It wasn’t really sexual.

  It was just our way of handling the intense emotions that sometimes flowed between the two of us.

  I wondered how I’d never noticed quite how lonely I was before he’d come into my life after my kidnapping.

  Even when I’d been with another man in the past, something had still been missing.

  Maybe I’d never admitted it.

  Maybe I’d never consciously thought about it.

  But my heart must have known, even though I’d tried to tell myself that my life was just fine back then.

  Being with Chase had given happiness a whole new meaning for me, and showed me firsthand how wonderful life could be when I had the right guy beside me.

  He understood me and knew what I wanted and needed like no other man ever could or would.

  He was my husband.

  My partner.

  My companion.

  My friend.

  And my lover.

  Everything rolled into one rather spectacular body.

  When I finally pulled back a little and looked into his eyes, I could see the way I was feeling mirrored right back at me, and it was beautiful.

  “Everything okay?” he asked, his expression thoughtful.

  “More than okay,” I answered with a small nod. “I’m just wondering how I ever got lucky enough to not feel lonely when I’m in a crowd of people anymore. Even when you’re not with me physically, you’re still with me, Chase. Everywhere I go.”

  Keeping one arm tightly around my waist, he lifted my hand and kissed the beautiful wedding ring on my finger. He then entwined our fingers before resting them over his chest.

  “You know I feel the same way,” he replied, his expression deadly serious as he thumped our conjoined hands against his heart. “You’re always right here, Vanna. No matter where I am. I’m the luckiest guy on Earth because you’re mine. Don’t think for a fucking second that I don’t know that. There was never really anyone else for me except you.”

  I smiled because I felt that rightness, too, and I felt no compulsion to make sense out of that knowledge.

  It was just…there.

  All I’d really needed to do was open my heart to him. Since I’d done that, Chase Durand had rocked my entire world.

  “Kiss me,” he demanded hoarsely. “And then I’ll introduce you to the Louvre. I think I can keep my horny ass in check long enough to show my woman the masterpieces.”

  “You’ve introduced me to so many wonderful things,” I told him. “You might eventually get bored if we keep going to places you’ve been before.”

  He shook his head. “Never. I could never be bored when we’re doing anything together. And we’ll find some places to discover together someday. Right now, my main goal is to see you happy.”

  “I’m very happy as long as we’re together, too,” I assured him.

  I leaned down and kissed him, my heart racing as our lips met.

  The Louvre could wait another moment or two.

  Chase was and always would be my number one priority.

  We had a lifetime of experiences to share in our future, but none of them would ever be more important than what I was doing with the man that I loved right this very second.

  ~The End~

  Get Wyatt Durand and Shelby Remington’s book, Billionaire Unreachable, coming August 15th, 2023.

  Pre-order at:

  https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/billionaire-unreachable-wyatt

  Keep reading for a preview of

  Tell Me Your Mine

  Damian

  “Obviously, you already know this wasn’t me, Mum.” I tossed the newspaper I was holding on a nearby table as I met my mother’s concerned gaze.

  Dammit! I’d gotten to her country estate in Surrey as soon as I’d seen the tabloids in London, but apparently, I hadn’t been quick enough. My mother had her own copy of the fresh-off-the-presses scandal sheet right next to her elbow, and I was willing to bet she had read the entire article.

  Possibly more than once.

  I got her silent answer when she raised a brow, and pinned me with that all-knowing, parental stare that I’d hated since childhood.

  Isabella Lancaster was pushing sixty-three years old, but she was still beautiful. Her dark hair had gone gray rather gracefully, and her dark-brown eyes were still as sharp as they’d been years ago.

  She knew all…

  Saw all…

  And maybe I was an idiot to think that I could get to Surrey from London before she found out what was all over the tabloids this afternoon. Mum tolerated the gossipy, upper-class crowd much better than I did, so was it really surprising that she’d already gotten the news?

  “You can’t keep covering for him, Damian.” Her voice was firm, but I could recognize the underlying distress.

  I shrugged. “What do you want me to do? Dylan isn’t in a good place right now.”

  Truthfully, my younger-by-fifteen-minutes identical twin brother hadn’t been in his right mind for the last two years. Not that I really blamed him for that, considering all that he’d been through.

  “It’s been two years now, Damian. How long are you planning on taking the blame for Dylan’s…misadventures?”

  I shook my head as I began to pace back and forth across the large sitting room. I wouldn’t exactly classify my twin brother’s behavior as “misadventures.” He wasn’t some teenage party boy getting himself into a little trouble. Dylan was thirty-three years old, and well on a path to self-destruction. He didn’t give a damn about anyone or anything.

  “I don’t care what people think of me,” I told her defensively.

  Okay, maybe that wasn’t quite true. Dylan’s latest indiscretion to be caught on camera was him bare-ass naked, surrounded by several women who were equally nude, and probably just as drunk as he was when that picture had been taken.

  This time, I wasn’t all that keen on letting people think I was ignorant enough to let that get caught on camera.

  I was the reserved Lancaster brother, and I liked it that way. I wanted my competitors and my allies to take me seriously in the business world.

  I had no idea how a reporter had actually gained entrance to Dylan’s drunken orgy, but it wasn’t surprising since my brother did very little to avoid bad press these days.

  I stopped and picked up the paper.

  Could it really be as bad as I remember? I only got a quick glimpse of the picture in London.

  I grimaced as I looked at the image on the front page, and the cringe-worthy headline above it:

  SORRY, LADIES! ONE WOMAN WILL NEVER BE ENOUGH FOR BILLIONAIRE DAMIAN LANCASTER!

  Shit! It was as bad as I remembered.

  I guess that I should be grateful that they’d blurred some of the explicit details on the nude bodies. I hadn’t seen my brother naked since we were children, and I could have very well done without seeing his bare ass for the rest of my life.

  Disgusted, I tossed the paper aside again without scanning the text. The last thing I wanted was to read a play-by-play of my sibling’s sex life. No, thank you!

  “You should care.” Mum’s voice was calmer now. “Everyone assumes it was you. That’s your name above that photo. Dylan won’t correct them. And Lord knows you won’t, either, out of your misguided desire to protect your brother. It’s going to be difficult for anyone to take you seriously after this. Do you really want to be sitting in a business meeting, trying to make a deal, knowing every executive in the room is dying to ask for the details about that orgy?”

  Thank you, Mum, I thought. I’d never really considered that possible outcome, but no doubt I would in the future. Every single time I have a business meeting from now on.

  While I didn’t really care what people thought about me personally, I did give a damn about Lancaster International, and all of our subsidiaries. At one time, Dylan had cared about our company interests, too.

  I rubbed a frustrated hand over the tension in my neck, very well aware that the headache that was starting to plague me was going to get worse. Much worse. “I’m headed to the States,” I said. “I’ll talk to Dylan when I get there.” As usual, my twin had fled across the pond to avoid any media attention after doing something incredibly stupid.

  Leaving me to take the blame, and do the cleanup.

  So far, I’d done a pretty damn good job of burying most of Dylan’s erratic behavior.

  Like…the time he’d jumped up on a table in a popular nightclub with a microphone in hand, and tried to convince everyone that our current prime minister was trying to make England a communist country.

  Or like…the time he’d gone to a poker game, and accused a well-respected championship poker player of cheating.

  When Dylan got thoroughly pissed, there was no telling what would happen, or where his mind would go.

  Luckily, most of my twin’s drunken romps had never even hit the gossip columns. If there was one thing people liked more than a scandal, it was money, so I’d been able to pay to keep most of the incidents out of the press.

  Really, there were only a few such incidents that I’d had to claim as mine.

  Luckily, the prime minister and I rarely traveled in the same circles.

  Regrettably, my twin had taken bad publicity to a whole different level this time, and for the first time since Dylan had started all of his lunatic behavior, I had no idea what to do about it.

  Mum frowned at me as she insisted, “You need to do more than talk this time, Damian. You have to refuse to keep taking the blame and cleaning up after him.”

  “I can’t,” I said. “You know I made a promise to Dylan, and I swore I wouldn’t break my word. I said that I’d give him time away from Lancaster, and everything involved with our corporation, including the press, so he could get his head together after what happened. I have no choice but to let people think his actions are mine, or to make sure they get completely buried.”

  The image of my twin pleading with me two years ago for time away from everything still haunted me. Dylan had been completely broken, and I hadn’t hesitated to give him my vow that he’d have the space and solitude he craved.

  I’d done everything possible to wipe Dylan’s existence off the internet by hiring a highly skilled company who specialized in that type of thing. They’d even taken his name and photos off the corporation website so he could have his privacy. Anything that had come up in the last two years had been deleted as well. Granted, I’d taken the blame for a couple of things, but those articles had disappeared like they’d never happened.

  Honestly, it felt eerily similar to that old Sandra Bullock movie, The Net, when her whole identity had been erased, like she’d never existed.

  Okay, maybe it wasn’t that bad. It was only his online fingerprint that had disappeared, and I still had a few business articles on there. I’d kept such a low profile that I’d never had much more than that in the news in the first place.

  “Damian,” Mum said softly. “When you gave your brother your word, I know you never had any idea he’d end up like this. He wasn’t a drinker two years ago. You kept your promise, and he’s had enough isolation. Unfortunately, Dylan hasn’t used the opportunity you’ve given him wisely. He’s avoided and escaped instead of using that quiet time to heal. This latest stunt isn’t a good image for Lancaster International, and no decent woman will ever have you if you don’t stop taking the blame for Dylan’s behavior.”

  Great! Here we go again…

  I raised a brow. “What makes you think there’s a decent one who would have me now, Mum?”

  I probably shouldn’t bait her, but I was desperate for a change of topic. I wasn’t prepared to lay out my plan to fix this current situation. Probably because I didn’t have one…yet.

  She grimaced. “I’d really like to see grandchildren before I die, Damian.”

  I loved my mother. I really did. But she was tenacious when it came to trying to marry all of us off so she could be surrounded by grandchildren.

  Dylan certainly wasn’t about to find himself a wife anytime soon.

  And my younger brother, Leo, was rarely in one place long enough to have a good chat with a woman, much less marry one.

  So naturally, all of my mother’s matchmaking efforts had been put toward her eldest son.

  “Don’t hold your breath waiting for me to get married, Mum,” I warned her.

  Yeah, I liked getting laid as much as the next guy, but I kept those relationships uncomplicated by seeing women who liked their freedom as much as I did.

  Lately, I hadn’t even had time to pursue something with no strings attached. I’d been too damn busy running Lancaster by myself.

  Leo had never been interested in taking over my father’s business interests. When my dad had died, Leo had taken his portion of his inheritance, and was now probably the richest wildlife biologist in the world.

  My mother released a long sigh. “I know you’re worried about your brother, Damian. I am, too, but that doesn’t mean you can’t call him out for leaving you to pick up the pieces after every one of these incidents. He’s gone way too far this time. You can’t just write a check to make this particular article and photo disappear. They’re already out there.”

  She was right. Dylan had done some idiotic things over the last two years, but this was the first time he’d done something naked, with a damn harem. “I don’t think he cares anymore. I’m not even sure he knows that the press blames me for the things he does. Nor do I think it matters to him if he does know. He runs away to the States every single time something happens.”

  My brother had never once asked me how I’d kept his embarrassing conduct from catching up with him. He didn’t have to. Dylan knew me, and he had my word that I wouldn’t let anything touch him.

  “Then make him see it, Damian. I know it’s been a tough few years for Dylan, but it’s hurting me to watch you work yourself into the ground running Lancaster International alone. You’re doing your work and his, too. Not to mention the effort you’ve put into making sure that nobody even knows that you have a twin brother unless they knew about him before everything happened.”

  I shot my mum a questioning glance. “Have I ever complained?”

  She shook her head. “No. You wouldn’t. You never do. But I’m your mother. I can see how this situation is wearing on you. Do you think I haven’t noticed that you aren’t eating well, or that you have headaches that you’ve never had before? How much do you sleep at night?”

  “I sleep,” I assured her.

  “A few hours, maybe,” she scoffed. “You haven’t looked truly rested and healthy for two years, Damian. You need to confront Dylan, make him understand that you need to move on with your life, even if he doesn’t. You can’t continue to run Lancaster International alone. He needs to come home. Or you’ll have to restructure things and start delegating to make your high-paid executives actually earn their salaries.”

  Okay, so maybe I did have a hard time delegating responsibility to anyone who didn’t have Lancaster as a surname. “Are you trying to say I’m something of a control freak, Mum?”

  “Really? Something of a control freak, Damian? I swear, you’d rather die than give up some of your responsibilities, and that worries me. I think you’re waiting for Dylan to come back and take back his obligations. In the meantime, the workload is killing you, and God knows how long it will take for Dylan to get his head together.”

  I was surprised by my mum’s adamant tone. Over the last two years, she’d been extremely forgiving about Dylan’s behavior, but apparently, her attitude had…changed.

  Maybe she was right.

  Maybe it was time to stop forgiving Dylan for every stupid thing he did.

  I was perfectly fine with her change of heart.

  I just hadn’t figured out a way to do that myself without feeling guilty as hell.

  Honestly, I understood why Dylan liked to spend so much time in California. The Lancaster family was rarely recognized there. Here in England, the Lancaster name was legendary, and had been for generations, so we avoided any publicity to keep our faces out of the media. In America, we had a lot more freedom because there were far better stories to chase there than the behavior of a couple of British billionaires. Their A-list movie stars gave the American press plenty of scandal to write about.

  “He’s still there, Damian.” My mum’s voice was soft and comforting. “Dylan will get through this. He’s stubborn. It’s always taken him a long time to accept something he can’t change.”

  I was happy to hear her say that, glad she was still optimistic, because there were moments that I wondered if any of the old Dylan still existed at all. He wasn’t the man I knew, the brother I knew, anymore. “I hope he works everything out.”

  Until Dylan got his shit together, I’d keep protecting him because that was just…what I did. Maybe I was only the oldest by a matter of minutes, but I was the eldest, and since my father had died, it had been my job to take care of my family.

  Besides, my twin and I had been covering for each other since we were kids, and that instinct had never gone away. At least, for me, it hadn’t.

  Mum let out an exasperated breath. “Talk to him when you get to California. If anyone can get through to him, it’s you. You two were always so close. He might open up to you.”

  Because I didn’t want to crush her hopes that Dylan would eventually be okay, I simply answered, “You’re probably right, Mum.”

  My mother sniffed. “I’m always right. And I know my sons.”

  Maybe she knew us too well. Mum was rather scary that way. “I better get moving. I have a flight to catch.”

  There was a twinkle in her dark eyes as she asked, “You’re going commercial again?”

  Actually, I hadn’t flown commercial for over a year, but Mum liked to give me a hard time about the fact that I occasionally flew Transatlantic Airlines just to see how our company was performing. “How else would I know if we were having issues? Transatlantic is one of our more lucrative companies. I’d like to keep it that way. I’m not exactly going to suffer, Mum. I am booked in business class.”