Meddling with a Millionaire Read Online Free PDF Page B

would make, coming away from the house with lighter pockets than when she’d arrived.
    Not until she turned left out of the driveway and followed the moonlit road back to the highway did the pressure in her chest lessen. Whatever it took, she’d put the money back in her account. She’d prove to her father that she could take care of herself and avoid the marriage net he’d woven to snare her. Nathan Case would have to figure out some other way to do the deal with Silas Montgomery.
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    â€œWhat do you mean she’s not here? When did she leave?” Nathan glared around the quiet, empty cavern of a foyer that showed no signs it had been occupied by party guests a few hours earlier.
    The maid clasped her hands before her. “I’m not sure.”
    â€œHey, Nathan.” Cody Montgomery trotted down the grand staircase. Dressed in jeans and a navy sweater, he advanced with a huge smile. “What are you doing here?”
    The maid faded away as Nathan shook his best friend’s hand. “Your sister and I were supposed to have breakfast this morning.”
    â€œAre you sure? Dad told me she headed back to Houston last night.”
    â€œQuite sure,” Nathan said, indulging in a frustrated exhale. She’d disappeared on him again. He should have listened to his instincts last night and persuaded her to go back to his hotel room with him. “We had some things to discuss.”
    â€œLike setting a wedding date?” Cody chuckled as Nathan raised his eyebrows. “Dad told me you two are getting married. Never thought I’d see the day when you’d finally admit my sister has had you wrapped around her finger since she was sixteen.”
    Nathan held a growl between his clenched teeth while his best friend had a good laugh at his expense. “I wouldn’t go that far.”
    Cody frowned. “But you love her.”
    Nathan wasn’t surprised by the question. After five years of marriage, Cody and Jaime were still crazy about each other as they awaited the birth of their first child. Nathan wasn’t sure what sort of water the two were drinking, but he intended to stick with whiskey.
    â€œYou know how I feel about love,” Nathan said. He wasn’t looking to fall into that trap. “It’s never going to happen for me.”
    â€œBut you’re getting married.” Cody gaze shifted away from Nathan. With a glance over his shoulder, he edged Nathan toward the front door, but didn’t speak until the two men stood outside in the brisk January wind. “Does Emma know you’re not in love with her?”
    Nathan wasn’t going to lie to his best friend. “She knows.”
    â€œI can’t believe it’s okay with her. After watching her mother’s marriage to Dad fall apart, she’s pretty determined not to marry unless the guy’s crazy in love with her.”
    Cody made no secret of his belief that Silas’s third wife had married her billionaire husband for financial rather than romantic reasons.
    â€œShe’ll come around.”
    Cody shot his friend a skeptical look. “I don’t think she will. You’ve been on her radar since she was a teenager, but she’s got this whole fairy-tale happily-ever-after thing going. She’s not going to marry you unless she thinks you’re madly in love with her.”
    â€œHave a little faith in my powers of persuasion.” Nathan offered his friend a slow grin.
    A grin that faded as he strode to his car and gave his best friend a farewell salute. Cody’s words poked at him like aburr long after the wheels of the BMW 650i coupe hit the main road.
    Love.
    Emma wasn’t going to marry without it. Nathan wouldn’t marry with it. Stalemate.
    He wasn’t sure when he’d decided that he’d never let himself go down that path. Had it been the Christmas morning when his mother burst into tears because he’d asked why his