* * *
“So, who’s the doll you’ve checked Google for a million times on your laptop?” Darryl Boudreaux asked as he scanned the screen of his older brother’s computer.
“What?”
“Dahlia Morrow. You’ve been spending a lot of time researching the woman. Is she an actress or something?”
Guy shook his head, reaching to close the lid of his laptop from his brother’s prying eyes.
“Hey, I was optimizing your hard drive!” Darryl intoned.
“No, you were being nosy.”
“I was doing that, too. She’s cute, though. The woman has a body and then some.”
Guy rolled his eyes at his brother’s comment. “She’s a filmmaker, one of the best. Do you follow the industry at all, Darryl?”
Darryl shrugged his broad shoulders. “I don’t even own a television, why would I follow the film industry?”
“Uh, maybe to support your big brother?”
“I can support you without denigrating my mind with the garbage they’re airing on TV these days. And I think I support you just fine. I installed your security system. I fixed your garbage disposal last week. I designed a new rooftop garden for you—construction starts in two days, by the way—and if you leave me alone, I can make sure you have the best access to the internet to keep scoping out your woman,” Darryl said as he lifted the computer’s top and resumed his search of Guy’s database.
Guy laughed. “I wasn’t scoping her out!”
Darryl cut his eyes toward his brother, indicating that he knew better and wasn’t buying his brother’s protests.
“You need to worry about your own love life,” Guy said, gesturing toward his brother’s cell phone, which was vibrating against the desktop. “What’s that, the hundredth time she’s called?”
Darryl scowled, annoyance painting his features. He’d been ignoring the device for over an hour as his soon-to-be-ex girlfriend blew up his cell phone. He shook his head. “I told Asia that it wasn’t working out and we needed to sit down and have a serious talk.”
“I’m sure that’s going to go well. I told you that girl was crazy from the start.”
Darryl shrugged again, turning back to his task. “By the way, Maitlyn said to call her. She has some questions about you and your new woman, too.”
“What did you say to her?”
“I didn’t say anything to her. You hire your sister to be your manager and you don’t think she’s not going to know everything that’s going on with you? Big brother, please. You even taught me better than that,” Darryl said with a wry laugh. “And I’d bet my last dollar that if Maitlyn suspects something, then Mommy and the rest of the girls already know.”
Guy headed to the bedroom of his penthouse apartment. He hated when his siblings peeped his hold card, and Darryl taking note of his interest in Dahlia was a point of consternation. His brother had read every card in his deck.
His sister Maitlyn asking questions was something else altogether. Once his sister began to pry into his business, she had reached a point of no return. The women in his family were never readily willing to give him or any of his brothers a break when it came to other women in their lives.
Darryl going out of his way to comment on Dahlia meant his brother had taken note of much more than Guy would have liked. He himself wasn’t quite ready to acknowledge his sudden interest in the beautiful woman.
Since their first meeting, the encounter in her office and agreeing to take the role in her movie, Guy had invested a lot of energy in discovering everything he could about Dahlia. He’d even broken one of his cardinal rules, calling up the friend of a friend of a friend, who’d allegedly dated Dahlia, to discreetly inquire about her. Everything he’d discovered said that she was a woman devoted to her craft, loyal to a fault and not at all caught up in the shallow facade of what a Hollywood powerhouse was expected to be.
Everyone he’d spoken to had only favorable things to say about Dahlia, not one individual cosigning the tabloid fodder that had been written about her in the past. And much had been written about Dahlia; the supermarket rags read like the gossip bible of all things Dahlia Morrow. But even the tabloids didn’t dispute her talents as a filmmaker, and that in and of itself provoked much thought. Guy was thinking that the exquisite and enigmatic Dahlia Morrow was a woman he really wanted to get to know better.
Chapter 5
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John Stallion were seated around the family breakfast table when their sister, Phaedra, made her way into the family home. The four brothers greeted her warmly as she rounded the table, planting kisses on each of their cheeks. Phaedra still marveled at the emotion that bubbled within her each time she was in their presence. Just months earlier she hadn’t had a clue about their existence, and now she was celebrating the joy of having brothers who cared about her well-being and family that loved her unconditionally. Discovering her link to the Stallion lineage had been a whirlwind experience, but she now found herself forever a Stallion, and she loved everything that represented.
“Welcome home,” John, her oldest brother, said as he gestured for her to take a seat at the table beside him.
“Where’s that new husband of yours?” Mark asked casually, his gaze turned toward the doorway.
“He’s headed to the office. Something about the property in Geneva having problems with their front office upgrade,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders.
Luke, the youngest of the Stallion brothers, nodded knowingly. “Geneva’s been a problem from start to finish. I’m hoping Mason can work his magic for us,” he said as he rose to his feet. He tossed his cloth napkin on the table. “I need to meet with him so that we can see if we can get this thing going.” Luke excused himself and exited the room.
Matthew glanced down at the watch on his wrist. “I have to run, as well, but when you get a chance, Phaedra, I need you to stop by my office. Our petition for your name change has been approved by the courts, and we just need to file the final paperwork to insure that all your legal documents reflect your new moniker.”
Mark eyed her curiously, his gaze sweeping around the table. “You changed your name?”
Phaedra nodded. “Yep! I guess I am officially Phaedra Stallion-Boudreaux now.”
John nodded his approval, which made Phaedra smile. As the patriarch of their small family, he was very opinionated about everything his siblings did, and Phaedra was no exception. His endorsement meant the world to her, and she found herself seeking out his opinion on most of her decisions, even her recent marriage to Mason Boudreaux.
Matthew leaned in to kiss her forehead before he headed for the door, Mark following close on his heels. “Katrina is upstairs with Jack,” Matthew said, referring to his wife and newborn son. “She said for you not to leave without coming up to see her. Something about the christening,” he said as he saluted them goodbye.
The familial connection with her brother being married to her husband’s sister was a source of great joy to her, and every time she thought about it she found herself smiling.
“So what’s on your agenda today?” John asked, his booming voice pulling at her attention.
“I was hoping to get your opinion on an investment,” Phaedra said, passing a prospectus in his direction.
With eyebrows raised, John took a moment to review the documents inside, leaning forward as he spread everything out before him. As Phaedra waited, she reached for one of the toasted bagels that rested on a ceramic platter in