My hands clenched into fists as I paced around the living room.
Kyla sat on the couch, looking pale and shocked.
Her phone lay open next to her, the email glaring at me from the tiny screen.
The words had burned themselves into my brain:
From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: Girl’s Day Out
I longed to take the phone and hurl it against the wall, but that would only scare Kyla.
My father’s mantra repeated in my head.
Taking a deep breath, I summoned Dante into the room from where he’d been waiting outside.
“You’re sure you didn’t see anyone suspicious while you were picking Kyla up?” I asked him for the twelfth time.
“No, sir. But I shall be more vigilant in the future,” Dante said with a determined nod.
“Not that we blame you, of course. There’s only one man I can think of who might be responsible for this.” I looked at Kyla, who nodded in return.
“Leach,” she said with a shudder.
Brian Leach, Kyla’s ex-boss, had already proven that he could resort to violence.
After being disgraced and losing his job, it made sense that he would continue to blame her for his problems.
Even though his main problem was that he was a misogynistic prick.
Dante left for his own apartment, closing the door behind him.
I sank down on the couch, wrapping one arm around Kyla and drawing her close.
“Don’t worry, it’ll be okay.”
“I’m not worried. I’m pissed off! I put up with his bullshit for months.” Kyla’s eyes blazed with anger.
“I almost lost my job because of the Leech,” she continued. “How dare he try to threaten me now!”
Even wrapped up in my own fear and rage, I couldn’t help but admire her courage.
Kyla never backed down to anyone. It was one of the things I loved most about her.
I wanted life to be as stress-free as possible while Kyla was pregnant, and her dickbag ex-boss wasn’t helping.
“I think we should consider getting you a bodyguard. Just until we can prove that it’s Leach and put a stop to this.”
Kyla’s jaw dropped open. “A bodyguard? Come on, I can’t have some goon in a black suit following me around all day.”
“What if he wore a Hawaiian shirt and board shorts instead?”
She cracked a smile. “Better.”
“So that’s a yes?”
“You really think Leach would try to attack me?”
“He pushed you down a flight of stairs, Kyla. If anything happened to you, or to the baby…I…” I trailed off, choking down the growing thickness in my throat.
Kyla placed her hand on my jaw, turning my head until I was looking into her eyes.
“Hey,” she said soothingly. “It’s okay. I know you worry. I worry too. I just think putting a guard on my tail might be a bit drastic, is all.”
I leaned forward, kissing her gently, and then with greater intensity.
She responded to my passion, her hands going around my neck to pull me closer.
For a while, everything evaporated, and we kissed like a couple of silly teenagers on the sofa.
Finally, I broke away. Kyla followed me as I went down the hall into our bedroom.
Opening the nightstand drawer, I retrieved a small object.
“What have you got there?” she asked in a low, sexy voice that drove me crazy.
She stopped when she saw the small red canister in my hand.
“What is that?”
“Pepper spray,” I answered, crossing the room.
Holding it out, I continued, “If you don’t want a bodyguard, at least carry this.”
Kyla’s nose wrinkled in distaste.
“Please? It would make me feel better, and you never know.”
I grinned, holding it out to her. “Pretty sure marriage is all about compromise.”
Rolling her eyes, she took the canister.
“Fine,” she said. “I’ll carry the pepper spray. But right now I’ve got other things on my mind.”
That seductive look was still in her eyes. Kyla placed the canister on top of her vanity dresser.
Wrapping my arms around her, I gently lifted her off her feet and carried her to bed.
“Rhea? Do you have the mockups for the catering menu?” I asked my secretary.
My marketing team bustled about the meeting room, getting ready for the presentation for the charity of the Ambassador’s Ball.
It had been two weeks since the disturbing anonymous email.
I’d managed to almost completely forget about it, and the little can of pepper spray was currently residing in my desk drawer.
“Yes. And Mr. Oliver has already confirmed that we’ll be able to get all of the seafood delivered before dawn, so the chefs have time to prepare.”
Rhea handed me a paper printout of the menu, which featured six courses of mouth-watering delicacies.
The average cost for a ticket to the Ambassador’s Ball was fifteen thousand dollars. The guests expected nothing less than five-star treatment.
“Great! Bruce, what do we have so far for the social media campaign?” I said with a glance at him.
The young man leaned back in his chair. “Well, the party isn’t for another six months.”
I frowned at him. “So?”
“So we can’t start running ads now. People will get sick of them by the time the party rolls around.”
Someone snickered in the background.
Next to him, Richard piped up. “I think what Bruce is trying to say is that since the event won’t be for another six months, we wanted to take some time to do SEO research and strategizing.”
He looked so nervous that my heart softened a little.
“I understand. It’s important to be thorough. Can you have them for me in forty-eight hours?”
Richard sagged with relief at being let off the hook. “Absolutely.”
“You got it, Mrs. H,” Bruce added, his perfectly straight teeth gleaming at me.
Swallowing down my irritation, I turned back to Rhea. “What about the entertainment?”
As my secretary began telling me about the children’s choir that was scheduled to perform, I saw Bruce Parker struggling to hide his smug smile.
Ugh. I couldn’t stand his attitude.
But now was not the time to start pissing off the stockholders.
Once everyone had cleared out of the conference room, Rhea and I headed back to my office to begin mapping out how the Grand Hotel would accommodate all the different entertainments for the ball.
“Can you believe Bruce. Calling you ‘Mrs. H’?” Rhea muttered under her breath.
“You let me worry about him. He just doesn’t like taking orders.”
“Doesn’t like taking orders from a woman,” Rhea muttered.
I had to admit she was right. Bruce was generally well-liked by the other department heads—who found his frat boy attitude amusing, I guessed.
“I don’t see why you don’t get your gorgeous fiancé to just fire him and be done with it.”
“Rhea! That wouldn’t be professional at all. Besides, I can fight my own battles.”
My secretary sighed. “Yeah, but it would be a lot of fun to see.”
We rounded the corner and there was Jensen, waiting outside the door to my office.
“Here’s your chance!” Rhea whispered in my ear.
I elbowed her in the ribs, and she went to her desk, still giggling under her breath.
Turning to Jensen, I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “What are you doing here! I thought you were in meetings all day?”
“I can always spare a few minutes for certain things.”
Not satisfied with my chaste peck, Jensen put a hand on my waist, drawing me in to kiss me deeply on the mouth.
I pushed him back, not troubling to hide my pleased smile.
Opening the door of my office, I cast him a suggestive look. “Well, don’t just stand there in the hallway.”
Once we were inside, I slid my hands down Jensen’s back, feeling the toned muscles of his hips and bottom.
He ran four miles every morning and had the body to prove it.
Jensen buried his hands in my hair, loosening the pins I’d stuck into it that morning.
I kissed him again. “As much as I would love to stay here and make out all afternoon—”
“—that can be arranged,” he said, sliding one hand up my skirt until he hit the smooth skin of my thigh.
I let my head fall back, reveling in the feeling of his hands on me. “My boss is going to be pissed if he hears I’m wasting time like this.”
“I think he may even have to give you a spanking,” Jensen whispered, squeezing my bottom.
Swatting him playfully on the arm, I backed up a step. “I think you’re trying to stall for time. What’s up?”
With a sigh, Jensen removed his hand from my thigh and folded his arms across his chest. “I got a phone call a few minutes ago.”
“Oh?”
“From my mother and father. They’re in town.”
“Oh.”
We hadn’t told Jensen's parents about our engagement yet, and they spent most of their time in London so they wouldn’t have seen the news in the tabloids.
They also didn’t know about the baby.
We were waiting until I could meet them face-to-face.
Which, it seemed, was going to be soon.
Jensen’s face was serious. My heart sank.
“Is there something else?”
He gave me a don’t-freak-out look and sighed. “They know.”
My already plummeting heart was now somewhere around my toes.
I swallowed hard. “How much do they know?”
“Everything.”
My jaw dropped. “How?”
It wasn’t like I was ashamed of anything, but I didn’t like that they had heard the news secondhand.
“I’ll give you two guesses, but you’re only going to need one.”
Feeling suddenly floored, I went to my desk and sank into the executive office chair.
I looked at Jensen. “Why would Julian tell them?”
Julian Hawksley was the CEO of Hawksley Enterprises.
He was also Jensen’s older brother, and had a notoriously mischievous sense of humor.
Julian and I had clashed last year when he thought I was only after Jensen for his money, but lately I had begun to think of him as my friend.
Had I been mistaken in thinking that he felt the same?
He came to sit across from me. “Because he’s Julian? He couldn’t help himself? I honestly don’t know. But I’ll talk to him.”
Taking a deep, shaky breath, I tried to steady my nerves. “Okay. It’s not that big a deal. We can make this work.”
Jensen took my hand from across the desk. “Kyla, don’t worry. I love you. My parents are going to love you too.”
“Do you really believe that?” I asked.
“Of course. Everything will be fine. We’re supposed to meet them and Julian for dinner tonight.”
I nodded, wishing Jensen’s words could ease the thundering beat of my pulse.
Dinner.
Tonight.
With the Hawksleys.
And I thought my life was complicated before.
