by Dara Girard
Sebastian nodded as the pieces fell into place. “You’re the reason she’s afraid to marry me.” He turned. “I have to talk to her.”
Josephine grabbed his hand. “You know I did it for you. Your father dreamed of you running the business—”
“I don’t want to run the business! Don’t you understand? I never have. I only did it because at the time I felt it was the right choice, but not anymore.”
“How can you turn away from all that your father built for you and your brother? How can you cast aside all that he sacrificed?”
“Dad loved what he did. It wasn’t a sacrifice for him, it was a pleasure. I don’t feel the same, never have.” He took a deep steadying breath. “We’ll discuss this later. I have to talk to Naomi right now.” He turned to the door.
“I told her about Vera Conklin.”
Sebastian spun around, stunned that his mother would put Naomi in such a dangerous position. “How much did you tell her?”
Josephine flashed a cruel grin. “Enough to make her curious.”
Chapter 29
Naomi had expected a gun or a knife, but the syringe in Vera’s hand seemed oddly perfect. She’d left her lab to visit Vera in her office and confront her about what Josephine had shared. Vera had welcomed her into the sleek, minimalist room with the same cool detachment Naomi had grown used to.
She sat at the round table in the corner where two coffee cups sat, prepared to get answers. How could Vera be the reason for Sebastian’s dismissal? What had really happened?
But when Vera sat down in front of her and pulled out the syringe, Naomi knew she shouldn’t have come. The woman she’d trusted wasn’t all that she’d seemed.
“I warned you,” she said, when she saw Naomi look at the object in her hand. “You were always so tenacious. Always looking deeper and closer than you should. Why couldn’t you have left things as they were?”
“Sebastian knows I’m here,” she lied.
“No, he doesn’t. He wouldn’t have let you come. You came here all on your own without telling anyone. I know you Naomi. You’re one who’s proud to depend on herself.”
“Sebastian will—”
“I’ll deal with Sebastian just as I did all those years ago.”
“You don’t need to do this. I still don’t know what happened.”
Vera shrugged. “Your suspicions are enough to make you dangerous.”
Suspicions. What did Vera suspect that she knew? How could she be involved? Did it have anything to do with her former husband? She had to keep her talking as she tried to figure a way to get out. “Why did you do it?” she asked, still not knowing what ‘it’ was.
“I fell under the very spell I warned you about.”
“You fell for a man who promised you the world,” Naomi guessed. “A man you’d do anything for.”
“A man?” Vera said with a note of derision. “It was Niklaas who nearly ruined everything. I had to protect his reputation and mine. What would have happened to me if Niklaas’ mistake was uncovered? All the years would have been washed away. Scott had his father’s money to fall back on, we had nothing.”
“So you made a deal,” Naomi guessed.
“That was his mother’s idea. Scott had shared his concerns regarding Niklaa’s performance with her. He was the one who discovered Niklaas had made a major miscalculation with the data, which would cost BioCorps millions to fix. He told his mother and she helped devise a plan. Josephine used her connections within the media to persuade the public relations division of BioCorps to carefully state what had happened. Scott fell on his sword, so to speak, because he respected Niklaas so much and his father was dying so his mother persuaded him to give up his science career and fulfill his father’s wish to head the company he’d built for him and his brother.
“But in the end it had been a waste. Niklaas already had years behind him and had lost his enthusiasm. Scott was the more brilliant scientist. He would have done more in five years than Niklaas could in twenty.” She shrugged. “But talking about the past bores me. So—”
Naomi lifted up the table, startling Vera and giving her enough time to try to escape. She ran to the door and struggled to unlock it, but Vera grabbed her before she could. Vera grabbed her arm, dragging her back. Naomi pulled out of her jacket and dove for the door again, her bare arm now exposed.
Vera grabbed her leg, causing Naomi to drop to the ground.
“There’s no use trying to fight me,” she said, saddling Naomi, effectively pinning her to the ground. She held down Naomi’s arm and lifted the syringe.
Naomi slid her other arm free and yanked Vera’s earring from her ear, tearing through the flesh. Vera screamed out in shock and pain, giving Naomi enough time to shift Vera’s body and knock her to the ground, the syringe scattered to the ground.
They both lunged for it, Vera getting it first. She held it like a knife while Naomi gripped her wrist, her hand trembling as the syringe drew slowly, closer to her skin. Vera was bigger, stronger. Naomi knew she couldn’t win by sheer might, she had to use surprise. So she went limp, dropping to the ground, still holding Vera’s hand and causing her to stab herself in the thigh.
Vera stared at the needle horrified. “You bitch,” she cried, yanking it out.
Naomi surged to her feet and ran, this time managing to open the door before Vera could reach her. She rushed into the hallway and saw Sebastian coming from the other end. “Naomi!”
She ran into his arms.
Chapter 30
The ruby necklace settled beautifully around Naomi’s neck, while the soft sounds of the Caribbean Sea drifted on a wave of a floral scented wind that drifted through their hotel window.
“Do you like it?” Sebastian asked, meeting Naomi’s eye in the mirror reflection.
She lightly touched the exquisite piece. “It’s beautiful.”
After the horror of what had happened in Vera’s office she was afraid she’d never feel awe, joy or safe again. Sebastian couldn’t seem to hold her close enough to rid her of the feeling. She still shivered with fear at the thought that Vera had tried to kill her; that Josephine had pushed her in the water. In her nightmares, sometimes she was drowning; other times she was being stabbed, every time Sebastian woke her and soothed her back to sleep.
When she learned that Vera survived—barely—she felt a sense of relief. She hadn’t wanted to have killed her; the courts would judge her instead and she’d suffer some long lingering effects of the poison. Josephine apologized to Naomi, with Sebastian’s urging, and reluctantly accepted her son’s decision to hire someone else to run the company, while he devoted his attention to helping Dr. Mensah with the research for his book.
Naomi remembered the sound of autumn leaves scattering along the ground while she and Sebastian stood in front of his father’s grave—a large monument to a life well lived. Sebastian held her hand and solemnly introduced her before he said, “We didn’t agree on a lot of things, Dad, but I think you’d agree that I made a good choice. You’d like her.” He took a deep breath, blinking back tears. “It was a long time coming, but I’m happy now and I wish you could be here and see me as a man you could be proud of.”
Naomi squeezed his hand and said in a soft voice. “I think you were already that man five years ago. You’re just finally realizing that now.”
A ghost of a smile touched his lips and he nodded. “Your right,” he said and the weight she’d sensed he’d been carrying melted away.
But even as she stood in a white organza wedding dress staring up at him as they said their vows, a fear still gripped her—a fear she couldn’t shake. She didn’t feel safe. She felt she could still lose him somehow.
Now, as she felt the weight of his hands on her shoulders as they stood together in front of the mirror in their honeymoon suite, she finally identified her true fear. “I don’t know if I’ll ever love you enough.” She turned to him, meeting his steady brown gaze. “I haven’t changed. I can still be absentminded.
I might miss birthdays or anniversaries, dinner dates and be late for vacations.”
He smiled amused. “I’ll keep you on schedule.”
“But if I forget, I don’t want you to be angry with me. My family is used to me, but…I don’t want you to think that I don’t—”
He cupped her chin, his voice tender. “I won’t get angry about any of that. I love you too much to care.”
Naomi felt her anxiety slip away under his warm, gentle gaze. A buoyant joy filled her heart; she could still make mistakes and have him by her side. “Is that a promise?”
“Yes, I promise,” he said then sealed it with a kiss.
Also Available
If you enjoyed Midnight Promise don't miss Dara's other works...
It Happened One Wedding
Unexpected Pleasure (Bk 1)
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The Glass Slipper Project
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The Black Stockings Society
Power Play (Bk 1)
A Gentleman’s Offer (Bk 2)
Body Chemistry (Bk 3)
Round the Clock (Bk 4)
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Return of the Black Stockings Society
Playing for Keeps (Bk 1)
After Hours (Bk 2)
A Private Affair (Bk 3)
Return of the Black Stockings Society 3 Book Bundle
Just One Look (Bk 4)
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The Henson Series
Table for Two (Bk 1)
Gaining Interest (Bk 2)
Careless Rapture (Bk 3)
Dangerous Curves (Bk 4)
Familiar Stranger (an extra)
The Henson Brothers (Includes the novels Table for Two and Gaining Interest)
Out of the Past (Includes the novels Careless Rapture and Familiar Stranger)
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Discover these books and more at www.iloripressbooks.com
About the Author
Dara Girard is an award-winning, national bestselling author of more than thirty books including Unexpected Pleasure, Just One Look, The Amber Stone and Dangerous Curves. Dara loves to travel and hear from readers.
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For more information
DaraGirard
www.daragirard.com
Copyright Information
Unexpected Pleasure
Copyright © 2017 Sade Odubiyi
Published by ILORI PRESS BOOKS LLC
Cover and Layout Copyright © 2017ILORI PRESS BOOKS LLC
Cover Photo © 2017 Nadiia Balytska/123rf
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, business establishments, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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