Page 13 of Endless Love: Novella

“I’ll show you,” I quickly offered, and Ivy gave me a funny look that made me think I’d spoken too loudly. She didn’t say anything, though, settling for watching us as we crossedthe terrace and entered through French doors leading into the kitchen.

As soon as we were inside, away from the others, he let out a sharp breath. “I need your word on something,” he muttered as we crossed the kitchen, steering clear of the staff cleaning up after our feast.

“Sure. What is it?”

“Do not breathe the word of this. I don’t want anything getting in the way of the wedding.”

“Then you might want to brush up on your acting skills,” I offered. “It’s obvious there’s something wrong.”

“I’ve done my best to play it off,” he insisted, looking over his shoulder as he went on. “But it seems like shit’s getting worse all the time. I won’t be able to keep this quiet for much longer. I only hope nothing comes out until after the wedding.”

“Comes out?” There was nothing like finding out my suspicions were true when that was the last thing I wanted. Right away, images of a distraught Aria filled my head. Were we wrong to trust him after all the lies he had told in the beginning?

As soon as we were past the kitchen and in an empty hallway, I took him by his collar and pushed him against the wall. His eyes flew open wide before he shoved me away. “What the fuck?” he demanded.

I grabbed hold of him again and held him in place this time. “What did you do? I swear to God if you hurt her?—”

“Enough, already.” He held his hands up like he was surrendering. With his large frame and the skill he’d exhibited with his fists in the past, he could’ve easily taken me if he felt like it, but he gave up instead. “I didn’t do anything to Aria, and I never would. This doesn’t have to do with her directly, but I’m afraid it will affect her. I know it will.”

I released him, backing up a step and folding my arms. “Talk. What is it you’re hiding?”

A soft, familiar voice floated our way. “You know something?” Ivy asked as she rounded the doorway from the kitchen. Her arms were folded like mine, her jaw jutting out the way it sometimes did when she was irritated. “I would like to know that too.”

Fuck. “Poison, we were?—”

“Spare me.” She sighed, her level gaze never leaving Miles. “I might not have been around when you originally came on the scene, but I know all about it, and I know how much that girl loves you. By the way…” she added with a roll of her eyes, “… you really suck at trying to be discreet. You both do,” she finished, giving me a withering look.

“It doesn’t matter,” Miles said with a sigh of defeat that reflected in his troubled green eyes. “If anything, you might be able to help. Right now, I need all the help I can get.”

6

LUCIAN

Ivy’s arms were still folded, her now steely eyes narrowed, and I was almost knocked sideways at how insanely hot she was. That no-nonsense, take-no-shit-from-anybody attitude was one of the things that had made me fall for her in the first place.

Miles dropped into a leather armchair while Ivy perched gracefully on the corner of Ari’s enormous desk as I closed the doors to Ari’s study, leaving the three of us in relative seclusion.

“Tell us,” I encouraged Miles, sitting in the chair facing him. He was miserable, slouching, one elbow propped on the chair’s arm so he could hold his head up on his palm. “What happened? What do you need?”

“As you know, Spencer and I have been working together to patent a new device,” he explained. I couldn’t help but notice how defeated he sounded now. There was relief there, too, like he was glad he could drop the act and admit there was a problem.

He sighed, raking his fingers through his blond hair, letting his hand drop. “We have a competitor in California, someone Spencer used to work with years ago when he first got into thetech field. Damian Fields. He’s a real piece of shit, the sort of guy who throws money at a team already on the verge of making a breakthrough, then claims that breakthrough as his own.”

“That’s a pretty common class of person,” Ivy pointed out.

“He’s also the kind of wanker who would stab a competitor in the back if it meant getting the jump on a patent, which is exactly what he’s doing now,” Miles continued with a snarl. “The son of a bitch has dug through my life, looking for something he can use to discredit me. And I’m afraid he’s found it.”

Now Ivy shifted slightly. She was uncomfortable, like me, and probably wished she hadn’t demanded an explanation.

“What is it?” I pressed.

“I’m not proud of a lot of what I did in my youth.” He let out a bitter laugh while his lip curled in a sneer. “That’s putting it mildly. I couldn’t have imagined where I would end up, let’s put it that way. I would have done a lot of things differently.”

Right away, my mind went back to the first night he’d hung out with us when we watched him beat the shit out of a guy for getting aggressive with Aria. He didn’t throw a punch like an amateur. I hadn’t given it much thought until now when I wondered how much fighting a guy had to do to become that efficiently brutal.

He looked Ivy’s way, frowning. “Like I said, I’m not proud. Aria knows about most of it, but not everything. I would appreciate it if you kept this from her, only sharing it when the time is right. I plan to tell her after the wedding.”

Ivy’s mouth fell open. “Hang on. That’s not fair. If this is the kind of thing you don’t want to tell her until after you’re married, maybe she deserves to know now.”

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