by Lisa Childs
“Miranda—”
“Miranda loves me as much as you do. Maybe more—because she respects me,” Blair said. “You don’t.”
Grant shook his head. “Of course I do. I know how hard you’ve worked. I know—”
About their shared past...
But Miranda had shared that past, too. She knew Blair as well as he did—probably better. And as she’d pointed out, his sister was incredibly strong-willed. She wouldn’t have let anyone talk her into doing something she hadn’t really wanted to do.
“You don’t know Miranda,” she said. “Or you would know that she would never ask me to sacrifice my happiness for her business. Hell, she won’t even let us help her with it, and we’ve both offered.”
He groaned as that frustration coursed through him again. “I know. I offered to join her damn dating service, and she refused.”
Blair laughed. “You were willing to make such a sacrifice? And she turned you down? I can’t imagine why...”
He glared at his sister. “Neither can I.” He dropped wearily into the chair behind his desk. He was so damn tired.
Teo chuckled. “Yes, you made such a magnanimous offer...”
“I did,” he insisted. “I told her I would even show her my bank statements—since all her damn clients seem interested in his money.”
“Ouch,” Teo said. “Is that my only appeal?”
Blair glanced at him and nodded. “Yes. You’re so damn ugly...”
Instead of being offended, her boyfriend laughed. He knew he was good-looking.
Grant was, too, though. “Her sisters tried to talk Miranda into letting me join. They think I’m good-looking.”
“You’ve always been mean to Miranda,” Blair said. “Why did you think she would trust you to treat her clients any differently?”
“Because her clients aren’t trying to mess up my sister’s happiness.”
Blair’s brow furrowed. “But isn’t that exactly what they’re doing? They all wanted a shot with the man she set up with me. That’s why they’re angry and leaving or threatening to leave. Catering to them isn’t going to save her business. Miranda already told me that. She wants new clients—not the ones she inherited when she bought out her mom.”
His head was beginning to pound. “She said something about that...”
“But you weren’t listening,” Blair accused. “You never listened to Miranda. You just yelled at her—”
“I did not yell,” he insisted. “I did everything but yell at her...”
Blair stepped closer to him and pointed toward his missing button. “What exactly was everything? Have you been harassing my best friend?”
“I’ve been auditioning for her,” he said. “Trying to prove to her that I could be the perfect date.”
Both Blair and Teo laughed—too hard and too long.
Heat flushed his face, but it wasn’t anger this time but embarrassment. “I was doing it for the two of you,” he said. “You should show some appreciation.”
“That you thought so little of us and our relationship that we would break up for any reason?” Teo asked and shook his head. “No. I do not feel any sympathy for you, my friend.”
“My sympathy is for Miranda,” Blair said with a sigh. “I hope she forgives me.”
“Forgives you?” Grant asked.
“She sure as hell isn’t forgiving you,” Blair said. “Not for thinking so little of her. And I don’t even know what you mean by auditioning and I don’t want to know.”
His anger was gone now, leaving only this sick feeling in his stomach and this hollow ache in his heart. He’d screwed up his mission. And he wasn’t sure if he’d ever be able to make it right—with his sister and Teo.
And especially with Miranda.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“WILL YOU FORGIVE ME?”
Miranda hadn’t expected to hear those words...from Blair. She wasn’t the Snyder who owed her an apology. “For what?” she asked. “You haven’t done anything wrong.”
Blair sat across the table from her—at that rooftop restaurant that reminded Miranda entirely too much of one of her perfect dates with Grant.
“I know what my idiot brother has done,” Blair said, her blue eyes brimming with remorse. “And I am so sorry.”
“He told you?” Miranda asked, stunned that he would have confessed to his sister the games he’d played with her. That they’d played with each other.
Blair nodded. “I can’t believe he thought you would try to break up me and Teo so you could set him up with other women.”
“What?” Miranda asked, her head beginning to pound with confusion.
“I know that’s why he’s been coming to Monaco,” Blair continued. “To warn you away from me, just like he did when we were kids.”
Miranda shook her head. “Oh, he didn’t go about it the way he did when we were kids.” He’d been so much subtler—so subtle that until now she hadn’t even realized what he’d been doing.
Blair sighed. “I know he said he didn’t yell, but he never thinks he’s yelling—”
“It’s his voice,” Miranda interjected. It was so deep and rumbly and sexy...just like him.
“So he did yell?”
Miranda shook her head. “No, I didn’t even know what he was up to. He claimed he wanted to join Liaisons International...” So he’d been lying to her—about everything...
Blair nodded. “Yes, he said he offered, so that he could somehow replace Teo. I actually think he was trying to help out your business.”
“I don’t want his help.” All she’d wanted was him, but it had all been a lie.
Blair chuckled. “That’s what I told him. That he’d disrespected both of us. That there’s no way I would give up the best thing that’s ever happened to me...” Her voice cracked, and tears sprang to her eyes.
Miranda reached across the table and patted her hand. She’d never seen her friend so emotional. “And I hope you know that I would never ask you to...”
“Of course I know that,” she said. “I know that you don’t listen to your sisters. Unfortunately Grant was listening to them, though.”
“He really thought that I would do that to you?” Miranda asked, and that hollow ache she’d had in her chest intensified even more so that she could barely draw a breath.
“He knows now that he was wrong,” Blair said. “Hasn’t he tried to apologize?”
He’d been calling, but she’d figured it was just to join the service. So she’d ignored the texts and emails and all the messages he’d left with Tabitha.
Miranda shrugged. “I don’t want to hear it.” It would be much safer for her heart if she never heard his voice again.
“I don’t blame you...” Blair trailed off and reached for her glass, taking a long sip of her red.
And Miranda narrowed her eyes. “But?”
“He does feel really bad,” Blair continued. “He’s apologized to me and Teo so much that we’ve forgiven him. But he’s still miserable.”
Miranda could relate. She’d never felt like this before, and she never wanted to risk feeling like this again.
“He talked about going on auditions with you.”
They were friends—close friends—but Miranda couldn’t talk about her lover with his sister. It was just wrong. She shook her head.
But Blair persisted. “He said he was trying to show you perfect dates.”
“Yet he somehow kept screwing them up,” Miranda said.
“But he lost to you in poker—”
She shook her head again. “He didn’t lose. He just didn’t want to take any more of Teo’s money.”
“Oh...” Blair’s shoulders slumped.
“What?”
“I was thinking that he was falling for you,” Blair said and smiled wistfully. “I wa
s hoping he was...”
“Why?”
“I always wanted you to be my sister.”
“That’s why I didn’t want to talk to you about this,” Miranda said. “Because nothing’s changed. I still don’t ever want to get married. I don’t want to be in love, even.”
But she had the sick feeling that it might have been too late for that...that she’d fallen for the worst man for her. For one she couldn’t trust...
“If you don’t want to be with him, why won’t you let him join Liaisons?” Blair asked.
And Miranda groaned. “Et tu, Brute?”
Blair chuckled. “This might be the one thing your sisters and I agree on—Grant would be a draw for your business.”
Miranda shook her head. “I don’t care about his money. I don’t want clients who care, either.”
“You want it to be about fun,” Blair said. “And Grant is fun.”
Miranda couldn’t argue about that; she’d had a lot of fun with him. But she couldn’t share that with her clients. She couldn’t share Grant with anyone.
* * *
She wouldn’t take his calls or return his messages. So Miranda had left him no choice—had given him no chance to apologize.
But when he showed up at her office, she was already gone.
“With your sister,” Tabitha told him, and there was that trace of resentment in her voice. She and the dark-haired one who stood in the doorway to her office were really jealous of Blair.
His sister did have it all though—guts, brains, beauty...and now a billionaire. She also had the biggest, most loyal heart.
That was why he’d thought she might have been persuaded to give up Teo to save Liaisons International. But he’d been a fool to even consider it.
Blair loved Teo, and he loved her. Even if she had broken up with him, he wouldn’t have started dating anyone else. Grant didn’t want to date anyone else, and he and Miranda hadn’t really even been dating.
“You’re wasting your time,” the dark-haired one told him. If he remembered what Blair had said, her name was Regina. “She’s not going to change her mind.”
“Ditto,” he said. “You guys are wasting your time, too, trying to get her to talk Blair into giving up the billionaire.”
“We know,” Regina said.
“She loves your sister more than she does us,” the red-haired one resentfully remarked. Her name was Tabitha.
“Not more,” he said. Blair had also explained to him how Miranda had always had to take care of her sisters because her mom was such a flake. “Just differently. She loves my sister like she’s her sister—”
“But we’re her sisters,” Tabitha lamented.
As if she hadn’t interrupted, he continued, “And she loves you two like you’re her daughters.”
Regina’s mouth fell open, and her brow furrowed.
Tabitha laughed but then nodded. “She does act like a mother.”
“Not our mother,” Regina said. “Since our mother never acted like one...”
“At least I had a great stepmom,” Tabitha said, and she turned toward her sister. “You and Miranda were the ones who didn’t really have moms.”
“I have a great dad,” Regina said. “And Miranda had...”
“Blair,” Grant said.
Tears sprang to Tabitha’s eyes. “Oh my God...” She swallowed back a soft sob. “Because of our custody arrangements, we didn’t have to spend that much time there. But she was always there, and she would have been alone...”
“If not for Blair,” Grant said.
Regina uttered a ragged-sounding sigh. “We’ve been such bitches.”
“Yes,” Grant said.
“You’ve been an ass,” Regina accused him.
And he nodded in agreement. “A total jackass,” he acknowledged.
None of them had understood or appreciated how important Blair and Miranda’s friendship was—to both of them. After her temper toward him had cooled off, his sister had explained it to Grant, and for the first time, he’d really listened and accepted how important Miranda was to her.
And to him...
“So what are we going to do to make it up to her?” he asked. Because he needed help.
Blair had already told him that she wanted nothing to do with it. Like her friend, she didn’t trust him not to hurt Miranda.
Miranda was tougher than Blair thought, though. Or maybe she was more vulnerable than he thought.
“What do you mean?” Regina asked. “We already tried. You already tried. There’s no way she’s letting you join.”
“I don’t really want to join,” he admitted. “I want to help.”
“Joining would help,” Tabitha said. “If you could market him, Regina...” She uttered a lustful-sounding sigh.
And heat rushed to his face. He hadn’t minded laying himself bare for Miranda, but he didn’t like her sisters undressing him with their eyes.
“Sounds like the business needs capital,” he said. “I can buy in or give you a loan.”
Regina shook her head. “I wish...”
“She won’t allow that, either,” Tabitha said.
“I thought you all owned this business together,” he remarked.
“Set up with her having the most control and power,” Regina said. “Miranda really has to be in control at all times.”
He could correct them about that. He’d seen her out of control many times, screaming his name as she came over and over again.
But he’d already infuriated Miranda enough. He wasn’t going to give her yet another reason not to trust him.
“It doesn’t sound as if you two are very happy with the business,” he observed.
“I’d rather be on the stage,” Tabitha admitted.
“And I’d rather be at home,” Regina added.
“So if you can’t take a loan...how about selling your shares of the business?”
“To you?” Tabitha asked.
And he figured he was going to have to show his bank statements after all.
But Regina interjected, “We can’t. Miranda set it up so that we can’t sell without giving her first option.”
“Well, she’s not going to be able to buy you out.” He knew what she had in her bank account, and even two-thirds of a flailing business was worth more than that.
“If you can’t sell them,” he mused, “can you lose them?” And he drew a deck of cards out of the pocket of his jacket.
Tabitha giggled.
And Regina asked, “You want us to lose our shares to you?”
“You might be able to beat me,” he said.
“Miranda taught us how to play,” Tabitha said. “We’re actually pretty good.”
“Not as good as she is,” Regina said. “But we are pretty good.”
“So what do we get if you lose?” Tabitha asked, and she was eyeing him that way that made him feel naked again.
“Money,” he said. “And it won’t be a loan...it’ll be yours to put into the business.”
The sisters exchanged a glance, Tabitha’s red brows arching high on her forehead.
Regina rubbed her hands together. “Okay...”
He regularly played the best in the world, and he’d played their sister as well. So he easily beat them.
He could have thrown the game. But then he wouldn’t have had any way of getting Miranda to see him again. And that was what he wanted most—a chance to plead his case, to get her to trust him.
Tabitha pushed back from her desk where they’d been playing and shook her head.
“I didn’t take all your shares,” he said. “I still want you both involved in the business, and when I infuse money into it, you’ll get some of that.”
Regina shook her head, too. “No, this was a mistake.”
“I swear that you will still be involved,” he promised. “I’m not taking everything away from you.” He flinched. “But Miranda will probably be mad.”
“This was a mistake for you,” Regina said.
He didn’t understand.
“Miranda will forgive us for gambling away our shares,” Regina said.
“We’re her sisters,” Tabitha said. “Or, as you pointed out, she’s our mother. She’ll forgive us. She always does.”
“But she won’t forgive you,” Regina warned him.
“For what?” he asked. “For winning?”
“You didn’t win,” Tabitha told him, as if she pitied him. “You lost more than we have...”
And he had an eerie feeling that she was probably right—that Miranda was not going to understand that he only wanted to help her.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
MIRANDA HAD COME up with a plan. Instead of apologizing for setting up the billionaire with the love of his life, she was going to expound on it. Matteo Rinaldi had the money to buy anything he wanted, but even he hadn’t been able to buy love. Miranda had had to help him find it.
And she could help others—if they gave her the chance.
She could help others, but she couldn’t help herself. Not that she wanted love.
Falling for Grant had just proved to her that she’d been right to worry that she shared her mother’s poor judgment. Just like Mother, she’d fallen for the person she couldn’t trust.
But she wasn’t going to wallow in a pool of self-pity any longer. She was going to focus on the business—for her sake and for her sisters’. So after her dinner with Blair ended, she headed back to the office.
Her sisters would be gone now. But she would fill them in on her new marketing strategy in the morning. Eventually they would understand about her setting up Teo with Blair.
And someday they might forgive her...
She unlocked and pushed open the office door and stopped. The lights were off; everyone was gone. But there was a strange energy in the reception area, an almost familiar scent...
