LOVE AND HATE (A Billionaire Romance) Read Online Free Page B

flamingo habitat—the real flamingos were the best part of this place, to be sure.
    I didn’t dare look at my phone. I’d just deal with Susie when I saw her. I couldn’t bear the thought of her tearing into me, reminding me I was stupid… Oh wait, Susie wouldn’t do that, I would do it myself.
    I opened the door to the room we shared, impressed I hadn’t lost my key.
    She lay on the bed with her nose in her laptop. She wore her hair in a Betty Page hair-do, rocking black cat eyeliner, and bright red lips. Her arms were covered in tattoos. When I came in, she grinned up at me.
    “You’re a genius, Mrs. Creed.”
    “Huh?” I wasn’t capable of words at the moment.
    “Mr. Fallon loves it.”
    “What?”
    “Tricking him into marrying you so you can keep a closer eye on him as the merger gets close. I never would have thought of it in a million years. And OMG that dress. Kenz, you’re more devious than any of us gave you credit for. So when are you going to see him again?”

Scott
     
    The desert sun beat down beside the Cypress pool, and Ryan and I lay out in the sun in adjacent chairs. I was parched and hungover from the night before. More than anything I felt like I had some emotional whiplash from Mackenzie’s hasty exit this morning. I took a pull off my bottle of Evian and tried to focus on the lurid horror novel I’d picked up for relaxation.
    Potted palms dappled us in shade, and the bright blue pool water sparkled in the sunlight. Cypress is the child-free pool with a focus on relaxation. A few people murmured quietly to each other. Most folks read or scanned tablets. A woman who looked like a greased up Olympic athlete swam laps in the shallow pool around the fountain. I watched the way her toned legs moved. Her toenails were sparking red, matching her one-piece bathing suit. Delicious.
    Ryan had gone up one side of me and down the other. “Giuliana is going to eat you alive.”
    “It’s a convenience thing for her. She’s not actually into me.” His look suggested that may not be the case. “Isn’t she with Paulo Estevez?”
    “The artist? I don’t think that was serious.”
    “She doesn’t do serious things.”
    “She’s going to freak out when you tell her.”
    “She won’t. She’s going to roll her eyes, call me an asshole, and move on to the next thing.”
    “I hope you’re right.”
    My eyes tracked a delicious twenty-something in a barely-there bikini, diamonds glittering at her throat. I imagined asking her back to my suite and seeing what kinds of terrible things I could make her do.
    “Dude, you’re married,” Ryan snapped. I made an involuntary face at the word. “You gotta track her down and get this shit annulled, bro. You don’t even know her. Giuliana is a way safer bet.”
    I didn’t argue, but I did think Mackenzie and I had gotten pretty well acquainted the night before. Not just in the biblical sense. I had depressingly little memory of that part of the night, damn tequila. We’d talked a lot, and we’d laughed. Not at all what I remembered of the terrified wildcat, fighting to get away from me this afternoon. The woman from last night had been warm and smart. Funny and interesting.
    “We’re gonna sleep on it. Dinner tomorrow.” My phone buzzed.
    Ryan, who was kind of like a nagging Jewish mother in the body of a very wealthy thirty-year old, gave me a look. “Shut that thing off. We’re here to relax.”
    “Yes, Mom.” I checked the phone.
    Hey. Still don’t feel much like dinner, drinks later maybe? Kenz
    Whoa. I hadn’t seen that coming. I’d expected the text to be from Kevin, my personal assistant, who was in charge of the office this weekend in New York. He’d been pestering me with questions about little details, and I was about ready to block his number. Whatever else he had could undoubtedly wait until Monday when I got back.
    But this…
    “It’s her.”
    “Her, your wife?”
    “Dude, stop saying that word.”
    “Maybe you should