Page 2 of Loving Her Enemy

Halayna managed a smile, though anxiousness swirled inside her. She thought she and Bristol would be the only ones in the house. While her friend grew up with household staff, Halayna hadn’t, and she wasn’t sure how to act around them.

“Thank you, but please call me Halayna or Lanie,” she said.

He nodded and gathered their bags. “As you wish.”

As Halayna grabbed what she could with her good hand, her mind whirled. The initial plan had been to stay in Sloane’s home for the summer while she saved up enough money to find her own place. But what if this ended up being another bad decision to go along with her long list of previous bad decisions?

Then there was the matter of Sloane. According to Bristol, he wasn’t expected back in Georgia until the fall. He was currently out of the country, and when he returned to the States, he’d spend the summer in California.

Halayna was counting on that because Sloane Davidson was the last person she wanted to see.

As the SUV pulled up to his private jet, Sloane could already feel the tension easing from his body. He and part of his security team, as well as his business partner, who happened to be his best friend, Reece Campbell, were leaving Japan after being there for almost a week.

The meetings had gone well, but he was ready for a little downtime, which he hoped to get once they arrived in the UK.

“Welcome aboard, Mr. Davidson,” the pilot, who was standing at the bottom of the stairs, said as they shook hands.

“Thanks, Edward.”

Sloane jogged up the stairs, leaving the others trailing behind him. After being greeted by the flight attendant, he headed to his favorite seat and released a long sigh when the butter-soft leather wrapped around him like a cozy blanket. Tension eased from his shoulders like air seeping from a balloon as he settled in for the long trip.

“Here you go, sir.” The flight attendant handed him a baccarat tumbler, with two fingers of his favorite bourbon, before returning to the galley.

Sloane didn’t have a lot of must-haves, but with it being early evening, the staff knew to bring him the drink first thing. He took a slow sip of the dark liquid, the flavor bursting on his tongue, and then he laid his head back and closed his eyes.

There’d been a time when he loved traveling, even for business, but right now he wouldn’t mind going home and settling in for a few months. Hell, he didn’t even care which house he ended up at since he had several homes around the world. He just needed some downtime.

Thinking about home, he wondered if his sister had made it to Atlanta. She had told him she was spending the summer there and asked if he’d mind if she stayed at his place. As a professor at a university in Tennessee, Bristol occasionally used one of his homes while she traveled during the summer.

“Okay, so you’ll have three days off before your next meeting,” Reece said as he shoved his phone into the front pocket of his dress pants. “Don’t say I never gave you anything.”

At 6’1, he and Reece were the same height, but while he and his friend had a runner’s build, Sloane was a little broader in the chest and shoulders.

“Reece, I asked for a week. I’m tired, man, and a few days aren’t enough.”

Though Sloane’s initial wealth had come from a trust fund that his grandfather, who had come from old money, left him, Sloane had reached billionaire status by working his ass off. He owned public and private companies in numerous enterprises—everything from manufacturing to retail—which kept him busy.

“I knew I should’ve asked Lindsay to clear my schedule for the next seven days,” he said of his extremely efficient personal assistant.

“Not even you are cruel enough to call her while she’s on her honeymoon,” Reece said as he buckled into the seat across the aisle. “And the next time she takes two weeks off, I suggest you get a temporary assistant. I’ve been doing my work and her job, and I’m getting tired of your prickly ass.”

Sloane couldn’t hide the smile that tugged the corners of his lips upward. He’d been giving his friend a hard time from the moment Lindsay’s vacation started, and he wasn’t sorry. Reece might’ve been his best friend and the world’s greatest business partner, but he was a pain in the ass on most days.

They had grown up together, closer than brothers, and as adults, their bond was unbreakable. Always the prankster, his friend might be full of shenanigans, but he didn’t play when it came to business. When he wasn’t pulling pranks, he was setting up meeting after meeting, determined for them to make the next big deal.

If anyone looked up workaholic online, Reece’s picture would show up. They both had enough money to live comfortably for ten lifetimes. Yet, Reece insisted on them landing the next deal, then the next one, and so on.

Normally, Sloane went along with his ideas because, like Reece, he loved the challenge almost as much as he enjoyed increasing his wealth. But lately he wondered if this was all his life would ever be—traveling, securing deals, and making an obscene amount of money.

He wanted more. He just wasn’t positive on what more would look like.

“Since we’re taking some days off, we should go out tomorrow night and have some fun,” Reece said. “I can line us up a couple of honeys, and…”

Sloane tuned his friend out as something else popped into his head. They had just left from having dinner with Ichiro Watanebe, a Japanese businessman who was even more successful than Sloane and Reece. They had spent much of the day in meetings and touring the site for a potential factory. It wasn’t a done deal that they’d be going into the venture together, but it would be a dream collaboration if they did. An opportunity of a lifetime.

“Reece,” Sloane interrupted his friend’s monologue. “Why does Watanebe’s assistant think I’m married? He said something about understanding why I was in a hurry to get home to my wife.”

At forty years old, Sloane once considered marriage and having a family, but it probably would never happen since he had trust issues thanks to his ex-girlfriend. Not only had she been using him for his money, but she had partnered with one of Sloane’s business associates in order to take half of everything he owned.