VALOROUS (A Quantum Novel)(48)

“I’m honored by your faith in me, and I’d love to try. Thank you.”

“Then let’s go meet with our new board of directors.”





Chapter 11





This will surely go down as one of the most surreal days of my life. We’re on another private plane heading for Vegas as the sun drops toward the horizon. With Fluff sleeping in my lap, I’m curled up next to Flynn on the sofa.

He shocked the hell out of me by asking me to head up the foundation, but once the shock wore off, I began to feel excited about the challenge. I left the meeting with a three-page to-do list that will keep me busy for the first half of the year.

I have to give Flynn credit for recognizing that I need something to pour my energy into since losing my job. The work we plan to do helping to feed hungry children is an extremely worthwhile cause that needs this kind of attention.

I saw it with my own class, most of them from good families with hardworking parents, and yet from time to time, some of them came to school without having had breakfast and with no money for lunch.

They broke my heart with the kind of quiet shame that no child should ever experience.

“What’re you thinking about, sweetheart?”

“My to-do list from the meeting.”

“I knew I hired the right person for this job. You’re already all over it.”

“So it’s a job? huh?”

“Of course it is. I told you I was putting you on the Quantum payroll. And your first-year salary is the exact amount of your student loans plus fifty percent.”

Laughter bursts from my chest, spontaneous and free. “You’re a smooth operator, Flynn Godfrey.”

“Why thank you, sweetheart. I’m glad you think so.”

“I decline your generous salary and volunteer my time to the foundation. You see, my soon-to-be husband is filthy rich, so I don’t technically need to work.”

“Ohhh, well-played, my love.”

“Why thank you.” I love every second I get to spend in the presence of this extraordinary man. It doesn’t matter what we’re doing, he makes me happier than I’ve ever been or had ever hoped to be.

“But that’s not happening. You do a job, you get paid. That’s how it works. And speaking of your filthy-rich husband…”

“You probably want me to sign something. Whatever you need, I’ll sign.”

“No, I don’t want you to sign anything.”

“Flynn, be serious. Anyone with half a brain who has what you have would expect his girlfriend of two weeks to sign a prenup before they say I do.”

“Well, I guess I have less than half a brain, because there isn’t going to be any prenup.”

He’s so emphatic that I begin to question whether he’s already had this argument with someone else. “Is this why Hayden left the way he did other night?”

“What way did he leave?”

“Pissed off. I assumed it had something to do with me, as I have that effect on him.”

Flynn seems to be deciding how much he wishes to say.

“Did your friends tell you you’re a fool to not have a prenup?”

“I don’t know that fool was the word they used.”

I roll my eyes at him. “For what it’s worth, I agree with them. I’d actually be more comfortable if there was something that protects you. Just in case.”

“In case of what?”

I throw him a look that lets him know I’m on to him. “Don’t be obtuse.”

“I do so love your vocabulary, Ms. Bryant, and just for your edification, this marriage is forever, so I refuse to go into it making plans for it to end.”


“While I appreciate your complete and utter faith in me and in us, it would be prudent for you to ask me to sign something that says I don’t want your money. I only want you.”

“Which is exactly why you’re not being asked to sign anything. I believe you when you say you only want me. You’re the only woman I’ve ever been with who’s with me for the right reasons. Everything I have is yours.”

Tears fill my eyes. How can this be really happening? “I love you so much. Who you are to the rest of the world and what you have… None of that matters to me as much as who you are to me, what you give to me every day, by loving me.”

He leans in to kiss me.

I reach up to keep him from getting away, which disturbs Fluff.

She comes to with a growl and a bark that make us laugh once again.

Caressing his cheek, I say, “I live in mortal fear of her biting this world-famous face.”

“A scar or two would add some character.”

“You’re perfect exactly the way you are.”

A short time later, we land in Vegas, where we’re met by a limo that whisks us into town. I’m dazzled by the Vegas Strip—the lights, the gaudy grandeur and the palpable energy. Flynn, who has been here a million times, enjoys watching me see it for the first time.

We end up at the Bellagio, where we’re taken in through a special entrance and escorted to an elevator that deposits us directly into a palatial suite with floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the Strip and the elaborate fountains the hotel is famous for. I walk over to the window to take it all in.