Behind the Mask: A Billionaire Romance novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Five A.M.

At five in the morning the city outside the window was the color of a bruise.

I lay on my side with his arm heavy across my waist, watching a single tower light blink on the horizon.

He was awake.

I could tell from his breathing.

"You said a thing last night," he said, into the dark. "A thing someone else said to me."

My stomach tightened.

"It's a common phrase."

"It isn't."

"Maybe the woman and I went to the same school."

He laughed, a short, tired sound against my shoulder.

"Maybe."

I turned over so I was facing him, though I still could not see much.

I put my hand flat on the left side of his chest, over the ridged skin.

"Tell me about your cousin," I said.

He was silent so long I thought he had fallen asleep.

"Channing was seventeen when it happened," he said. "He lived with us because his father had left. When my parents died, the family's lawyers needed someone to speak for the company, and I was in a burn unit for fourteen weeks."

"He stepped in."

"He stepped in," Elliott agreed. "And the doctors wrote letters, six of them, saying I was too ill to sign anything. Channing collected the letters and brought them to the board."

"That was sixteen years ago."

"The letters never expired."

I went cold.

"My shares sit in a trust until I'm forty," he said. "Until then, the board votes my proxy. Channing told them I was a recluse and a risk. I let him. I was nineteen and I wanted to disappear."

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