Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 109783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Still, I didn’t like my wife worrying about me, so I did what I could to assuage her concerns by leaving the bigger stunts to the professionals.
Now that we’d finished filming, I’d have some time at home until the press tour started for a movie I’d filmed last year.
School had just started back, so I knew Maddox would be in class by the time I returned to our home on Ardnoch Estate. We had a beautiful coastal home, and it meant Aria was literally a five-minute drive from work. It also had the benefit of being one of the safest places on the planet for my family to live, and it gave me comfort knowing they were safe when I was out of the country filming.
Deciding to stop in at the castle to surprise Aria first, I asked them not to say anything at the gates as they let my car through. That meant no one was there to greet me at the main entrance like usual. The head butler Wakefield had retired last year, replaced by Stephen, who now went by his surname Miller. It didn’t quite have the same ring to it. I’d suggested to Aria she insist on him taking on a fake surname, but she’d just laughed like she thought I was joking.
I was in fact quite serious.
Miller was a rubbish name for a head butler.
Pushing open one of the double doors at the grand entrance of the castle, I stepped inside to find the great hall empty. My feet echoed off the parquet flooring as I crossed the large expanse and disappeared under one of the arches at the rear. I followed the wide corridor to the left, heading toward my wife’s office. Aria was the estate manager now. She’d taken over most of Lachlan Adair’s duties, freeing him up for his other business ventures. It kept Aria busier than I’d like when I was home, but it wasn’t fair for me to expect her to adjust her schedule just because I was home for a bit.
Weariness crawled through me at the thought. I missed my family. We’d fought so hard to create our family, and I sometimes feared I might look back at my life and regret all the moments I’d missed in favor of my career.
For years, Aria and I had tried to have a child. It didn’t happen. Turned out we both had issues in that department, which made us extremely incompatible as procreators. It broke my fucking heart not to be able to give Aria what she wanted. In the darkest moments of our grief, I’d thought I might lose her, even when she assured me I was enough. Eventually, we got to a place where we could talk about adoption. Once we started the process, it took a while, but we eventually got Maddox. He came to us at three years old. His mother overdosed when he was two and he’d been in care ever since. Those first few months were difficult. As to be expected, Mad was a very mixed-up wee boy. It was distressing to see that in a toddler, but it also didn’t take long for him to start trusting our permanency. Now he had no memory of that time, and Aria and I were just Mum and Dad.
He was eight years old.
Five years had flown by.
I missed his birthday this year.
I fucking hated that.
Desperate to see my family, I hurried my steps toward Aria. I wondered if I could convince her to take Mad out of school for the day. I threw open the door without knocking and abruptly halted at the sight before me.
Aria sat with her arse against the edge of her desk, her hands braced at either side of her curvy thighs, laughing up at the security guard who stood way too close to her for my comfort.
Perhaps it was just the way I’d been feeling lately, but anger and jealousy flushed through me before I could stop it. “What the fuck?”
Aria’s gorgeous eyes flew to me and widened. She straightened up off the desk and her body brushed the arsehole looming over her.
I glowered at the bloke I didn’t recognize. “Do you want to step away from my wife.” It wasn’t a question.
The security guard raised an eyebrow and stepped back from Aria. I could feel her glaring at me, but I didn’t take my eyes off the fucker who thought it was appropriate to be in his boss’s personal space. He was younger than me. Both of us. At least twenty years younger than me. “I was just relaying some information to Mrs. Hunter,” the security guard explained calmly.
“Awful cozy relaying.”
He pinched his lips together in displeasure and looked at Aria. “If that’s all?”
“Of course, Evan. And apologies for my husband’s behavior.”