Obsession (Magnetic Desires Book 4) by Misti Murphy Page A

that what she wanted? A final answer to the question she’d been asking for years. Maybe she wouldn’t respond, but when she saw the email it would beat around in her brain until she had no choice but to do what I’d asked. And then what? I slammed the lid of my laptop closed with a growl.
    Bounding out of my seat, I strode to the window and leaned against it, staring out at nothing. What was she going to think? How would she take the truth after all these years? Would she even listen? If only I hadn’t been such a coward. If only I hadn’t thought she’d be better off not knowing.
    “She’ll come,” I muttered to myself. “Of course she will.”
    A knock on the door, and Orion’s voice broke through my reverie. “Are you ready?”
    “Yeah,” I mumbled. I was sure as shit ready to put that particular mistake to bed. “Yeah, sorry. Let me grab the books.”
    Striding to the desk, I hunted through the stacks for the Lance Starr ledgers.
    “Are you going to let Mellie in here to organize your mess?” Orion leaned against the door, arms crossed over his chest.
    I shrugged. “I figure she’ll sneak in here at some point and put everything where I can’t find it.”
    “Probably when you do something to annoy her.” He chuckled. “I’m surprised you haven’t yet.”
    If only you knew the half of it. “It’s probably inevitable.” I shoved bits of paper around, trying to unearth what I was looking for.
    “It’s nice to see her back here.” He pushed off the door when I found the files, and I followed him out through the main office.
    “Hey, Mellie.” Orion grinned and crossed the room, pulling her into his side for a one-armed hug. “Couldn’t stay away from the place?”
    “Of course I could, but apparently you guys can’t live without me. It’s in shambles.”
    “Yeah. Blame him. His mind is somewhere else half the time.”
    My life had been in shambles since she left it.
    “See what I mean? I didn’t even get a rise out of him.” Orion gave me a goofball grin. “You know I only come to the office when I have to.”
    “What?” I wasn’t sure what I’d managed to miss.
    She gazed at me, a funny little expression on her face that made my chest tight. “You guys have a meeting, right?”
    “Accountants.” I lifted the hand holding the ledger enough to pull her attention to it. “I won’t be back in. I’m going to take an early day.”
    “Probably a good time to tackle his office.” Orion nudged her with his elbow.
    Catching her gaze, I brought her attention back to the thing that held mine. “Can you take care of that email for me?”
    “Okay,” she exaggerated the word, her voice softening almost to a whisper in answer to my unspoken question. Yeah, she’d come. 
    Orion glanced between us before dropping his arm from her shoulder. “How about we do dinner this weekend? It’s been awhile since we’ve all gotten together.”
    “Sure.” Mellie perked at the suggestion, her focus back on Orion, whatever she’d been thinking forgotten. “Now get out of here, the two of you, and let me get some work done.”
     
    ***
    Concentrating had never been this hard. Numbers and math had always been my thing. But the only numbers I saw was one plus one equalled two.
    Funny how far we’d come with the business. When we first started out I’d been cash poor, having dumped all my money into properties I knew would be the beginning of a better life, and then we’d decided to start Lance Starr. Orion had wanted to be his own boss as much as I had. He’d gone so far as to provide the capital. I’d paid in my half before the end of the first six months, flipping the house I’d built and building another. It had taken me four years before that to scrape enough together to make the savvy investments I’d needed, but less than a year to make my first million. Anything on top of that was gravy.
    I’d promised myself I’d never raise a family who had to wonder where their next meal was