. We didn't make it more than ten minutes without a screaming match. I blame them for everything, and they blame themselves for nothing, so we are a billion miles apart. But I don't care about them anymore. It's not like I lost anything. You can’t lose something you never had." He drew in a breath and let it out. "So, that's my story. That's my secret. Now, let's talk about you and more of those guilty pleasures."

She stiffened at his words, not because she was afraid of revealing her secrets, but because she realized she was holding a secret that belonged to his grandmother, one that could affect him. Marie had asked her not to tell Justin that his parents might come to the ceremony on Saturday.But after what she'd just heard, could she keep that secret?

"Justin, there is something I should tell you," she began.

He frowned. "You sound suddenly serious."

"It's not that big of a deal. Actually, it might not even be a deal at all."Was she making a mistake to create drama and anger with his grandparents for something that might not even happen?Maybe she should talk to Marie first and let her know that she needed to come clean to her grandson. It was really her secret to tell.

"You know what? I think we've talked enough for one night," Justin said.

He was letting her off the hook, and while she knew she shouldn’t take the reprieve, she really wanted to. If she told Justin his parents might show up on Saturday, he would probably leave immediately, and she wasn't ready to say good-bye to him yet.

"Hey," Justin said, running his fingers down the side of her face. "No more frowns. Let's get back to fun. Whatever you have to say can wait. I have other ideas for the next few minutes."

"Only minutes?" she asked lightly.

He smiled. "How about hours?"

"We should sleep at some point."

"At some point," he agreed, as his hand slipped between her legs.

A wave of desire drove every thought out of her mind but one—she wanted him. And he wanted her. Sometimes, she just needed to keep it simple. There was always tomorrow.

Chapter Sixteen

Justin wokeup a little before seven to a buzzing text alert coming from his phone, which was still in the pocket of his jeans. It was probably Anthony. The London meeting would just be ending.

Lizzie was still fast asleep and so very pretty with her cheeks pink, her lips soft, and her hair flowing in silky waves down her bare shoulders. He did not want to get out of bed. He did not want to leave her. For the first time in he couldn't remember when, he actually wanted to say to hell with business and focus on making her say his name with a sexy little gasp of pleasure at the end of it.

But as his phone buzzed once more, he rolled out of bed, grabbed his jeans off the floor, and moved into the bathroom.

He was right. Anthony needed to talk. He sent him back a quick text, then dressed and returned to the bedroom. He gave Lizzie one last wishful look and then left.

Upon entering his room, he immediately fired up the computer on the desk, starting a video call with Anthony. He wished he'd had time for coffee, but Anthony sounded rather desperate. A moment later Anthony's face filled the screen. He looked tired and his brown eyes were worried. This was not the face of the young, cocky guy he was used to seeing around the office.

"What's wrong? What happened?" he asked.

"Everything was going well, but then Maxwell started asking me questions about the latest version of the R720 and suggested that Vinton Industries had a better prototype."

"They don't. I gave you all the competitive specs."

"I know. I told him that. I just didn't quite have the facts right in front of me. I had trouble refuting some of the points of his argument. I was juggling a lot of balls."

He drew in a tight breath, knowing that it wasn't completely Anthony's fault, because he'd been thrown into the meeting last minute, but still… He'd expected him to know the most important information as well as he could. "All right. What else?"

"They liked the rest of the presentation, but they're hesitant on the R720."

"Which is a big part of this deal."

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