The Billionaire Playboy's Regret (Lark and Max)

"What am I missing?" Max asked Grady and his mother quietly.

"My best guess?" Grady asked as he leaned against the window and surveyed the group. "Doug did an internet search, a deep dive if you will, and came across decades old footage of me punching out my old best friend for getting my ex-wife pregnant."

"What?" Max leaned forward his eyes flicking between his mom, Grady, and Lark. "You were married before?"

"It's how I know exactly how Lark feels to be so humiliated and embarrassed. My best friend and I were both partners in the same law firm. A s*x tape was released back when s*x tapes were all the rage depicting my best friend and my wife having s*x in our marital bed. My father was big into the realty scene and looking at politics and Mom was a judge. was a scandal. I beat him in front of a bunch of cameras when he was making a public apology as ordered by our law firm. She miscarried not long after and I was fired but I didn't care. I came to Dallas, made a new life, met the woman of my

dreams, and got to be a dad to the best girls on the planet." He winked at Lark, "however Sawyer who also got fired, found he liked the limelight and started going for high profile cases. He's made a career out of being an ass on television and the internet. I think Doug found out about my relationship with Sawyer and spun a story which made Sawyer think he has a slam dunk.

"This guy is still gunning for you after all this time?" Max asked leaning his chair back on two legs. "Not to my knowledge. I've never spoken with him since. We don't run in the same circles. I work corporate law here in Dallas for the most part. He works personal injury law in Houston. He's the kind of guy who sits outside a hospital handing out his cards but unlike Doug, he's smart. He's really smart. Doug might have been thinking he was simply going to give us shock value in hiring Sawyer, trying to throw us off our game, but Sawyer's a damn good lawyer. There's a reason why he wins."

Max removed his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose, "Grady, I'm not keen on putting you in this guy's line of sight. If he has it out for you because you punched him out, he's probably thinking this is the way to get back at you. His legal fees are probably going to be a percentage of the payout."

"I can beat him physically and in the courtroom. He was never as good as me and it's why he wanted what was mine," Grady smirked. "I'm not worried about it. What I'm concerned about is the fanfare which follows this guy. I don't want either of you dragged through the media."

"I'll have a chat with my PR team but really, Grady, I sell s*x toys for a living. I'm not concerned about what the media and press will say about me but," he looked at Lark worriedly, "I am worried about how this will impact Lark here in her new role. Will this affect clients working with Lark?"

"Let's chat with your PR team and see what they suggest but I doubt it." Grady nodded.

Max noted his mother was twitching and he reached out to squeeze her knee, "it'll be okay, Mom."

"I'm just tired of this," she said suddenly rising from her chair. "Every other week, either you or one of your siblings are in meetings like this to mitigate the bullshit you all seem to dredge up. Just for once I would like for your tempers and your shenanigans to not require me to be looking up precedents in law. Not to mention the fact you are talking about throwing money away like it's confetti.'

"What would you have me do?"

"Not punch people into the ground when they make Lark cry?" his mother retorted. "It's a good place to start. How about that?"

He rested his elbows on his knees and noted once again how his mother was looking tired. "I can't go back in time, but I can sort this now. I am doing what you asked of me last week. I'm mending fences with Lark. I'm going to therapy. I'm delegating work in my offices. I went to bed last night at eleven and slept until six this morning. While I had drinks Friday night, Saturday night and last night I kept it to one glass. I am going to put in the work to make you proud of me again, Mom."

She sighed and faced him, "Max I am proud of you. I love you so much and I'm proud of your successes. I simply wish for every success we weren't cleaning up a mess. I'm tired, Max."

"What would you have me do?" he asked quietly. "What do you want me to do here, Mom? I can't go back in time. I don't want to see Grady being sent to Houston to deal with a cheating traitor and I sure as hell don't want Lark in the same room as Doug ever again. My head is saying settle out of court and I'll take the loss temporarily and then one of Ollie's unscrupulous friends can embezzle it back for me, but I trust you more than anyone on the planet Mom. You're the smartest woman I've ever met, and I know you won't steer me wrong. Tell me what you think I should do, and I'll get it done."

He meant every word of what he said. While he was close to his father, his mother was so much more to him, and he was an admitted Mama's boy. He knew she was disappointed in him and seeing her cry the week before was still hurting his soul. They stared at each other, and he saw the water in his mother's eyes at his quiet vow and was upset with himself for yet again making her cry.

He looked up in surprise when he heard Lark's quiet whisper.

"I'm sorry Bobbie for dropping my s**t at your door. I should have stayed back in Houston and not done the things I did. I set Doug off by wrecking his car and putting his stuff in storage in a locker with a broken lock in a shitty part of town or leaving him homeless. This is all my fault."

Bobbie groaned, "no. Lark."

"It is." She wiped a tear off her cheek. "I reacted to this entire situation like a -" she was searching for a word.

got a

"A Villeneuve?" Max finished for her with a sad smile. "You're one of us Lark and it includes your temper and how you respond." He rose from his seat and pulled her into his arms and hugged her tight, rocking her back and forth. "We all have shitty tempers and big mouths and strike first and think second. I would also like to point out your Dad's got a pretty decent punch to him as well. I recall being a kid and your father r beating the supreme s**t out of someone in our yard for putting his hands on our Mom." He smirked Grady who grinned at the memory, "You're a wondrous example of genetics and environment creating the perfect storm." He laughed at her scoff and the slight twitch of her lips as he drew a partial smile from her. “Let's be real, you out of all of us, are more even keeled and you put a potted plant through a window to expose your cheating bastard of a boyfriend to an entire law firm." He heard her chuckle as his mom pressed a tissue into his hand for the girl in his arms. "But you know what else we do when we're not fighting and shooting off our mouths? We're protecting each other and keeping each other safe. It's what we always do, and this is no exception."

"He's right," Bobbie rubbed her back from behind her. "None of this is your fault though. If Max hadn't jumped Doug, then we wouldn't be looking at a bill of forty million dollars for a face lift."

Max couldn't help himself as he held Lark who was standing with her palms on his chest while he and his mom offered comfort to her. Her head was resting on his chest and to him this felt the perfect combination of home and new beginnings. He never wanted to let her go.

"I could ask Dad's lawyers to deal with this instead of Hoffman Law since it hits so close to home."

"No." Grady shook his head. "If anyone gets to go against Sawyer, it's going to be me. I want to know what the f**k he's thinking coming after me after more than thirty years. It's a stupid move and I don't know what his end game is, but I want to go to Houston and meet it headfirst."

"Then I'm coming with you," Bobbie made a fierce face. "No way am I sending my not-brother in without backup."

"It could get ugly."

"Christ, I am the mother to the Villeneuve heirs and heiresses. It doesn't get uglier. I swear they could make a movie on their s**t. This Sawyer guy isn't going to know what hit him. Let's take it to him the way the kids would do if they were given free reign." She made wide eyes at Grady who gave a bark of laughter.

"Mom, you really make us out like we're villains." Max protested her words.

"You are. The kind James Bond needs to battle every single movie. I have said it before and I'll say it again, too much money warps the brain. You're all warped."

Max threw his head back and laughed at his mother's annoyed words. "Maman, I love you to bits. We are all slightly off track, but we'll get there."

"Tell it to the triplets who tried to commandeer your father's plane Friday morning." Bobbie huffed as she flung herself back down in her seat. "Imagine, they distracted Olivier and Riggs long enough for them to get Olivier's phone and pretend they were him to get his PA to ready the jet for Mexico for the kids." "Losers," Max snorted. "As if the PA wouldn't have known immediately who it was." He grinned down at Lark, "remember? We actually got away with it because we were smarter."

"We were distracted," Bobbie corrected. "Your dad immediately put a new protocol in place for the jet after you four and your ten closest friends took it to New York."

Lark giggled as she turned in Max's arms but didn't step out of the circle of his embrace, instead her hand folded against his resting on her belly. "That was the best New Years Eve."

Grady shook his finger at her, "you were seventeen and you should not have been in Times Square unsupervised. You were all maniacs."

"Hey, none of us died, got pregnant or did drugs," Max laughed, "well, not hard drugs. There was the whole m*******a debacle of senior year."

As his mom and Grady moaned at the memory, he looked down at the blue-eyed beauty smiling in his arms and knew she was reminiscing too. He kissed her forehead softly. Come hell or high water he was going to spend the rest of his life putting her smile right where it was. Not even Doug the Douche was going to stop him.