James watched his daughter with amusement as she happily skipped along the corridor, humming to herself. He glanced over his shoulder toward Mia’s bedroom and glimpsed his mistress getting out of bed.

The sight of her slender body in sleeping shorts and a tank top burned in his mind, reminding him just how much he missed embracing her, kissing her, and making love to her.

Fuck! But that kiss just now was fucking sweet. He thought he’d lose his mind if they were to continue. If Aria hadn’t turned up and interrupted them, he was sure he’d probably throw Mia on her back and fuck her then and there. It would have been one of the few good things that happened to him during these past few days.

First there was his work at the Maxwell Group, which was driving him more than a little insane at the moment, simply because he’d been away for a bit too long. But he could very easily handle that. Hard work was nothing to him since dealing with business was in his blood. The thing that had been giving him a lot of headaches lately had been his family.

Eric was getting out of hand where their father’s new twenty-five-year-old bride, Alice Ota, was concerned. Obviously, he hadn’t been satisfied with just going to Japan to take a sneak peek at the young woman and telling her, “Hell No,” to becoming their new stepmother. Of course, he hadn’t been able to find Alice, let alone tell her to fuck off, being the hotheaded Eric he was.

Still, their youngest was right that the woman was barely a year older than Eric himself and the age difference between her and their notorious father Liam Maxwell was just too much for anyone to fathom.

It would only be a few more months before Alice, who was currently residing in Japan, arrived. If Scott had his information right, which was 99 percent of the time, then Alice was all American, having been born in this country nearly twenty-six years ago to a pair of American Caucasian parents. He remembered Scott said Alice’s mother had divorced her biological father when she was three years old and migrated to Japan due to her job. Although James suspected it probably had something to do with more than just the woman’s job.

There in Japan, Scott had continued the tale while they’d been drinking last night during one of their weekly catch-up sessions. The woman met with Mr. Ota, and as one might say, the rest was history.

Scott continued that Alice also happened to have a younger half-sibling named Yuki Ota, who was half-Japanese and half-American, and this sibling would be migrating to America as well, along with Alice.

Fuck! No matter how one looked at this, as Eric had stated, it sounded like a fucking mail-order bride situation. This one was also attached with a sibling in the contract.

Like Scott had said while Eric was half-drunk, “There’s nothing we can do about it. We just have to go with the flow like always.”

Go with the flow, James thought as Aria led him around the corner. He and his brothers had always done that where their notorious father Liam Maxwell was concerned, such as with his early retirement as CEO from their multibillion-dollar hotel, resort, and casino chain operation as well as his leading role as the big boss in the underground market of Las Vegas, both of which were now James’s. Everyone knew when Liam made a decision, he wasn’t going to change it. That was why it was best to go with the flow where Liam was concerned, whether it is in regard to business or personal matters. Eric should know that better than anyone else and not get involved. James himself wasn’t stupid and neither was Scott. The more they thought about the whole situation, the fishier it smelled.

The suspicion was rooted in Scott, who had revealed it was tough shit trying to dig up any dirt about Alice Ota. Fuck, it had taken him months and a whole lot of expensive resources just to find out what her name was. It was as if someone powerful were covering her background and tracks. Why? What the fuck for? She was just a normal citizen, wasn’t she?

The second thing that raised a very suspicious red flag was their father had regularly disappeared off to Japan like it was his fucking second home. In the past, it had been once every year. Recently, that routine had changed to something like once every other month. Not to mention the trips lasted longer every time. Since James himself had returned to LA two weeks ago, their father had hastily left for Japan again. This time he had gruffly informed them he’d be returning with Alice, which would be in a month’s time.

On the surface, this all seemed to make sense. He was visiting his beloved future bride and would be helping her prepare for the move. But why the hell take a bunch of highly trained, ruthless bodyguards? Furthermore, when he had returned to America, it was without them. That was fucking fishy.

Fuck! James wouldn’t be surprised if this whole new bride thing turned out to be something entirely different. The best they could do now was to wait and see when their father returned. Hopefully, Eric would stay put and behave himself for the duration of the forthcoming month.

Thinking about his family’s situation hurt his brain like a bitch. Because he knew shit was going to hit the fan when their father returned with Alice and her younger sibling Yuki, who they’d presumed to be a teenaged boy, he tried not to get too involved. He had his own shit to worry about. More specifically, shit in regard to Herbert Weston, Mia’s bastard of an uncle.

Herbert had somehow disappeared from his radar, even with his men working on the case, tracking the blasted man’s every move. The last time Cole, one of his best men, reported Hebert’s whereabouts, he’d been in LA. And fuck, James could hardly believe this, but the man had been sighted at the same shopping mall where he and Mia had made a pit stop two weeks ago after they had landed in LA. The thought that the disgusting man might have seen Mia that day made him feel sick to his stomach.

James was a very protective man when it came to something he considered his, especially when that was a woman he had strong feelings for. As a precaution, he had increased security around the house and even gone as far as enlisting a bodyguard to watch over Mia whenever she happened to step outside the house, which, thank God, hadn’t been that often.

He hated it. He hated the fact he didn’t know what that fuckhead of a bastard Herbert Weston was up to. Whether he had in fact seen Mia that day, and if he had, then had he been stalking her all this time? If that were true, it should have been easy for his men to spot the man, but so far, they’d seen no one suspicious.

He switched his thoughts to the woman who had always been foremost on his mind. Thinking about her made him smile. Fuck, thinking about her made his cock hard. This James decided to blame on their abstinence, not the fact that he was having fucking deep feelings for her and he was obsessed with her.

For these past few weeks, he’d been going with the flow where she was concerned. In fact, he’d barely had the opportunity to kiss her, and it was driving him insane.

He knew their timing was all wrong, and Mia had her apprehension where Aria’s innocence was concerned. Not to mention their relationship, which was unconventional at best. But hell, that didn’t mean he had to go without tasting her.

Fuck! But he missed kissing her and fucking her until she was breathless and he was completely mindless.

James licked his lips, inadvertently tasting his mistress’s sweetness. Instantly his blood ran hot with lust. Fuck, oh fuck! Tonight. He’d take her tonight, because he knew he couldn’t hold on much longer without tasting every inch of her and driving his hardened cock into the deepest part of her.