Read Surprised by Love: A Contemporary Romance (The Armstrongs Book 4) for Free Online Page B

Enterprises with their wives, already waited on them.
    All the men and Toni wore dark business suits. Douglas thought she looked gorgeous in her tailored midnight blue suit. She had paired it with a light blue blouse and blue high heels. Very understated, but awfully terrific. His hands itched to explore her curves that were so beautifully exposed.
    The other women wore traditional Malaysian dresses, with the exception of Yin Yue who was wearing a glamorous cocktail dress with sequins and a huge diamond necklace. She looked lovely, but slightly out of place among his other guests.
    As the evening progressed, Douglas thanked his good fortune to have his ‘babysitter’ with him more than once. Without Toni I’d be toast .
    While the other men spoke very good English, Wang Li’s knowledge was meager at best. Communication between them would have been rather basic, and the rest filtered by his managers, without Toni’s assistance. She gracefully translated his words into Mandarin and vice versa. That woman sure is worth her weight in gold. And I’m not the only one who has noticed. Wang Li is very impressed by her as well.
    While everyone else happily exchanged small talk for a long while, he was anxious to start talking about business. When would they finally cut to the chase?
    Douglas had never been known for patience and he just couldn’t wait any longer. Throwing Toni’s suggestions about keeping business separate over board, he started to mention different aspects of their business contract, but she kept stopping him. Every. Single. Time. She would pick up on the direction he was going with his comment and then subtly change the topic.
    Finally, Douglas resigned to the fact there wouldn’t be business talk any time soon and gave up trying. Instead, he sat back and simply listened and observed.
    Dinner was served, and he secretly observed Toni and then mimicked her actions. He sighed several times throughout the meal when he realized he had messed up something she had told him to be careful about. Like cleaning his plate. He’d been raised to completely clean his plate, and to eat what he took. But as he looked around the table, he noticed that nobody else had finished their plates.
    He glanced at Toni, saw her look at his plate, and make a short motion with her hand. He followed her lead and left a decent amount of food on his plate, making a mental note to ask her about that later.
    After dinner, Douglas overheard Toni admiring the necklace of Yin Yue. “I love your necklace. It’s a very exquisite piece of work, and it really suits you well.”
    Yin Yue flashed a bright smile at Toni and gave her husband a shy look. Only after he’d nodded, she turned back to Toni and told her, “Li gave it to me for my birthday.”
    “Well, it’s lovely,” Toni commented.
    Wang Li smiled proudly as he looked at his wife. His much younger wife. Even though Douglas thought he was far too old for her, it was obvious that Wang Li loved his wife, and she in turn admired him.
    “The necklace is by Ryan Armstrong. He is a very famous jewelry designer from your United States.”
    Toni, not getting the connection, asked, “Did you have it made just for her?”
    Wang Li shook his head. “Not that piece. I purchased it at an auction, but I am wish to have make her a custom piece for our upcoming anniversary. But Mr. Armstrong only works on commissions and you must visit him to make the designs. My wife is afraid of flying.” Wang Li patted his wife on the shoulder like a small child, and she shyly lowered her eyes to the floor.
    Douglas was too proud of his brother, Ryan, to think about the implications and he burst out, “Ryan Armstrong is my brother.”
    Wang Li smiled and clapped his hands several times. “That is wonderful news.”
    Douglas thought Wang Li probably already knew of his connection to Ryan because he must have checked him out before signing the contract and all of his brothers and his sister, Samantha, were