A Reborn Bride Pearl Emerging from Dust by Sally Garcia

The Next Day

Calliope headed into the office early. She took care of a few things-emails, a call from legal, the usual when suddenly, Lance appeared.

This time, he'd left the whole helicopter stunt behind and just rolled up in a sports car, with an entire convoy of flashy vehicles trailing behind him. Subtlety clearly wasn't in his vocabulary.

He strode straight into Jewell Group.

As luck would have it, he bumped into Valerian Jewell at reception. Valerian had definitely heard of Lance-how could he not, after the infamous helicopter landing on the company lawn last month?

Security was about to stop Lance at the entrance, but Valerian recognized him right away and figured he was here for Calliope. So, with a resigned sigh, Valerian led Lance inside.

They stepped into the elevator together, and Lance gave Valerian a once-over, eyebrows raised.

"You know Callie?" Lance asked.

"She's my sister," Valerian replied evenly.

Lance scratched at his ear, puzzled. "Your sister? Huh. Weird, I've never seen you around. Her brothers I've met are all... well, kind of a big deal."

He sized Valerian up, then suddenly lunged at him-just out of nowhere.

didn't even have time to react before Lance

brother? She's a total badass. No offense, but you don't really scream

supposed to be legends. And, you know... pretty easy on

completely unfiltered. "Actually, you're way less

to explode. "Those 'brothers' you're talking about are probably her

just shrugged,

and Lance strode out first, his leather boots

almost had to

called after Lance. "Her office isn't over

something sooner! Geez, you really are slow for Callie's

it together, but he knew Lance's reputation-definitely not someone to piss off.

and led Lance

Jewell were both waiting

both men

his best

a look. "And who are you supposed to be? Why do you sound like you're auditioning for a

face twitched, but

Lance-a bit of a wild card.

though Lance himself

treated him like