The Billionaire's Secret Wife (The Pryce Family Book 3) (Volume 3) by Nadia Lee Page A

note to talk with Mark’s fiancée, Hilary Rosenberg. Out of all the women close to her, Hilary was the one who would know what Vanessa was going through the best.
    “So. Living arrangements,” Vanessa said as she broke off a decent-sized chunk of fish with her fork. “Where do you exactly plan to live in L.A.? Have you found a rental?”
    “Nope. I plan to stay at your place.”
    “Justin… People are going to notice and talk.”
    “I doubt it. I checked out your building already. It’s mostly occupied by young professionals. Lawyers, doctors, consultants and so on.”
    “You checked it out.” She had an image of him lying on the roof of the building across the street, with a telephoto lens and access to a private detective. “Okay, so what if you did?”
    “When was the last time any of your neighbors said hello to you?”
    She thought back. “I don’t know. Maybe a few days ago when I ran into Sarah?”
    “Uh huh. And how often do you run into someone?”
    “Not that often,” she admitted. Being a young professional meant long hours. When she’d moved in, probably half a month had gone by before she’d met anyone in the building.
    “Right. So, no real issue. And if anybody sees me at the airport or anything, they’ll just assume I’m in L.A. on business. But I doubt it’ll be a problem. L.A. isn’t interested in me. Too preoccupied with Hollywood.”
    That was true enough. The media had better stories to chase.
    “Don’t look so serious. Besides, if you want a pregnancy buddy—do women have those?—you can always ping Kerri. She’s expecting, too.”
    “Really? I had no idea.” Vanessa had been to Kerri’s wedding at Barron’s invitation. The Sterlings were family friends, but she’d never been overly close to Barron’s granddaughter. They lived too far apart, and Kerri had been out of the country for most of her life. But now they were cousins by marriage.
    “Barron told me last week. You two are at about the same stage, too. I think she’s six or seven weeks along now. If her kid’s anything like her, it’s going to drive her insane.” He smiled as he dragged his knife through the meat. “Don’t worry. I was a complete angel.”
    “That remains to be seen.” Vanessa ripped a small piece of bread. “Do you ever think about your future, like ten years down the road?”
    “Nope.”
    “Why not?” She’d assumed he thought about his future all the time. He was one of the few who had everything he could hope for. Why not think about it?
    “Because nobody knows what’s going to happen ten years from now. But I don’t let the uncertain future take away the certain happiness of today.”
    And that inexplicably touched her. The day had been beautiful, thanks to Justin. He’d done so much to make it special even though they were eloping on short notice. It embarrassed her she hadn’t prepared anything. She couldn’t even blame her work since Justin was just as busy as she was.
    After they finished dinner, Justin led her over and opened the door to the adjoining bedroom. Vanessa gasped at the scented candles flickering everywhere in the room. They cast a romantic glow, and she felt herself start to melt. “You’ve thought of everything.”
    He hugged her from behind. “It’s our wedding night. I wanted it to be special.”
    “It’s already special.” She blinked away the sudden moisture gathering in her eyes. She didn’t know why she felt so weepy all of a sudden. This was such a sweet gesture.
    If you’re not careful , you’re going to fall in love with him .
    And she didn’t want that at all. Nothing was more seductive and dangerous than the belief that love conquered all. The reality was that love could lose out to an awful lot of quotidian circumstances. Couples broke up over money, although she knew money wouldn’t be an issue in their marriage. But there would be other things. There were always other things.
    Justin buried his face in the crook of her neck.