Lesson Learned

By Peri Elizabeth Scott

Adrian Matsakis is a successful businessman with terrible luck in personal relationships. His ex-wife wrecked him, and when he tried again with Jessie Brandt, she too betrayed him.

He is shocked and outraged to learn he has a son with her and is determined to take custody. He’s never forgotten Jessie but can’t forgive her, especially now.

Forewarned of Adrian’s intent, Jessie preempts him by inviting him to co-parent, and he reins himself in. He can’t resist reminding her of her perfidy, however, just as she continues to maintain her innocence.

They struggle against the chemistry—and more—sparking between them, and when Adrian double checks the facts around Jessie’s supposed betrayal, he’s staggered to learn the evidence was planted.

He sets out to make amends, and Jessie must decide if she’ll allow him back into her heart, and give Adrian a place to finally call home.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Evernight Publishing
• Release date: Nov 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9780369500854

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Published by EVERNIGHT PUBLISHING ® at Smashwords

www.evernightpublishing.com

Copyright© 2019 Peri Elizabeth Scott

ISBN: 978-0-3695-0085-4

Cover Artist: Jay Aheer

Editor: Audrey Bobak

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

DEDICATION

For Audrey. Your children inspire me.

LESSON LEARNED

Romance on the Go ®

Peri Elizabeth Scott

Copyright © 2019

Prologue

The intense pressure, an atavistic need to push, overtook her and Jessie groaned in concert, bearing down in response to the obstetric nurse’s urging. The sensation was at least a departure from the agonizing waves she’d been experiencing for the past dozen or so hours.

Again she bore down and knew when the life she and Adrian made was expelled from her womb on a rush of fluid and heat, perhaps not so unlike the way he was created. There was a flurry of movement at her feet, the nurse abandoning her vigil at Jessie’s shoulder as the team tended to her child.

What’s wrong? What’s wrong with my baby?

A long, choking wail filled the birthing room, followed by an indignant squall and she sucked in a breath of relief.

The cord was wrapped around his neck, Jessie. The doctor handed the bloody little body to her nurse as he turned to tend to her again. But he’s a good color, and I believe it tightened only as he came into this world. He’s fine.

I want to hold him.

Gail is just cleaning him up, weighing and measuring him. A minute. A sting of something took her breath, and she realized he was freezing her in advance of the stitches. At least she hadn’t torn, although the episiotomy hadn’t been the little pinch they’d assured her it would be.

Enduring, she focused her stare on Gail, whose gowned back was to her as she worked over her baby. Michael Grayson Brandt. Nothing to connect him to his father—to save her sanity—although she regretted little Michael would never know his father or perhaps appreciate the finer things Adrian’s precious money could buy. But she’d never ask for, or accept, anything from that man. Things were highly overrated, and he was stuck in the past.

Gail approached with the baby cradled in her arms, swaddled in hospital blue, as Jessie tried to put a lid on her thoughts. Now wasn’t the time. Never was the time. That ship had sailed. While she might wish for the best for her child, her love and nurture would make it so, not the luxuries Adrian Matsakis could provide. Because the man didn’t have a loving or compassionate bone in his body. How foolish she’d been to surmise he had. Don’t go there.

Here we are, Jessie! He’s lovely. Seven pounds, six ounces, and twenty-two inches long. He must take after his daddy, or there’s someone taller in your family than you.

She didn’t respond, choosing to block everything and everyone out to explore her beautiful baby boy. Dark hair capped his tiny skull, and little starfish hands poked out of the swaddling. A perfect mouth made a moue as Michael’s eyes blinked open and she fell inside the blue-gray orbs.

He was a miniature Adrian, and for a moment, her heart clenched hard, a claustrophobic sensation she fought against as she cuddled her child. Freeing a breast from the pale yellow gown, she placed him against it, guiding his little face there as she crooned to him, the two of them an island in the quieting room.

Snuffling a bit, he latched on, and the feeling was indescribable. All she knew was she’d defend this small being to the death and love him without reservation for the rest of her life, no matter how he’d come to be. No matter that his father despised his mother.

Chapter One

We believe you know Jessie Brandt. Please see the attached picture. Come for dinner tonight. Mikhail

Adrian Matsakis shoved back from his desk with such strength the back of the chair hit the wall, and the resulting shudder made his teeth clack together. The distance from his computer monitor didn’t make it less true. The attachment he’d clicked on nearly filled the screen with a picture of a sturdy, little toddler, laughing up at a woman who crouched beside him, holding an enormous balloon.

It was like looking into a mirror of his youth, pictures of him as a child festooning most available surfaces, compliments of his doting mother. She’d been unable to have other children, and thus lavished every maternal ounce of her being upon him. His father created a balance, or Mama might have driven him crazy.

Maybe he was crazy, seeing something in that image that was wishful thinking. It couldn’t be. Rolling back to his desk, he clicked to reread the email from Mikhail. Nothing changed.

After opening up

Reviews for Lesson Learned

[Debbie DiFiore · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Too short and he didn't grovel plus he probably wasn't celibate like she was. Oh but I always loved you. Right....