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.

to react before Lance had him pinned,

her brother? She's a total badass. No

tongue, thinking. "Her brothers are supposed to be legends. And, you know... pretty easy on the eyes. I

grinned, completely unfiltered. "Actually, you're way less good-looking than

was about ready to explode. "Those 'brothers' you're talking about are probably her honorary brothers. I'm her real brother. Like,

shrugged,

pinged open, and Lance strode out

to jog to keep

called after Lance. "Her office

around. "Not that way? You could've said something sooner! Geez, you really are slow

keep it together, but he knew Lance's reputation-definitely

Lance to

Monty Jewell

both

put on his best ingratiating smile. "When did

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

face twitched,

Lance-a bit of a wild card.

brother kept him protected, so even though Lance himself

still treated him like