Protecting the Boss

by Beverly Long

  “North and More Designs baby clothes, here we come,” Megan said. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Seth carefully watching the lobby. “Let’s go to my room,” she said. “We can have a couple hours of girl time and then Seth will join us for dinner. I wish Evan were here.”

  “Me, too. But it might be good that he got away. I swear, he is so nervous about this baby. Telling him that women have babies every day in all parts of the world that are significantly less ideal than a highly rated hospital doesn’t seem to matter.”

  “Give Seth and me a second to check in,” Megan said. “We’ll be right back.”

  This time, their rooms were on the eighth floor. Adjoining, of course. But there’d be no sneaking in tonight. That thought was almost enough to make her regret inviting Abigail to stay. She would miss him. She’d been lying about the 9.8 in technique. He was a solid 10.

  Once they took the elevator upstairs, Seth opened the door and checked the room. Then he unlocked the connecting door. “I’ll see you two later,” he said. “Knock if you need anything before that.”

  “Thanks, Seth,” Abigail said. “I’m looking forward to dinner and getting a chance to talk.”

  Seth just nodded.

  Megan waited until he’d left before saying, “What did you mean by that?”

  “Nothing,” Abigail said innocently. “I guess I’m just interested in the man who makes my sister stammer.”

  “What? He does not,” Megan protested.

  “He does. Every time we talked, when the subject came around to Seth, you got a little tongue-tied.” Abigail sat on one of the queen beds.

  Megan sat on the same one. She didn’t want to have to yell across the room. There was no way she wanted Seth to hear this. “He’s a really good man,” she said.

  “You weren’t crazy about the idea of traveling with security,” Abigail reminded her.

  Megan wasn’t going to tell her that she’d needed it a couple times. “I know. But we developed an understanding of sorts.”

  “In bed or out of it?” Abigail asked.

  Megan stared at her sister. “How did you know?”

  “Because you’re my sister. My best friend. I knew from our phone conversations and then it only took one look at you to know something was very different. You’re absolutely radiant. That’s not generally what a road trip will do for you.”

  Megan groaned. “The sex was amazing. Knock-your-socks-off amazing.”

  “I remember sex,” Abigail said good-naturedly. “And if it was that good, I’m not sure I understand what you’re moaning and groaning about.”

  “He’s all wrong for me. You know he’s a pilot. Has his own plane.”

  “There are worse things.”

  “I know. It seems...well, it seems a little hypocritical of me, doesn’t it? I mean, I gave Logan an ultimatum. That he give up flying or me.”

  “It was so soon after Mom and Dad’s accident. Your nerves were raw. And secretly, I think you were hoping that he’d choose flying. It made it easy for you to walk away.”

  She didn’t know what to say to that. “You were fourteen. I don’t think you might have understood it all.”

  Abigail didn’t seem offended. “I didn’t. At the time. I was too wrapped up in my own misery. But it’s been fifteen years. And I’ve fallen in love myself. As I think back to your and Logan’s relationship, I’m not sure that the two of you loved each other. Liked, certainly. Cared deeply about. I think so. But loved?” Abigail shook her head.

  Did she love Seth? Was it even possible to love someone after such a short time together? “I’m not sure where it’s going,” she said honestly.

  “You got on a plane with him,” Abigail said. “I think that says something. Were you scared?”

  “I might have been, if I had been by myself. But when Seth is there, it...it just seems as if everything is going to be okay. I’m glad I did it. Not because I had something to prove. There was no way I could make him endure a car ride over the mountains when he was worried about his mom. That would have been horrible of me.”

  “You are definitely not a horrible person. Listen, tomorrow was going to be your travel day. Instead, we’re going to the pool. We’ll have to find an extra-sturdy beach chair that will support my weight and you’ll have to promise to wear a cover-up the entire time so that I don’t want to drown you, but you can decompress. Think things through.”

  “This is scary,” Megan admitted.

  “No, this is scary,” Abigail said, pointing at her baby bump.

  Megan reached for her. “We’ll get through it together.”

  “Like always,” Abigail said. “By the way, I stopped at the Vegas store yesterday. It looks fabulous.”

  “They’ve been sending me photos. The coffee bar turned out even better than I thought.”

  “I know. Love the furniture. I’m excited. I promised Evan that I wouldn’t be on my feet too much but I want to do it all. The fashion show, the ribbon-cutting, the cocktail party.”

  “Well, there’s lots of brand-new chairs for you to sit in when you get tired. And I’ll make sure you do.”

  “Trust me on this. No one has to make me. I’m going with that suggestion quite willingly these days, although I prefer to lie down rather than sit. More space for the babe.”

  “Aren’t a couple of those chairs recliners?”

  Abigail smiled. “Love it when a plan comes together.”

  “Okay. Well, here’s my plan. I’m going to take a shower and change before dinner,” Megan said.

  “Fine. I’ll just rest here while you do that. Don’t worry about me.” Abigail leaned back against a pillow, waved a hand in the air and closed her eyes.

  Megan smiled. She had been worrying about her for the last fifteen years. That wasn’t going to change now.

  * * *

  Seth had not been expecting the soft knock on the connecting door. He’d assumed Megan and Abigail would talk until it was time for dinner.

  “Yes,” he said.

  “May I come in?”

  Abigail, not Megan. “Of course.” He moved off the bed and went to open the door. “Everything okay?” he asked, looking over her shoulder. The room was empty but he could hear the shower.

  “Yes, Megan is soaking the road grime off,” she said. “I thought this might give us an opportunity to chat.”

  He wasn’t sure that sounded all that great. “Want a chair?” he asked.

  “I’ll stand,” she said. “But go ahead.”

  He was almost a foot taller and didn’t want to tower over her. So he sat. And pressed his lips together. She’d called this meeting, she could damn well start. It didn’t sit well with him that they were hiding the security threats that they’d encountered on the trip. Abigail was every bit as much the client as Megan. It went against his basic instinct to be anything but absolutely truthful and transparent.

  “I understand that you’re sleeping with my sister.”

  Chapter 18

  Well, hell. Speaking of transparent. Evidently, Megan had been. He ran a hand across his hair. “Listen, Abigail. Neither one of us planned this. But we’re caught up in something that...”

  She stared at him. “That what?”

  He was just going to say it. “That feels very right. Perfect.”

  “You know Megan hasn’t had a serious relationship since she was engaged to Logan.”

  “I know that.”

  “She was too busy raising me. Then with her career, so that she could continue to provide for me.”

  “She considers it time well spent,” he said.

  “That’s good to hear,” Abigail said. “And I believe that she believes that. I know I’m certainly grateful. No one could have asked for a better sister. You know she’s only six years older. Sometimes I forget that because she handles so
many things well.”

  “She’s amazing,” he said.

  “But she’s really not very experienced in affairs of the heart. I guess I’m asking you to remember that.”

  “I’ve got no intention of hurting her,” he said, a little irritated that Abigail had thought the warning was necessary. “I...love her,” he admitted.

  “Have you told her that?”

  He shook his head. “She hasn’t given me any indication that she’s interested in hearing that. She wants to keep things ‘light and easy,’” he said, putting the words in air quotes.

  She smiled. “Oh, that so sounds like her. And you don’t want that?”

  “There’s a time for light and easy. And there’s a time to dig deep, to pull it out by the roots. To be honest. With yourself. With each other.”

  She opened the connecting door and took two steps back into her own room. “Don’t let her push you away, Seth.”

  “I don’t intend to. She may be amazing, but I’m a damn bulldog.”

  He could hear her laughing as she shut the door between the two rooms.

  * * *

  The next morning, Megan woke up and saw that her sister was already awake and sitting up on the other bed. It felt strange not to have Seth’s big warm body spooned around her. How the hell had she gotten so used to that in just a few days? “Doing okay?”

  “Oh, fine. I was just examining my ankles.”

  “Because?” Megan asked.

  “Because I like to torment myself,” Abigail said. “Maybe I shouldn’t have had the French onion soup. But it was delicious.”

  “Dinner was fun,” Megan said.

  “It was,” Abigail agreed. “I like Seth.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  Abigail smiled. “I mean, I like Seth. Seems like a nice guy. I enjoyed his stories about the air force. And he seems to love his mom very much.”

  “Oh.” Megan threw back her covers. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. Didn’t mean to jump at you.”

  “It’s okay. When I was first falling for Evan, my emotions were all over the place.”

  “I didn’t say I was falling for him,” Megan protested.

  “You didn’t?” Abigail asked, her eyes deliberately wide. “Maybe I imagined that.” She got out of bed and stretched. “I am a little surprised that he’s coming to the pool with us,” she said nonchalantly. “I thought he’d be happy enough to have a few free hours.”

  “He takes his responsibilities very seriously.”

  “I guess. But given that J.T. Daly’s appears to be playing nice, it seems...I don’t know...a little much.”

  “It’s not,” Megan said, automatically defending Seth.

  “If you say so,” she said, not sounding convinced.

  “Listen, Abigail, there are things...that I haven’t told you. And Seth has been spot-on in helping me deal with them.”

  Abigail sat back down on the bed, looking satisfied. “I knew it. Don’t you think it’s about time you tell me what’s going on?”

  Megan stared at her sister. She’d baited her brilliantly. “I think it is time. I’m sorry, Abigail. I haven’t meant to keep secrets from you. I just didn’t want you—”

  “To worry,” Abigail interrupted. “I’m a big girl, Megan. I can handle it.”

  “I know you can. Let me order room service and then I’ll tell you everything.”

  And thirty minutes later, over ham-and-cheese omelets, she did exactly that. Didn’t keep anything back. And when she was finished, Abigail reached for her hand.

  “I’m so glad you told me,” she said. “And I’m mad as hell that somebody is putting you through all this.”

  “We need to be watchful,” Megan said. “But we also need to go on about our lives. Because to do anything else gives them too much power over us.”

  “Damn straight,” Abigail said. “But I swear to God if I get the chance, I’m scratching somebody’s eyes out. Ross Lewis. Blond stalker guy. Nadia Vitron. They better watch out for me. I’ve got an extra thirty pounds behind my swing now.”

  “I’ll hold them down for you,” Megan said, smiling. “Now let’s go to the pool. I have a feeling that Seth Pike is going to look really good in a pair of swim trunks.”

  * * *

  “I don’t know why I don’t do this more often,” Megan said. She reached for the drink that Seth handed her. “What is this?” she asked as she relaxed back into her lounge chair.

  “Frozen piña colada,” he said. He smiled at Abigail, who was next to Megan. “Yours is a virgin.”

  “Still delicious,” Abigail said. “We can drink to the success of the Colorado Springs opening. Megan talked to Jasmine this morning. It went well.”

  “Good to hear,” Seth said.

  “I’m going to take my beautiful drink and dangle my swollen ankles in the water for a bit.”

  He waited until Abigail was far enough away that she wouldn’t hear their conversation. “Something is different,” he said.

  “She knows everything. I told her.”

  “What brought this on?”

  “There were reasons,” Megan said evasively.

  “Tell me.”

  “She tricked me. Casually criticized you, that you might be hovering for no reason, and I jumped to your defense.”

  “You defended me?” he asked. If you were only interested in light and easy, would you care? Wouldn’t you simply let a little criticism roll right over you?

  “Of course I did,” she said, as if that had been the only acceptable alternative. “Plus, there were other reasons. To keep her in the dark, I potentially endanger her. Especially now that we’re back in Vegas. Forewarned is forearmed, right? She needs to be aware of what’s going on around her. And two, she’s an adult. Has been an adult probably since she was fourteen. You know people, you included, always remark that I took on an adult’s responsibilities when I was just twenty. In her own way, Abigail did the same. But she was only fourteen. I suspect her teenage years might have gone far differently if my parents had lived. But at that young age, she somehow knew that we were going to have to hold it together some way, in order to stay a family. And she did her part. She made it easy for me.”

  “I think,” he said, his tone very serious, “that the only conclusion we can draw from this is that both of the North women are extraordinary. Beyond comparison.” He looked her in the eye. “Perfect, really.”

  She held his gaze. Then after a minute, a slow smile lit her beautiful face. “Perfect, huh?”

  “Yes.” He wasn’t backing down from that. To him, she was.

  She stood. “Come here then. I need to show you something.” She reached for his hand. Led him toward Abigail.

  “What?” he asked.

  “Just wait.”

  Five steps away from Abigail, she stopped. Pointed directly into the pool. “Right there.”

  He looked and felt her slide her hand up his arm, settle on his shoulder.

  “In the middle of the pool,” she urged.

  He dutifully looked again just as she shoved him hard, straight toward the deep end.

  He surfaced and Abigail and Megan were laughing like a couple of little girls.

  “Now that,” Megan said smugly, “was perfect.”

  Chapter 19

  When Megan woke up the next morning, again Abigail was already awake. “Are you even sleeping?” she asked her younger sister.

  “Some,” she said. “And then I have to pee or I get a cramp in my foot or my sweet baby kicks me. Bits and pieces. They say it’s to prepare a person for when after the baby is born, when there really will be no sleep.”

  “That’s when you call Auntie Megan. I’ll come over and watch the little terror so that you can rest.”

  Abigail rubbed her stomach. “She will not be a terror.
She will be sweet and delicate and born with a complete set of manners.”

  “Perfect, then. Like her aunt.” She’d told Abigail about Seth’s comment.

  “Oh, yeah. Ms. Perfect. You’re lucky Seth was a good sport about getting pushed into the water.”

  “I was right about him looking good in a swimsuit,” Megan said, her tone a little wistful.

  “Hey, hey. Enough of that. I’m out of here tonight. Right now, I call the shower first. What time do we need to be at the fashion show?”

  “By ten. And Seth is going to want to eat breakfast first.”

  “Of course,” Abigail said. “Whatever Seth wants.”

  When her sister disappeared into the bathroom, Megan took a moment to breathe deep before she knocked on the connecting door. “Seth?” she said, as the door whipped open.

  “What?” he asked, taking in the room.

  “Do you ever stop working?”

  “Once we catch your stalker,” he said.

  “I just wanted to tell you that Abigail and I’ll be ready for breakfast by nine.”

  “Abigail in the shower?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “She generally take long showers?” he asked innocently.

  “Not that long,” Megan said, laughing.

  “Long enough for this?” he asked as he pulled her into his arms, bent his head and kissed her. And as if it was the most natural thing in the world, his hands bunched up her nightgown and one hand settled on her butt and the other on her breast. It was so good. Good enough to make her momentarily consider just how long Abigail’s shower might take. But finally, she squirmed away and let her nightie fall back into place.

  “Nine o’clock. Be in the hallway,” she said, her breath coming in spurts. She could see that he was fully aroused. She stared at him. “I’m sorry about that.”

  “No problem,” he said. “I’m getting used to it.”

  She stepped back into her room, closed the door and leaned up against it. Amazing sex. That’s how she’d described it to Abigail. They were simply just incredibly hot for each other. It was a perfect affair.