The Winter Bride – Hollow Oak Read Online Alexa Riley

Categories Genre: Alpha Male, Billionaire, Erotic, Insta-Love, Romance, Virgin Tags Authors:
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Total pages in book: 25
Estimated words: 23205 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 116(@200wpm)___ 93(@250wpm)___ 77(@300wpm)
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I peek out the bedroom door like I’m making my escape or something, then I roll my eyes at myself. I can come out of the freaking room. He said just don’t leave the house. I think that means I have freedom to snoop. Maybe find a phone and make a call too.

I spend the next hour creeping through the house like a night stalker, but I don’t find a damn phone anywhere. Are landlines not a thing? Also, this place might be fully furnished and decorated, but the drawers are empty, with no personal touches anywhere. It’s weird. It reminds me of a staged home ready to go on the market.

“Mrs. Alder.” I let out a scream and quickly slam the drawer closed. The vase on top of the cabinet filled with fresh flowers starts to fall, but I catch and set it right. “Can I help you find something?” Mrs. Birch asks, fighting a smile.

“I’m just being nosy,” I admit, making the older woman laugh. “Please call me Phoebe. We didn’t really get to meet last night.” I offer her my hand.

“No we didn’t.” She smiles brightly at me as she takes my hand. “Mr. Alder gets his mind onto doing something, and nothing is going to stop that.”

“Really? I hadn’t gotten that impression,” I tease. “He’s intense,” I add on a more serious note, quickly realizing this is where I should be snooping. With her.

“He is,” she agrees. “Would you like some tea?”

“That would be nice.” I follow her back toward the kitchen.

“Have you been living here long?” I ask.

“I think Mr. Alder bought this place about five months ago. We moved in two weeks ago.”

“Oh.” It has been six months since I met Boone on the elevator. “Why did it take so long to move in?” I sit down on one of the high chairs at the kitchen island.

“I think you know why.” She smirks.

“Really?” It’s too hard to wrap my mind around the idea of Boone buying this place for a family home. Then again, he did say he was going to knock me up. I press my thighs together, thinking about his cum inside of me. Some might be there still. The thought is so hot, and I had no idea my body would respond to him like it has. I knew I was attracted to him because you’d have to be dead not to be. But this feeling is a whole new level.

“I suppose when you know you know.” She puts the kettle on the stove.

“Where did you live before?”

“The city.”

“Did you sell it?” It’s about a forty-minute drive into the city from Hollow Oak.

“No. Mr. Alder owns a lot of properties. I suppose you do too now.”

I open my mouth and close it as it hits me that I haven’t signed a prenup. I really haven’t signed anything but a wedding license.

“Are you done interrogating me?” she asks, snapping me out of my daze as she places the tea in front of me.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. I completely understand. Mr. Alder is a hard man to get to know. Give it time,” she reassures me.

“I do have one more question.”

“Ask away.”

“Is there a phone around here? I’d like to call my friend.” Mrs. Birch takes a long pause. “She has my dog, and I’d love to check on him. I miss him so much already.”

“No one said you couldn’t use the phone. There’s a landline here in the kitchen.” She walks over to one of the cabinets and pulls it open, revealing a phone. I’m out of my chair the second I see it with my own eyes.

“Thank you!” I squeal before grabbing the phone and calling Marley. Boy, do I have a whole lot to tell her.

Chapter Eight

Boone

“If you could stop pacing and sit down, we can work this out,” Tidas Combs says as he looks over the contract.

He was my attorney in the city and part of the reason I made my home in Hollow Oak. Now that he’s here full-time, it’s much easier to get ahold of him for emergencies like this.

“They’re trying to make a grab for power and it’s bullshit,” I practically snarl as Curt sits back in his chair and watches me. He’s been silent since we got here, which is smart.

“Well, it probably wasn’t a good idea to give them enough money to do it,” Tidas says without looking up from the paperwork.

“Fuck.” I run my hands through my hair, wondering how the hell I can fix this.

Phoebe’s father is using the money I gave him to buy out one of my competitor’s companies instead of paying off his debts. The company isn’t really the concern, it's that he’s using the money that was going to save his ass to do it. He’s doing it as a power play so that he’ll have control over the market. I can only guess that he thinks this gamble will be enough to pay off what he owes just as soon as he takes over. What he doesn’t know is that the company he wants to buy is drowning in debt too, and all he’s doing is tying his anchor to a sinking ship.



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