Page 64 of Legacy of Deception

Next thing I knew, the room was dark, and Marco was flipped on his side, his head on the pillow.

Super. Now what was I supposed to do?

Even if I rolled over, there was no way I was falling asleep.

I felt just as energized as a kid who ate a bowl of sugar for breakfast.

If we were going to have more nights like these, I should probably keep a diary. At least it would give me something to do. Instead of sitting with my thoughts.

Slowly shifting my eyes, I peered over at him. I couldn’t imagine he could fall asleep so quickly. So, by my calculations, he was probably still awake.

“Marco?” I whispered.

No answer.

“Marco?” I tried again.

No answer.

“I peed myself.”

“In my bed?”

I had a feeling that declaration would do the trick, and I had been right. “No. I just wanted to prove that you were up and ignoring me.”

He didn’t move an inch, his head was still buried in the pillow, as though I was going to let him get any sleep while I was still sitting up. “Congratulations, you proved a point that serves as the most useless piece of information you will probably ever have,” he mumbled.

Poking my head onto his side, I noticed he had his eyes closed. He couldn’t honestly want to stay in that position when I had more to talk about. “Want to tell me about your guy time with Dom?”

Still not moving, he grumbled, “It wasn’t guy time.”

I swept hair away from his face that had fallen there with the way his head was angled. The fresh scent of his shampoo infiltrated my nose, and I inhaled. So far, I think we were crushing this sharing a bed thing. I didn’t know why married couples complained about it so often. We were spending more time together, talking. In my opinion, this was quality time that couldn’t be beat. “It was guy time,” I repeated, standing firm in my way of thinking.

Sitting up, he rubbed at his eyes and turned the light back on. “It was business,” he corrected me.

“At a basketball game?” I furrowed my brows. “I don’t think so.”

“Jesus, Brooklyn. Dom had a business offer for me.”

“Really?” I tapered my eyes.

He nodded, instinctively touching the spot where his initial ring usually sat. Instead, it was sitting on the top of his nightstand. “A really good one, actually.” Peering down at it, he seemed to be deep in thought.

I touched the crinkle on his forehead. “Are you thinking about taking him up on it?” I asked, guessing he had already made up his mind.

“It’s not really up to me.” He swung his gaze in my direction. “I mean, it is, but it involves someone else.”

“No more secrets, remember?”

“Bellissima is facing financial hardship, and Dom is worried about it. He brought his concerns to me to see if I would be interested in acquiring it. He thinks it’ll help secure my position as CEO.”

Widening my eyes, I angled my head. Bellissima was one of the largest magazines in the city, and they had made quite an impact on the fashion industry over the years. Regina Morelli had made sure of that when she had been at the helm. She also made sure the world knew that women in power could have it all, by growing a family while still working at the level she had been at. I still remembered reading her eulogy in the paper and was pretty sure I always would be able to recall parts of it. She had been an icon in every regard and meaning of the word, and had made sweeping, groundbreaking changes to the publishing world. “Wow. I didn’t see that one coming. Outsiders certainly wouldn’t be able to tell. I suppose it must be difficult in this economy to get people to hand over their hard-earned money for print media.” On the other hand, there were other publications I was still subscribed to and received in the mail, mostly out of pure laziness for not wanting to cancel the subscription. Those had pages and pages of ads. Perhaps it was with Regina’s untimely death things began to shift for the magazine. Not that anyone would ever know for certain.

He had restless hands as he fussed with the sheet on his side of the bed. “Social media really changed marketing.”

I angled my head, considering his statement. “Well, opening an account is free, and as long as you stick with it and have some consistency, revenue typically follows.” It wasn’t always that easy, but for the most part, that was the way people made it seem.

His pecs flexed as he stuck a hand in his hair. “Doesn’t do much for a print publication, though.”