MY EX HUSBAND'S SECRET CHILD

ned to smile

or the fish course, or how to laugh at a joke she hadn't actually heard. Tonight the smile was for the cameras lined up outs

was the answer they wanted. "He

xactly where it always landed for photos. He leaned down, said something low again

o the ballroom, his hand dropped away

part nobody

r whoever he needed to speak to next. It was the same tone he use

ampagne from a passing tray and didn'

xpecting him to. Damian Cross had been raised to win, not to argue with his

decided to fall in love with two years ago after that first magazine profile - *Cross Industries' Golden Couple.* She'd

ds who'd built empires side by side and wanted their legacies tied together properly. Mia had been twenty-three and t

t kept the board happy and the company's image polished. He had never pretended otherwise, not really - she'd simply

c and cool air. She hadn't planned on being followed until Elena Voss appeared bes

dly, which somehow made it worse. "Marri

ian's voice changed on the rare occasions her name came up. Long enough to know Elena had been gone from the country

a agreed, and

t room left for hatred when she'd never once had the thing Elena apparently

ore he looked away. It was nothing. It was everything. Mia had gotten very g

ly to end the conversation, and walked back i

until he could leave. When she slid onto the stool beside him he glanced over, and for just a second - the kin

ese things t

e," Damian said. "T

th

eplaced by the usual careful distance, but she'd seen it, and something

," she said. "Not th

g enough that she almost took it

ink," h

ears of marriage, and by the time the car dropped them home neither of them was

r own bed, alone, already half-conv

ha