Dark Lord Seduction System: Taming Wives, Daughters, Aunts, and CEOs novel Chapter 1073

Unless Mia or Tommy had told her, which—in the loving name of heaven—they absolutely had not and absolutely would not.

Not even Lea or Keyla would, not under torture, and Ashley had half-decided weeks ago that whatever Lea and Keyla had been up to lately was part of the same tangled net that she herself had now been officially caught in—

Speaking of which, why had those two been missing from school the last few—

"—Ashley?"

She blinked.

Looked up.

Her mother had extended her hand, and Eros was taking it.

The handshake was warm. Unhurried. The kind of handshake that actually meant something—not a formality, not a performance, a small serious exchange between two adults who had come to terms with a thing that had been sitting between them and had decided, each in their own way, that the thing was acceptable.

Ashley had completely missed the decision.

Her mother was already mid-sentence. "—and I want her to call me. Every day. Not a text. A call. I want to hear her voice."

"Every day," Eros agreed.

"If there is any reason I cannot reach her, for any length of time—"

"You'll reach me instead. Immediately. I'll give you the number before we leave."

"And if there is any reason you cannot be reached—"

"That will not happen."

Her mother considered him. Nodded once, slowly. Their hands still clasped.

"All right," she said. "She can go."

Ashley's breath caught.

She had not realized, until this exact moment, how much of her body had been braced for her mother to say no. How much of the past hour she had been holding at arm's length against that possibility. Her shoulders dropped by an inch. Her grip on his arm tightened.

"And," Eros added, easily, as if the thought had only just occurred to him, "if you're free yourself, sometime in the next month or two, I'd be glad to send a flight for you. So you can come to Paris and see Ashley in the place she'll be staying. Meet the rest of the family properly. Stay as long as you like."

Her mother's face did something small and startled.

She covered it quickly. "That's—extraordinarily kind. Thank you. I'd like that. I'd like that very much."

"Then consider it done."

"Can I come?" Emma asked.

"No," Ashley said, instantly, without looking at her.

"Rude."

"Not rude. Realistic."

"Fine. Can I at least have the horse?"

"No," said Eros and Ashley, at the same time.

"Can I ride the horse."

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