The Billionaire Playboy's Regret (Lark and Max)

Three weeks later, Lark was sitting at the dining room table with a court case spread out in front of her and her head throbbing. A glass of red wine was placed beside her, and she looked up at Max in confusion. "What is this?"

"I stopped on my way home and got you some red wine."

"Why?"

"Because you're edgy."

"You bought me wine because I'm edgy?"

"Margot said she heard you muttering under your breath about flying to Houston to kill your father for dumping his s**t on you. She thought maybe a glass of wine would soften you a bit."

"Oh, it's this lawsuit on corporate espionage. Gracie's fingers twitched yesterday, and Dad can't focus on anything but watching her fingers to see if they move again. He asked me to look through this file for a fresh take on it. He thinks the client is full of s**t with his claims the staff stole the trade design because the woman is alleging, he framed her and seems to have corroborating evidence but the whole thing is shifty."

Her phone rang on the dining room table, and she took note of Ollie's number. She sighed and answered it on speaker. "Hey Ollie."

"Are you sitting down?"

"Yes. Max is here. He just brought me a glass of wine."

"Get her the bottle, Max. I have juicy news to share unless your parents have called you in the last half hour."

"If it's about Gracie's twitching fingers, I already know."

"Nope!" Ollie was chortling like a madwoman.

"Out with it, Ollie."

"Your dad punched Heriberto out cold. One punch and took him out."

"What the hell?"

"He's thirty-three right." Ollie was snickering. "Heriberto is thirty-three and he f****d your sister."

"He did what?" Lark's eyes bugged as she looked incredulously at Max. "Dad hit him?"

"He did. Your dad accused him of going for Lark's mini-me, called him an old pervert, and knocked him out cold."

Lark bit her lips together and then took a breath, "I knew."

"What?"

"Fallon called me the other day. They've been hooking up since the day she flew back to Houston with you and Santiago." "No way." Ollie's glee was now less enthusiastic. "I thought I was delivering scandalous news."

"Well Dad punching him out and calling her my mini-me is scandalous but I knew they were together. I guess when you and Santiago were in the back of the plane working on making babies, he was making her feel better about having shitty friends. Stop reading the wrong and incomplete storyline, jo b ni b.com has the correct and complete book. She's been sneaking to his ranch almost every day. She told me she likes his pet donkey, and she keeps taunting him the only reason she keeps going back is because she likes the farm animals and has to put out to get near them." "Are you jealous?"

"Why the hell would I be jealous? I told everyone he's like a big brother to me and now he literally is." She exchanged a look with Max who was smirking.

"What do you mean he is? It's not like they're married."

"Aren't they? The reason she called me on the weekend was to tell me she did something crazy and eloped with Heriberto.

"His own brother doesn't know!" Ollie screeched.

"She said on Friday night he wanted her to go there and spend the weekend and she said she wasn't going to be a stand-in anymore because someone," she grinned when Max loudly coughed Mori's name, told her he was only using her to live out fantasies of f*****g Mori's brother's fiancée. Fallon was devastated and refused to see him. He kidnapped her Saturday morning from the hospital, put her in a chopper, took her to Vegas, declared himself utterly and completely besotted with her, Fallon and not me, and then married her. She said she blew him in the chopper on the way home. They were there and back in eight hours, and nobody knew. She called me because he wanted to tell Dad and she was freaking out and begging him not to. The age gap is going to f**k with Dad."

"My dad is older than my mom by roughly the same difference. In fact, mom wasn't much older than Fallon is now when she got pregnant with us," Max weighed in.

"I think it's different when it's your youngest daughter." Lark laughed thinking of Grady knocking Heriberto out cold.

"So, you're not upset?" Ollie said seriously.

"Why did you think I would be, Ollie?"

"You flirted with him!"

"I flirted with Seb too and the guy drinks his own piss. Yesterday I flirted with a male barista at Starbucks because Max was being an ass. It's how I make Max nuts." She giggled when he playfully slapped her thigh. "Heriberto doesn't do for me what your brother does. Max is all I want."

"Huh. I thought I was going to freak you out."

"Why would you want it to?" Max asked curiously.

"I don't know." Ollie griped, "I'm bored, and I need drama?"

"You need therapy," Lark grunted. "How would you feel if I called Santiago and asked him if he was

jealous his ex-wife who was never his wife is with someone else?"

"The only person she is with right now is her maker and fine, you're right. I'd be annoyed."

She looked at Max, "this is why we can't have nice things."

Max laughed at her comment and Ollie gave an annoyed grumble.

"Yeah, well wait until your dad finds out you knew and didn't tell him."

"It's not my business. If I want everyone to stay out of my relationship with Max, I'm going to respect everyone else's relationships and stay out of them. If you want to share, you can. If you don't, then I'm not prying and I'm not gossiping." "You're no fun, Lark."

Max spoke quietly, "Ollie, don't talk to

her like that. We get too wrapped up in the childish games we played as kids. Lark and are working really hard on making sure we're not involved in a teenage love but a grown up and respectful one. We are learning to set clear and firm boundaries with one another and With our family and I know you're hurting over it because you feel we're cutting you out but it's not the case. We love you very much, but our marital relationship isn't play and it isn't something for you to joke around with."

"Marital relationship? Are you married too?" Ollie whined. "Did you elope and not tell me?"

"No." Max said seriously. "Ollie, we aren't married yet, but we will be. We are living together, and we are going to spend the rest of our lives together. I know you're jealous but simply because our relationship with you is changing and evolving doesn't mean we love you less."

"I'm not jealous!" she snorted.

Lark could almost see her stomp her foot and fold her arms over her chest. "Yes, you are. You've had me to yourself for

the last twelve years and now you

have to share me again. You had Max to yourself for the last twelve years and now you have to share him again. You're trying to navigate a new relationship which isn't going

the way you want it to because despite all the baby making stuff going on, he still hasn't put a ring on

it."

"He won't marry me," she whispered quietly.

"Why not?" Max leaned over his fists bunched on the table and Lark looked at him curiously and patted his hand until he unfurled it. Some things never changed, and his overprotective streak was one of them. "He told me he can't marry someone he doesn't trust, and he knows I'm keeping secrets. Until I tell him the truth, he won't marry me, but I don't know what f*****g truth he is looking for."

"He thinks you're hiding something from him?"

"Yes, and I don't know what." Ollie moaned dramatically. "I swear one minute he's ready to fill me with babies and the next he's pulling out."

"Ew," Max made a gagging noise.

"Wait, he's not even baby making with you?"

"Nope." Ollie sniffed through the phone.

"What if," Max exclaimed suddenly, "he overheard us at the hospital or at the funeral home. When you and Johan were talking about telling Gracie."

Ollie was suddenly changing her phone call to a video call and her eyes were wide as she got close to the screen. "Are you kidding me?"

"He was there at the hospital all the time, Ollie, and he was at the funeral. Is it possible he overheard you?"

"I'll f*****g kill Johan."

"It's not his fault!" Max defended his friend. "You two shared a stupid lapse in judgement. You're both the king and queen of meaningless hookups," at Lark's huff, he grinned, "I was the God of them, I'm a changed man."

"Yeah, yeah," Lark rolled her eyes at him.

"Anyway," Max continued, "you and Johan screwed one night, and it was fun but it's over. Johan telling Gracie when she wakes up is the right thing to do. If you want your relationship with Santiago to work, you need to tell him."

"Yes." Lark agreed with Max.

"Do you think Heriberto told Fallon he used to want to f**k you?" Ollie questioned dryly.

"He actually did," Lark laughed at Ollie's stunned expression. "She was with him when he called me. He apologized to me and to Max and told me how much he loves my little sister and will spend his entire life making sure she knows she is not my replacement. I was an infatuation, she is the love of his life." "Ugh, why is he so cerebral for a thug?" Ollie complained.

"Same reason your boyfriend is. They are thugs because they had no choice growing up. If they'd been afforded the same opportunities, you and I were, Ollie," Max shook his head at her, "they'd rule the world. Tell him the truth."

"Okay, but what if it's not and its something else and I confess and it's for nothing."

"It's not for nothing, Ollie. He deserves to know. He doesn't need a rundown of every lover you've ever taken but the fact you slept with one of your two best friends is important and he needs to know. My guess is he already does know."

She wiped a tear off her cheek and looked at Lark and Max in the screen, "I love you guys."

"We love you too."

"If you elope and not bring me, I'll never speak to you again. I will keep it a secret, but I want to be there." "Fine but you don't get a say in any of it. You simply show up and attend."

"Deal. I'm sorry for trying to stir up s**t today."

"You always do when you're hurting."

Max said simply. "We're learning to read the signs better." Max winked at her. "Now, my fiancée is in need of a foot rub and a hot bath before Margotuses all the hot water in her hour-long showers." They signed off the call and Lark looked at Max. "Do you really think it's what he wants from her?" "Definitely." Max sighed, "he's a weird guy, Lark. It wouldn't surprise me if he has her bugged everywhere she goes."

She giggled and then lifted her foot and put it in his lap, "enough talk about them. I believe you mentioned

a foot rub?"