Page 34 of Convenient Rivals

“You mentioned you wanted to see the northern lights, so that’s a cruise around Iceland and the Norwegian fjords. You’re in a suite.”

“What’s the catch?” asked Langdon.

“So untrusting.” He tutted with a smile. “Call it a Christmas and engagement present rolled into one.”

“Sebastian, you have more money than God, so there’s nothing I could buy you.”

There was laughter from everyone except for Gregory and Jason. His friend looked like he wanted to run for the hills. What was wrong?

Grant continued to give out his gifts to people, thankfully keeping Gregory out of it.

“Right, presents are over. Just got a bit of business to deal with. Jason!”

Gregory looked up. Jason looked terrified.

“You can quit trying to make yourself look invisible. You can’t keep ignoring me forever, but you can wait. Gregory, Mr Montgomery has made the initial payment. I trust the rest will be taken care of by the deadline?”

Oh God. How was he going to explain this to his brothers?

“Oscar... I mean, Mr Montgomery will be taking care of things.”

“Excellent, well, that’s it then. Merry Christmas!”

Grant stood up and took his tea from KC, thanking her with a kiss on the cheek, before he left without another word.

There was a stunned silence before the dam broke and he was barraged with questions. He felt like his brain was going to explode, and for some inexplicable reason, the only person he wanted to talk to right now was Oscar.

Once they arrived back at the flat, he made a beeline for the stairs but was yanked back by Langdon.

“Can we talk about this later?” He couldn’t do this now.

“No,” replied Langdon. “If you go upstairs, I’ll talk to Grant myself.”

Gregory turned and saw Charlie.

“Where are your men,” he asked Langdon and Charlie.

“Paolo’s keeping them occupied,” said Charlie.

“What about Jason?”

“He took off somewhere.”

“Where?”

“You’re deflecting,” said Langdon. “If it’s the same thing we already talked about, you need to tell Charlie as well.”

Gregory was feeling completely overwhelmed, like his brain was going to explode.

“Barty owes Grant a million quid and I have to pay it, but I don’t have the money so Oscar is going to pay it, but I have to marry him to get the money.”

Charlie’s jaw dropped, and he watched Langdon getting red in the face until Charlie put a hand on his shoulder. Although Langdon already knew, Gregory knew he was still angry about it, especially because he’d asked him not to speak to Grant.

“Let’s sit down and talk it out,” he said.

Gregory nodded.

“Langdon, you can make tea and calm down,” said Charlie with a smirk.

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