Reign A Romance Anthology - Nina Levine Page 0,65

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Little Bird

Copyright © 2021 by Kally Ash

The right of Kally Ash to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000

E-book ISBN: 978-1-922353-37-5

All rights reserved. This publication (or any part of it) may not be reproduced or transmitted, copied, stored, distributed or otherwise made available by any person or entity (including Google, Amazon or similar organisations), in any form (electronic, digital, optical or mechanical) or by any means (photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise) without prior written permission from the author.

All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Edited by Kaylene Osborn (Swish Design & Editing)

Proofread by Nicki Kuzn (Swish Design & Editing)

About the Author

Kally Ash is a USA Today Best Selling Author whose passions include curling up with a good book, devouring chocolate and getting kitty cuddles.

Some of her unicorn authors include Sawyer Bennett, Elizabeth Hayley and Haley Jenner.

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Surrendered Hearts

Nina Levine

1

Emilia

I sip my wine and settle back into the plush sofa of the Alchemy hotel lobby, the newest and most sought-after luxurious hotel in New York, as I watch my fiancé enter.

Everything about him is flawless.

His ten-thousand-dollar suit.

His muscles he works hard for.

His chiseled jaw with just the right amount of stubble.

Those dark glasses of his that cost him thousands and hide eyes that see everything.

He doesn’t see me watching him now, though, which is exactly how I planned it. I need this moment to observe him before the whirlwind of the coming weekend engulfs me.

We are to be married in two days and we haven’t had a chance to discuss it yet. We haven’t seen each other in two years, and I changed my number in that time, so we’ve had no way of discussing anything.

Except, everyone knows that if Javier Torres wants to talk to someone, it wouldn’t matter if he didn’t have a phone number or an address for them, he’d make that conversation happen. Which means my fiancé hasn’t wanted to see me or talk to me since our engagement was decided by our families eight weeks ago.

He checks into the hotel, his entourage of four sticking close to guard him. Being the next-in-line to run the Estrada Cartel means Javier goes nowhere without security.

My phone buzzes with a text and I check it to discover a message from my assistant.

Carly: Bob’s playing difficult.

Me: How difficult?

Carly: The kind of difficult that makes my skull want to explode.

Me: Can you please just give me the facts?

Carly: He wants to increase his profit share on the deal.

Me: Send me the new proposal and I’ll look at it. I want this deal finalized before the wedding.

Carly: Sending now.

Carly: Have you spoken with Javier yet?

I don’t respond to her last message. Instead, I check my emails and read through Bob’s new proposal. We’re working together on a deal to open ten exclusive health and beauty resorts for women across America. The back and forth on this has been a headache. If I wasn’t so intent on working with his company, I’d back out now. But he’s got the knowledge and the positioning in the market that I want a part of, so I’ve worked my way through each headache as it presented. This new one is a pain in my ass.

I shoot another text back to Carly.

Me: I’ll get in touch with Bob and handle this.

Carly: I see you’re avoiding my last question.

Me: Yes, because you’re my assistant, not my best friend.

Carly: You don’t have a best friend. I’m all you’ve got.

Me: I have friends.

Carly: No, you have women around you who would die to appear in an Insta snap with you or be a bridesmaid for you or feature in a Forbes article with you. What you don’t have are real friends.

She’s right, and yet, I don’t care. Having friends isn’t my goal in life. I learned at a young age to keep to myself and not trust others. My father’s lessons on this have stuck. I trust my two brothers and Carly, and that’s it.

Carly: I’m dying here. You know I have no life and live through you. Have you seen him?

Me: I’m looking at him. He’s checking into the hotel. But I haven’t spoken with him yet.

Carly: Is he still as good looking as when he was keeping you awake all night every night and ensuring the