Tell Me You're Mine (The British Billionaires #1) - J. S. Scott Page 0,3
were moments that I wondered if any of the old Dylan still existed at all. He wasn’t the man I knew, the brother I knew, anymore. “I hope he works everything out.”
Until Dylan got his shit together, I’d keep protecting him because that was just…what I did. Maybe I was only the oldest by a matter of minutes, but I was the eldest, and since my father had died, it had been my job to take care of my family.
Besides, my twin and I had been covering for each other since we were kids, and that instinct had never gone away. At least, for me, it hadn’t.
Mum let out an exasperated breath. “Talk to him when you get to California. If anyone can get through to him, it’s you. You two were always so close. He might open up to you.”
Because I didn’t want to crush her hopes that Dylan would eventually be okay, I simply answered, “You’re probably right, Mum.”
My mother sniffed. “I’m always right. And I know my sons.”
Maybe she knew us too well. Mum was rather scary that way. “I better get moving. I have a flight to catch.”
There was a twinkle in her dark eyes as she asked, “You’re going commercial again?”
Actually, I hadn’t flown commercial for over a year, but Mum liked to give me a hard time about the fact that I occasionally flew Transatlantic Airlines just to see how our company was performing. “How else would I know if we were having issues? Transatlantic is one of our more lucrative companies. I’d like to keep it that way. I’m not exactly going to suffer, Mum. I am booked in business class.”
Yes, I wanted to see how our customers felt when they were flying on my airline, but there was no possible way I was going to stuff my six-foot-three frame into a seat with almost no leg room for twelve long, painful hours.
I was a concerned CEO, not a masochist.
My mother got to her feet. “Be safe. Try to take some time off while you’re there. I’ll miss you.”
I nodded sharply as I kissed her cheek, and pulled her into a hug. “I’ll come see you as soon as I get back, and I’ll call you. Don’t worry about the article. I’ll figure something out.”
I spent the majority of my time in my London home, but I got to Surrey as often as possible to see my mother. Jokes and teasing aside, we were pretty close, and she’d never really gotten over my dad’s death, so she’d taken Dylan’s abandonment of the family pretty hard.
Not that anyone could claim that Mum was fragile, but she had been through a lot in the last five years.
She hugged me tightly before she stepped back. “Everybody will forget Dylan’s naked picture the moment one of the royals do something interesting.”
I chuckled, even though I wasn’t really in a laughing mood. “Let’s hope the royals aren’t in the mood to be well-behaved in the future.”
It was rather pathetic to be hoping for a royal scandal, but the British media was fickle. They’d drop the news about Dylan’s faux pas in a matter of seconds if someone in the royal family screwed up.
Mum nodded. “Something else will happen that makes the front page tomorrow, and the media will be one step closer to forgetting about today’s article.”
My mother had a strong backbone, and she always kept a stiff upper lip, but I knew that she was truly worried this time.
About me.
About Dylan.
About the reputation that generations of our family had tried so hard to keep squeaky clean and honorable over the years.
The Lancaster family was well-respected, and Mum valued not being in a position to encourage the gossips. So much so that she’d twisted herself inside out when she was younger to fit into my father’s world with as little censure as possible.
Deep down, I cared about family honor, too. I knew that it was probably ingrained into my DNA.
However, my first priority was the current generation of Lancasters, and specifically, my brother, Dylan.
I really wanted to reassure Mum that I’d figure everything out, and that she’d get her wayward son back soon, without further scandal.
Problem was, it was really hard to convince her of something when I wasn’t really sure what would happen myself.
CHAPTER 2
Nicole
MAYBE THERE’S A time in everyone’s life when they wonder about the wisdom of their career choices.
Unfortunately, I was currently having that moment on foreign soil, in the middle of Heathrow International Airport,