Diamonds Are Forever. Michelle Madow

reached for her phone and handed it to her. “The sooner you check, the sooner we can get back to where we left off.”

      “Right.” Courtney’s hand shook as she unlocked her phone and tapped the message icon. Just as she’d thought, the text was from Savannah.

      The agent offered me a contract!! Just need dad’s lawyer to look it over so he can sign it, and then it’s official! Family dinner tonight to celebrate :)

      “Well?” Brett asked. “Good news, I hope?”

      “She was offered a contract,” Courtney said as she texted Savannah back, congratulating her. “We’re doing a family dinner tonight to celebrate.”

      “And you don’t sound thrilled because...you’ll have to hold off on talking to Peyton about that college application you filled out for her?”

      “You got it.” She put her phone on vibrate and tossed it in her bag. “I was ready to talk with her about it tonight, but now that we’ll be celebrating, I don’t want to ruin Savannah’s good mood. I guess it’ll have to wait until tomorrow. And you know how much Peyton hates the idea of going to college, so I want to get it over with.”

      “What’s the worst she can do?” Brett asked.

      “I don’t know.” Courtney shrugged. “Tell our parents that we’re together?”

      “She wouldn’t do that,” he said. “She was egging me on to make a move on you the whole time we were in Italy. So was Savannah. Your sisters are our biggest fans.”

      “If only Adrian and your mom would see what they see,” she mused, tracing her fingers along his palms. “It would be so much easier.”

      “We could always try to tell them again.” He spoke faster, as if the idea excited him. “Our parents are getting married in a few months. So we can’t hide this from them forever. And once they realize that we’ve been together for a few weeks, and how well things are going, they’ll have to support us. That was our plan when we decided to go for this, right?”

      “I guess.” Courtney’s stomach dropped from thinking about it. “But honestly, I think the chances are higher that Peyton will decide she wants to go to college.”

      “I doubt that,” he said. “You filled out Peyton’s application for her. Most people would love to have someone do that. I don’t think she’ll be as mad as you think.”

      “You don’t know her as well as I do,” she said. “She’ll probably yell at me, tell me I have no right to try controlling her future and delete the application.”

      He raised an eyebrow. “And would that be the first time Peyton’s ever yelled at you?”

      “No.” She laughed. “Good point. And I did back the application up on the cloud.”

      “Then you’ll be fine.” He pulled her close again, his eyes blazing with an intensity that made her heart feel like it was going to beat out of her chest. “Now, where were we before we got interrupted?”

      “Right about here...” Courtney leaned into him and pressed her lips to his once more. It wasn’t long before he’d lowered her onto the couch, every inch of his body on hers. Her heart thumped harder. She’d never been this close to him before—but it felt so right that she didn’t want to stop.

      Someone knocked on the door. Brett bolted off her, his eyes panicked as he straightened his shirt. Courtney glanced at the door, sure she must look as confused as he did.

      “It’s probably Peyton.” She sat up and ran her hands through her hair in an attempt to smooth it. She hoped it was Peyton. Because her lips felt swollen, and her cheeks felt flushed—she would bet that anyone would know from looking at her and Brett what had just been going on between them.

      Whoever it was knocked again.

      “Brett? Courtney?” Adrian’s voice called from the other side of the door. “Are you two in there?”

      Brett grabbed a textbook from the coffee table and opened it on his lap. “We’re studying, right?” he said softly to Courtney, his voice surprisingly calm—as if they hadn’t just been having a heavy make-out session on the couch.

      “Of course.” She gathered up a pile of flash cards and shuffled through them. It was good that she was so paranoid about having a cover story about hanging out with Brett. Plus, she really had wanted to get some studying done for their upcoming quiz in AP History. She’d just gotten...distracted.

      Brett took a sip of water from the glass on the end table and lounged back on the couch. “Yeah, we’re in here,” he called back to Adrian.

      They heard a key card slide into the slot, then Adrian opened the door and strolled into Brett’s penthouse. As always, he wore a perfectly fitted navy suit, his blond hair slicked back as if he’d just come out of an important business meeting. But there was something different about him today. Usually he was a mask of calm—Courtney often had a rough time deciphering what was going on in his mind—but today, he seemed to be...glowing. He even grabbed a few M&M’s from the bowl Brett kept in the foyer, which was surprising, since he rarely ate sweets.

      “Peyton told me you would be here,” he said, popping an M&M into his mouth. He glanced at the open textbook, then scrutinized the foot of space left on the couch between them.

      “She did?” Courtney leaned even farther away from Brett, holding her flash cards so tightly that they bent. How could Peyton have told Adrian where to find her without warning her first? Did she want Courtney and Brett to get caught?

      “Yes, she did.” Adrian looked back and forth between them. “She said you were studying.”

      “That’s right,” Brett jumped in. “Sorry we didn’t answer when you knocked the first time. Courtney’s pretty intense when she studies, and she didn’t want to ruin her concentration until she finished reciting the answer to one of the short essay questions.”

      “I got it right,” she squeaked, holding up a flash card as “proof.”

      “I’m not surprised, judging by your excellent grades last semester,” Adrian said. “I didn’t expect your transition to Goodman to go as well as it did. Your report card was impressive.”

      “Thank you.” Courtney smiled, but when she looked down at her flash cards, guilt flooded her chest. She was proud of her grades last semester, but she had to keep them up if she wanted to get into Stanford. And if she kept making out with Brett instead of studying, that wasn’t going to happen.

      “Anyway, as proud as I am about your grades, that isn’t why I came in here,” Adrian said, situating himself in one of the chairs in the living room. “I have some good news.”

      “Cool.” Brett closed the textbook and placed it on the coffee table. “What’s up?”

      “I just got back from seeing the Prescotts at the hospital,” he said. “With everything that’s happened to Oliver, Logan’s been doing a lot of thinking recently, and he and I had the longest conversation we’ve had since the fallout at the grand opening last summer.”

      Courtney’s eyes lowered at the mention of the grand opening. Because the “fallout”—when Logan had decided he didn’t want to be business partners with Adrian for a major hotel they’d been planning in Macau—had been partly her fault.

      “How’s Oliver doing?” Courtney asked. She wanted to get the talk away from the grand opening, but she also truly wanted an update. She might not like Oliver, but she wouldn’t wish what had happened to him on anyone.

      “He’s recovering,” Adrian said. “His worst injury was his knee, but the surgery went well, and he should be able to walk on it soon. It seems that his biggest challenge is psychological. Logan wouldn’t give me all the details, but it’s clear that alcohol and drugs were why Oliver got into