The Devoted Winter: BWWM Billionaire Romance Novel (Her Winter Love Series Book 1) by Jamila Jasper Page A

her rigid determination to keep things casual between them until her business was off the ground. She just didn’t feel like this was the right time.
     
    Plus, Lucian had a wife. Yes they were in the midst of a divorce but until the divorce was final Nadiyya didn’t want to commit adultery by committing her feelings into words. She had already gone against God in so many ways when it came to Lucian. She didn’t need to add one more awful thing to the list by admitting she loved a man who was by God’s law committed to another.
     
    Nadiyya knew it just wasn’t the right time. But how could she explain to Lucian that she just needed time without hurting him? She could tell he already felt rejected by her. Nadiyya needed to fix this with Lucian but she didn’t know how to without saying the words she wasn’t ready to say.
    ***
     
    Martine didn’t know about Lucian and Nadiyya yet. Lucian had been clever enough to avoid mentioning her when they had met up for lunch. But Martine knew that she had truly lost Lucian. She no longer had the power of beauty and seduction she had used masterfully in her youth to keep him in line. She had nothing at all. If the divorce went through as Lucian had planned it, she wouldn’t even have any money. She would have gone through all of this for nothing.
     
    Now, Martine was stuck in Vermont another two weeks and Lucian had refused to meet with her again. “We’ll see about that,” Martine thought to herself. When Martine had decided to come to Vermont, she had something up her sleeve. Lucian was foolish enough to assume she’d come without a plan. Ha! Martine wasn’t going to give him up so easily. She wanted her handsome wealthy fool right under her thumb where he belonged.
     
    Martine wasn’t sure what to do with the certain something she had up her sleeve and she knew no one in Vermont except Slade. It hadn’t taken long for Lucian to tell her that Slade was no friend of his. But for this, she didn’t need someone who had Lucian’s best interests in mind. Martine dialed Slade’s number and invited him to her hotel room suite to discuss business in the afternoon.
     
    Slade was eager to hear from Martine. Things were going just as he planned. He marveled at his own ability to predict the behavior of the people around him. They all thought they were better than Slade because they were richer or smarter, but Slade knew that he pulled all of their strings. They were merely marionettes in his puppet show and he made a damned good puppet master.
     
    Slade showed up at her hotel right at four. He dressed up in his best and preppiest. He was Connecticut born after all even if he’d tried to shed the lifestyle when he moved further north. Martine was impressed by the way the slender redhead made an entrance. Sure, he wasn’t as attractive as her husband, but he did look good in a somewhat untraditional way. Slade’s body was toned and there wasn’t a drip of fat on him. He had high angular cheekbones that harkened back to his Norse ancestry. Even his mop of red hair didn’t infantilize him but gave him the appearance of being a fiery dragon of a man. Martine could tell he was certainly impassioned about whatever vendetta he had about Lucian, especially if he’d dragged her so far East.
     
    “Good afternoon Martine,” he said.
     
    “Pour us some wine, dear, and have a seat.”
     
    Martine was a good eight years older than Slade but he still thought she looked sexy for her age. He felt overdressed as he saw what she was wearing in her hotel room. She had on nothing but a red silk kimono, cinched tightly around her waist highlighting her hourglass appearance. Slade felt dirty for being so aroused by her.
     
    Slade obeyed Martine’s request and poured two full glasses of Merlot for them both. They sat next to each other on a plush couch in her suite. Slade swallowed his wine as quickly as he could while Martine spoke. He did love Nadiyya but there was something