Johnson Family 2: Perfect Read Online Free PDF Page A

yanking open the door. Had she emitted a little more force, she would have torn it in half. She swept through like a tornado and slammed the door shut.
    Alone now, Cyrus lifted his right thumb to his nose and inhaled the scent of her perfume. The light, sweet fragrance of pomegranate greeted his nostrils. She’d always dotted perfume behind her ears and freshened the scent throughout the day. Clearly she continued to do the same.
    He went around the desk and picked up the blue pen she’d discarded to the floor and put everything back into place on the wooden surface. Then he walked over to the huge windows and looked down at the bustling city.
    He shouldn’t feel so good about their confrontation, but her anger, her passion, her fight excited him. His blood was pumping and his pulse worked overtime. Damn, he missed her. Seeing her, touching her, had brought it home. From the moment he’d met her, he hadn’t been able to get her out of his mind, and he’d decided right away she would become his wife. He’d even told her so, but she’d laughed at his forwardness.
    Women weren’t the only ones who made life plans. Years ago a health scare had forced him to think about his own mortality. It had reminded him of the fleeting nature of life and his father’s last days after his accident. Cyrus Senior had been a big man with a big voice. He’d dominated any room he entered and ran his company with an iron fist, but the last time Cyrus had seen him, the vibrancy had left his body and he lay dying in a hospital bed.
    Cyrus’s mother had been asleep on the sofa in the private room, a blanket thrown over her legs as she slept. She hadn’t left her husband’s side since he’d entered the hospital.
    His father had lain there, wasting away, a shadow of his former self. He’d looked at Cyrus from the hospital bed, his voice raspy as he drew his last breaths and delivered his final instructions.
    With all the money they had, they hadn’t been able to save him. The internal injuries had been too severe, and in the end, after numerous surgeries, his heart had finally given way under the strain. Would his father have lived if he’d exercised more and eaten better? If he’d taken better care of himself, could he have withstood the trauma?
    With those events buoying his decision-making, Cyrus had mapped out a new life for himself. He’d bought a house with the intention of getting married and starting a family by the age of thirty-two. Yet here he was at thirty-four years old and not a child in sight.
    Plenty of potential wives had crossed his path, but he hadn’t had time to date, so he’d hired a high-end dating service to find him a spouse. Around the same time, Johnson Enterprises had been going through a redecoration. Daniella’s company, Beaux-Arts Galleries, had met with their facilities manager to work on the new decor. He’d only needed to meet her once to know she was the right woman, and a background check had confirmed it. There had been no skeletons in her closet.
    After he’d gotten rid of her boyfriend, Roland, they’d connected easily because they understood each other’s work ethic. Their courtship had been short, but established they were compatible enough to get along, and then they’d been married. A strong attraction to each other helped, but the marriage itself had been a practical matter, without the emotional trappings of declarations of love. More or less a business arrangement that fit their lifestyles and happened to extend into the bedroom.
    They’d enjoyed a few good months of marriage when he noticed the change in her. That’s when the problems started. Some days she simply watched him, her eyes filled with reproof. Other times, she questioned his business decisions, the way he treated members of his family, and the tactics he used to get the outcomes he desired. Rather than getting better, their arguments escalated. Not a surprise, considering both he and Daniella were stubborn.
    None of