A Love Song for Always - Piper Lawson Page 0,3

either.

“Wicked has a lot of up-and-coming talent,” I say. “Talent that will suffer if the company goes under, and they don’t deserve that.”

There’s another reason I want a piece of this deal, one that matters even more for our future. It’s been emerging for months, brewing in the back of my mind as she slept beside me, finally maturing in the weeks I’ve been without her.

But I’m not ready to cop to it yet.

Annie sighs, her head falling back to stare at the ceiling. “We’re getting married in seven days,” she starts, and I sense she’s thawing.

“Believe me, I remember.” I inch closer, and her back bumps the fridge. “On an island. All our friends and family flying to—”

“Don’t say it! You’ll jinx it!” She presses a finger to my lips.

My mouth twitches beneath her touch. No money or shit in the world can hold a candle to Annie Jamieson. She’s my friend, my rival, my heart. The only woman I’ve ever loved, the only person I’ve wanted to own or be owned by.

“I promise I won’t risk our time together for this deal,” I vow, tracing my thumb along her palm until she shivers.

I nip her finger, and her lips part. My hand releases hers to skim up her side under the edge of her dress, and she shifts against the fridge, which beeps.

She jumps, but I don’t let her shift away. My mouth brushes her ear, and I inhale her scent like an addict. “Give me twenty minutes to get rid of the lawyers.”

Annie ducks out of my arms, smoothing down her dress and leveling me with a stare. “Take your time. I’m going swimming.”

The cool challenge in her eyes only adds to my lust. I want to drag up her skirt and claim her right here.

“Twenty minutes,” I promise, but she’s already brushing past me and heading for the bedrooms.

I adjust myself in my jeans before returning to the conversation in the living room.

“Let’s wrap this up,” I tell the lawyers when I return and sit on the edge of the sofa. No point getting comfortable.

“We have one week before the exclusivity clause lapses, which means the company goes back on the market,” the lead attorney says. “Problem is the executive team is carrying more debt than they disclosed.”

“So get us an accurate version,” I say, irritated. When I signed on, I figured the dozens of attorneys and advisors would handle the details, but things are turning out to be anything but easy.

“We’re working on it. But even if we get a complete accounting…” One of the lawyers looks up and trails off.

I turn in my seat to follow his gaze out the doors to the patio.

Marrying your best friend is a blessing and a curse. She knows your dreams, your ambitions, your secrets.

She also knows your weaknesses.

My fiancée, still in her high-heeled sandals, appears from the direction of the master bedroom.

In a purple bathing suit and a wispy cover-up that covers zero fucking things up, she’s a witch. A siren. A magnetic north pole.

She tugs off the cover-up and tosses it on a chair. Then she bends over, unfastens her shoes, and steps out of them.

Ignoring every male gaze on her, she takes one step at a time down into the pool, then dives, reappearing a moment later. Her copper hair is darkened and hanging in a wet curtain down her back.

A vein pounds in my forehead as I rise, dragging my gaze back to the lawyers. “We’ll pick this up tomorrow.”

The lead attorney shifts forward. “But, Tyler, we need to finish reviewing the—”

“Later. You can see yourselves out.” My tone is final as I reach for my belt with one hand and turn my back on them. “I have a prior engagement.”

3

I’m lying on my back, the water lapping around my ears and the sun warming my body, when a shadow falls over me. I blink my eyes open and right myself, frowning as I look back over one shoulder toward the living room.

No more heads of the lawyers poking above the sleek minimalist furniture.

I turn back to the view, the carefully designed illusion that the pool edge hangs off the Hollywood Hills and looks down on the valley of West Hollywood. But it’s not the view that has me hypnotized. It’s the man standing at the top of the carved steps at one end of the pool.

He’s tall and strong, every part of him built with intention, from his carved torso and arms to