 by Aliyah Burke.jpg)
Total pages in book: 37
Estimated words: 35001 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 175(@200wpm)___ 140(@250wpm)___ 117(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 35001 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 175(@200wpm)___ 140(@250wpm)___ 117(@300wpm)
Book two in the Billionaire Brothers series
Sometimes you have to get lost to truly find yourself.
He left town to get lost. The plane crash may make it permanent.
Playboy Bradford Rhodes wakes in a strange house with an unknown, yet, stunning woman. Iris Wentz doesn't blink to keep him with her during the deadly winter storm.
She traveled to check out her inheritance. The mountains in winter - during a blizzard- better choices had been made.
Iris-and her dog Piros- realize she's unsure how long she and Bradford would be snowed in together. Everything will be fine, so long as she can keep her hands off Mr. Tall, Sexy and damnit-not only that but also funny and flirty.
Forced proximity maybe the spark but Bradford is determined to make sure Iris knows his flame for her and his words are true, and he's looking at forever.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Chapter One
Iris Wentz took a deep breath and cracked her neck before she even dared to glance down at the envelope she held in her balled-up left fist. Uncertainty flowed as she stared at it. Not an ominous feeling but definitely something less than fantastic. She wanted to run, to hide, to avoid what was on the paper. There was a safe place to go, but she couldn’t. Right now she needed to be by herself and not with the family who looked upon her and loved her like she was blood. Their blood.
Growing up in a number of different foster homes hadn’t been the easiest for her. But then she’d landed at the Wentz home. Althea Wentz had been her lifesaver and had given her the family she’d always craved. Not to mention eventually giving her not one but two younger sisters that she loved more than anything. She had brothers also, but she doted on her sisters.
Didn’t change the fact she needed to do this on her own. A huff from beside her left leg had her smiling. Okay, not totally on my own.
She was at the home she’d declared as her childhood one, her mom having called her, letting her know there was some mail waiting for her. “Come along, Piros. Let’s figure this out.”
The Hungarian Vizsla at her side set off with her the moment she moved. He kept pace, not venturing away from her despite the fact he only had on a collar. This one was dark blue, which offset his short smooth golden-rust coat.
Her childhood home was situated on a corner lot that backed up to a national forest, so she and her siblings always had plenty of room to roam. Like her body had been programmed to go there, she found herself at the edge of a stream, by the large rocks they’d used to sit on.
Piros hopped up with ease and she, well, the struggle was a bit more real for her. “Stop laughing at me, canine. I have two legs.” She glared at him. “Without springs in them, like one of us in this single-direction conversation.”
The rock warmed under her ass after a few seconds and Piros lay with his head on her bent knee. Absently she scratched him as she slid a nail under the seal to open the envelope. It was almost fall but the weather was still beautiful. Soon, it would change. She took a deep breath and unfolded the letter. After reading it, she shook her head and read it again.
Piros whined and she patted him. A house? Property? “Looks like I’ve inherited some property in Colorado, Piros. A sizeable place from what it says, and there’s an offer if I want to sell.”
Her old man had left it to his children, and she was the only one they’d been able to find. Not that she had known the old man. A fact she liked to remind herself was not her fault. He was the one who had walked out and left her mother alone. Then that woman had died and the system had become home.
Until Althea Wentz. With her, she’d found her home. Her family.
Laughter preceded her sisters pushing through the woods to where she sat. Piros growled low before she shushed him. He was a dog she’d rescued from a shit situation and he loved her, trusted her with abandon, but he wasn’t like that with everyone else.
“You need to tell him to love us like he does you,” Daisy, the youngest of the trio, griped as she walked closer, her long hair swaying with each step she took.
“He hasn’t left, so that’s progress,” Iris retorted even as she settled a hand against his side.
“He’s just shy about his love,” Violet said as she climbed up without fear beside him and patted him.
Iris pushed the letter deep into the pocket of her cargo pants, not wanting to talk about this currently. Daisy scrambled up on the rock as well, the smallest of them all. Everyone, all the Wentz children, looked after her. Of the three of them here, Iris was the oldest, Violet was the most jaded, and Daisy was the brilliant one.
It didn’t matter they were all currently adults and off on their own, they came back often to their childhood residence and when they did, without fail, the three of them would end up on this rock together. Words weren’t needed, but they happened. Iris spent the rest of the afternoon joking and laughing with her family, Piros at her side and a small voice in the back of her mind yelling for her to tell her sisters about this news she’d just received.
She didn’t.
* * * *
Mid-December
At least a foot of snow covered the ground as she stared at the property before her. She’d parked her old, well-used SUV just inside the gateway of the land she’d inherited. The front gate wouldn’t completely shut off the property when closed because of how it had been created. Nothing across the drive, so it would always remain open. Not ideal for someone with pets. A curved cement wall on either side of the drive had been topped by an iron gate, and when she’d driven past that she’d found herself looking at a sprawling front yard leading up to the house. Large, gnarly, twisted-trunk trees dotted the space, and she knew they would provide great shade in the summer. Right now, however, icicles hung from the ice-coated branches.