Page 31 of My Three Mountain Men

“Our parents are dead,” I told her frankly. “They all died together in the same private plane crash ten years ago on their way to the Galapagos on vacation.”

A commiserating noise fell from Simone’s lips. “Oh, I’m so sorry,” she breathed. “That’s devastating.”

“Not for me,” I muttered under my breath. I didn’t miss Bryce, but I knew Knox had taken the loss of his parents very hard.

“There was a guy who worked for our parents—a real asshole. He was under the delusion that, with all our parents out of the way, the shares of MMC would automatically revert to him as the board director. He was wrong.”

Simone’s face was whiter than the ash at the hearth.

“You can’t be serious! Is that why you’re hiding here? Are you worried he’ll come after you?”

“Nah. He was arrested and died under suspicious circumstances in prison,” Knox replied slyly.

“And we’re not hiding,” I corrected her. “We just have no interest in dealing with all the bullshit out there. There are people much better equipped to run MMC than us. We still get our deposits, and we don’t have to deal with any of the mess.”

“That’s not entirely true,” Knox growled, and I shot him a nasty look, wanting him to shut up.

“What does that mean?” Simone demanded.

“It means that, just because Victor Santos—the man who murdered our parents—is dead, doesn’t mean that there aren’t other men like Victor Santos to take his place,” Knox insisted.

“You’re really worried that there’s a threat to all your lives?” she rasped worriedly, her complexion opaque. “That’s why you stay out here?”

“He planted an explosive device on the plane, causing the crash. Santos murdered our parents. All of them. Without a second thought. That man was their friend. He came to Christmas dinners and brought us presents. I think he’s Ryder’s godfather.”

“Don’t say that to Ryder,” Knox warned, and I nodded vehemently in agreement. “My point is that if someone as close to the family as Santos would go to such lengths to end us, what would a common, greedy stranger do to get their hands on the company?”

Simone’s eyes were huge. “I don’t even know what to say. I can’t imagine hiding away like that—never getting online or interacting with civilization.”

I swallowed what I wanted to say; that civilization wasn’t all that civilized in my experience.

“We are happy here,” I told her, not wanting her pity. “Our life is simple, and we want to keep it that way.”

“And now you know, little miss influencer. So what deep, dark secret were you keeping? Have you got a porn channel I need to check out when the internet comes back on?” Knox teased, covertly slipping closer toward her. His arm draped out toward her. Simone turned to him as my eyebrow rose, interest washing over her face.

Well, it looks as though she’s winning over Knox, too. Good girl, Simone.

“Would you check them out if any of that was true?” she asked, stealing a look at me, gauging my reaction. I merely sat back, a small smile touching my lips as I watched this new twist unfold. We were Millans. We knew how to share, after all.

CHAPTER14

Simone

My pulse fired up as I read the intention in Knox’s eyes.

I’m not imagining this, am I? He’s hitting on me!

His arm draped innocently over the back of the sofa, and he stared at me challengingly as I again looked at Brooks, but his cousin showed no signs of discomfort or upset. Instead, Brooks gave me a nod, and a smirk formed on his lips, encouraging me to let this play out. He seemed to be just as intrigued by what was going on as I was.

“Is it true?” Knox pressed. “Is that what your big, bad secret is?”

I gulped back the lump of excitement forming in my stomach, inching toward him slowly, testing his body language as I did. His masculine energy was just as strong as Brooks’, but this was much shakier ground. For all I knew, he was trying to make me look like a fool.

But after the day we had just had, I couldn’t reconcile that idea, not when his eyes blazed at me. My nerves twisted as I leaned forward, lips brushing teasingly against his chin. His pupils dilated, these past two days of emotional roller coaster-ing coming to a head between us. Through my peripheral vision, I saw Brooks lean forward, his tongue jutting out to lick his lower lip with interest.

A heat and pressure built from deep within me, my body reacting even as I drew back, but Knox didn’t allow it.

“Hmm,” he murmured, catching my mouth on his, catching my lip on his teeth. I gasped at the unexpected motion, and he laughed. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were trying to avoid answering my question.”

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