Filthy Lies Read online

  Once I was alone, I took the second book to a chair by the window and sat. For a few moments I just looked out at the beauty of the grounds covered in snow before I opened the photo album and started looking at pages.

  Seven page-turns into the book and there they were. In life…in color…in a picture I had never seen before. Susanna and Michael. My mother laughing up at my dad as if he’d just said something incredibly clever. Happy. That’s how they were in the picture. So happy. My eyes filled with tears, growing blurry to the point I couldn’t even read the message on the page in the familiar hand of my mother’s writing until I gave myself a minute.

  Once I was able to read it, the message wasn’t anything remarkable at all, just how much they’d enjoyed their weekend at Hallborough and that they would love to come back again someday. That never happened, obviously, but that wasn’t the point. The important thing was that they had been here and enjoyed themselves together…spending time with each other and finding happiness in those precious moments they were given.

  The warm weight of Caleb’s arms came around me from behind. I was so absorbed in my trip down memory lane, I hadn’t even heard him come into the room.

  “Your parents came to Hallborough,” he said softly as he studied their picture.

  “They did.” I reached a hand up and cupped his cheek, needing to touch him.

  “That’s why you were so excited about seeing the house. You suspected they came here.”

  “You caught that from me?” The level of Caleb’s intuitiveness amazed me. It must be why he was so good in business. He could read people.

  He kissed the top of my head. “I like to think I can know what you’re thinking but I don’t. I just sense changes in your body language, and you were trembling when we drove up to the house, and then taking happy selfies in front of it two minutes later. When Hannah said you were in here looking through the photo albums for your parents, I figured it out.”

  “I’m glad you came to find me.” I got up from the chair and went into his arms and let him hold me. Caleb’s touch was my lifeline now. He balanced my highs and lows with his ever-present strength and love.

  “Me too. I love seeing you so happy, it’s the best gift you can give me. Well, that, and our baby,” he said sweetly against my forehead.

  “I love you, Caleb Blackstone, and I needed this trip so much more than I could have ever imagined, but you imagined it. You know me better than I know myself sometimes. Thank you for bringing me here, but more than that, for loving me the way that I am.”

  “I love you, Brooke Casterley Blackstone, and that is my most important job. It’s what I do best.”

  “I know.”

  About the Author

  Raine has been reading romance novels since she picked up that first Barbara Cartland paperback at the tender age of thirteen. She thinks it was The Flame is Love from 1975. And it's a safe bet she'll never stop reading romance novels because now she writes them too. Granted, Raine's stories are edgy enough to turn Ms. Cartland in her grave, but to her way of thinking, a tall, dark and handsome hero never goes out of fashion. Never! Writing sexy romance stories pretty much fills her days now. Raine has a prince of a husband and two brilliant sons to pull her back into the real world if the writing takes her too far away. Her sons know she likes to write stories but have never asked to read any. (Raine is so very grateful about this.) She loves to hear from readers and chat about the characters in her books. You can connect with Raine on Facebook in her Raine Miller Romance Readers group or visit her blog at Raine Miller Romance to see what she's working on now.

  Also by Raine Miller

  HISTORICAL ROMANCE

  The PASSION of DARIUS

  The UNDOING of a LIBERTINE

  The MUSE

  * * *

  CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

  CHERRY GIRL

  PRICELESS

  HUSBAND MATERIAL

  * * *

  BLACKSTONE DYNASTY

  FILTHY RICH, I

  FILTHY LIES, II

  * * *

  THE BLACKSTONE AFFAIR

  NAKED, Part 1

  ALL IN, Part 2

  EYES WIDE OPEN, Part 3

  RARE and PRECIOUS THINGS, Part 4

  * * *

  Writing as Vivienne Wilmont

  LORD BLACKWOOD’S VIRGIN

  * * *

  Writing as Brit DeMille

  CRUSHED, Vegas Crush #1

  SIN SHOT, Vegas Crush #2

  RED ROCKET, Vegas Crush #3