Horace must have known that his health was deteriorating. He had pensively touched his chest for weeks beforehand. Gen had thought it was just a mannerism.
She had folded the letter carefully and placed it in her computer bag to take home. Arthur would appreciate it. He’d always liked Horace.
This day, Gen opened her laptop.
A hesitant knock pattered on her half-open door.
A girl stood there, practically a child, dressed in her father’s hand-me-down lawyer suit. Her dark hair was scraped back into a tight bun. “Hi? I’m Nevis Hunte. I’m looking for Ms. Genevieve Finch-Hatten? I’m her pupil barrister for my first six?”
Gen smiled at the girl. “I’m Gen. Come in. Sit down. There are two things that you need to know. First, that the law is a long game, not a short one. Some cases take months or years to settle, and the hardest ones can be the most rewarding. Second, that I like my coffee with two lumps of sugar and a spot of cream.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Nevis sat in the chair in front of Gen’s desk and took notes on a legal pad with a pen pinched tightly between her dark fingers.
“We’ll take a look at your writing first because it’s very important to learn to write a proper brief, and then you can come along to court with me this afternoon. I have an interesting case. It’s been going a long time, but we finally have closing arguments in the Thompsett case.”
“Thank you, Lady Severn,” the girl said with absolute sincerity, still taking notes.
Yes, word had gotten around.
“You need to be careful in here,” Gen said. “Someone has set you up. No one calls me that, here. It’s pretentious. Don’t be gullible. Don’t let them stab you in the back. Chambers are like a nest of snakes, and you have to wade in every day, watching out for them. It might take you a while, but you’ll get there.”
The Next Earl of Severn
“CHARLES,” Arthur said.
Gen grimaced. “No frickin’ way. No kid of mine is going to have a stuck-up, pretentious name like Charles. He’ll get his butt kicked on the playground and get bucked off any self-respecting horse.” She adjusted her whale-like self among the sheets in their bed. “Austin.”
The baby had been kicking hard the last few days, maybe in response to the cooler fall weather, which fascinated Arthur no end. He was practically wrapped around her like a cuddly python as they watched the television from bed in their London penthouse bedroom, his hand on her belly so he wouldn’t miss a single kick of the next Earl of Severn.
Below the floor-to-ceiling windows, London sparkled in the night.
Arthur stretched against her, growling a little as he breathed on her neck when she called him that. His long fingers flexed over her baby bump. “John.”
She said, “Jackson.”
Well, they had two and a half months to argue it out. They weren’t exactly fighting about it, but neither of them was budging, either.
This sometimes happens when an only-child litigating attorney marries an oldest/only-hybrid English nobleman with a minor case of the divine right of kings. Heads will butt.
Two and a half more months.
Yes, little Austin was going to be a Christmas baby, plus or minus a few days. He had probably been conceived on their wedding night, somewhere above the Atlantic Ocean. Gen had not quite been lying about being knocked up at the hearing in the House of Lords committee.
Arthur whispered in her ear, “I love you, Countess Severn.”
“I love you, too, my lord.”
Before they had known that the baby would be a boy, Arthur had assured Gen, many-many times, that he wanted their child to be healthy and happy, and he was not wrapped up in the primogeniture rules. He could leave the estate to anyone they chose, he assured her.
Not the title, but the estate. There were rules about whom the title went to that Arthur could not circumvent.
At the ultrasound, when the technician had told them that the baby was a boy, she had seen the sigh of relief wash through Arthur.
Even she had to admit, it was easier this way.
An odd scrambling sound scratched from the bathroom.
Gen pushed herself up on her elbows.
Ruckus bolted across the wooden floors at a dead run, a white and furry streak of lightning. He sailed through the air, straight at a wall.
“Ruckus!” she called, reaching out even though there was no way she could even reach the foot of the bed, let alone catch the dog in mid-flight.
“Oh!” Arthur started to struggle out of bed even though he would be too late to stop the dog, too.
Ruckus bounded off the closet door, and his toenails caught in the ornate doorknob, turning it.
The closet door popped open.
Ruckus landed safely and trundled inside the closet. Snuffling and grunting ensued, and within seconds, the very distinctive sound of a Jack Russell Terrier, snoring.
Gen turned to Arthur. “Did you see that?”
His silvery eyes were wide and aghast. “I can’t believe he can do that. Everyone closes the closet doors whenever they’re ajar. I’ve been blaming the doors for being defective and Fothergill for shoving him in and locking him up.”
Gen laid down. “Guess we’d better check first before we close those closet doors.”
“Or get better locks. That explains the dog hair on my trouser cuffs, too. Fothergill has been railing at the dry cleaner for not being vigilant.” Arthur snuggled back down beside her, caressed her tummy, and whispered, “William.”
“Tyler,” Gen whispered back.
~~~~~
Two and half months later on Christmas Eve, Lord Austin Charles Finch-Hatten, heir to the Earldom of Severn, was safely born. Mother and child were happy and healthy, and the father could not look away from his son’s bright, silvery eyes as he held the child tightly in his arms.
What’s next?
One wild quickie with a sexy stranger will change Rae’s life forever.
When Rae Stone has a wild quickie with a stranger, he turns out to be the sexy owner of the Devilhouse, a BDSM club, but will the secretive Wulf turn out to be her Prince Charming or the Devil who tempts her to ruin?
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BILLIONAIRES IN DISGUISE SERIES
READING ORDER
Working Stiff (Runaway Billionaires #1, Casimir)
Stiff Drink (Runaway Billionaires #2, Arthur Duet, Part 1)
Hard Liquor (Runaway Billionaires #3, Arthur Duet, Part 2)
Rae Falling (Billionaires in Disguise: Rae) (The first, free part of Billionaires in Disguise: Rae) ~FREE!
Billionaires in Disguise: Rae, Complete Omnibus Edition (includes “Rae Falling”)
An Extravagant Proposal (Billionaires in Disguise: Charley) (A Side Story for Billionaires in Disguise: Rae)
Falling Hard (Billionaires in Disguise, Lizzy #1) - FREE!
Playing Rough (Billionaires in Disguise: Lizzy, #2)
Breaking Rules (Billionaires in Disguise: Lizzy, #3)
Burning Bright (Billionaires in Disguise: Lizzy, #4)
“Alwaysland” (A Prequel to Rock Stars in Disguise:Xan)
What A Girl Wants (Rock Stars in Disguise: Rhiannon)
Somebody to Love (Rock Stars in Disguise: Tryp)
Every Breath You Take (Billionaires in Disguise: Georgie / Rock Stars in Disguise: Xan, #1) - FREE!
Wild Thing (Billionaires in Disguise: Georgie and Rock Stars in Disguise: Xan, #2)
“Skiing in June, A Rae and Wulf Epilogue #1” (Billionaires in Disguise:
Rae)
“Kidnapped, A Rae and Wulf Epilogue #2” (Billionaires in Disguise: Rae)
“Rae and Wulf: At the Hospital” (Interval scenes available only to newsletter subscribers. Sign up here and get it immediately for FREE: CLICK HERE or type “http://smarturl.it/Babylon-Email” into your browser.)
Lay Your Hands On Me (Billionaires in Disguise: Georgie and Rock Stars in Disguise: Xan, #3)
Nothing Else Matters (Billionaires in Disguise: Georgie and Rock Stars in Disguise: Xan, #4)
“Montreux, A Rae and Wulf Epilogue #3” (Billionaires in Disguise: Rae)
The Rock Star’s Secret Baby (Rock Stars in Disguise: Cadell)
“Dream On” (Billionaires in Disguise: Georgie and Rock Stars in Disguise: Xan, Epilogue #1)
Runaway Princess Bride (Billionaires in Disguise: Flicka)
Stiff Competition (Runaway Billionaires #4, Maxence)
You don’t have to read everything perfectly in this order. I try to recap or make books as standalone as possible. The mini-series within this overall list, such as the Lizzy books or the Georgie books, should be read in order. ~BB
Also, just so you know what you’re getting up there, novel-length books are in italics, like this, but “short forms,” like short stories and novellas, are in “quotation marks.”
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Erotica generally centers around the sex act, a preponderance of the page count is given to the sex act, and the main characters usually do not build a life together after the sex act. The main character usually discovers or accepts something new about herself or himself, thus it is a journey of self-discovery.
Erotic and contemporary romance concerns itself with the two people falling in love and, usually, building a life together in a very, very sexy way. Erotic romances generally end with an HEA (Happily Ever After) or at least an HFN (Happy For Now).
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About Blair Babylon
Blair Babylon is the nom de plume of an award-winning author who used to publish literary fiction. Because reviews of her mainstream fiction usually included the caveat that there was too much deviant sex in her novels, she decided to abandon all literary pretensions, let her freak flag fly, and write hot, sexy, erotic romance and twisty, turny thrillers.
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Copyright and Notices
COPYRIGHT 2017 by Malachite Publishing LLC
All Rights Reserved
This is a work of fiction.
Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s wild and naughty imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission from the author or publisher.
1st Edition: May, 2017
Hard Liquor: Runaway Billionaires: Arthur Duet #2 Page 35
