But sex with Chadwick? Completely different. Completely satisfying. Even better than she’d dreamed it would be. Chadwick hadn’t just done what he wanted and left it at that. He’d taken his time with her, making sure she came first—and often.
What would it be like to be with a man who always brought that level of excitement to their bed? Someone she couldn’t keep her hands off—someone who thought she was sexy even though her body was getting bigger?
It would be wonderful.
But how was that fantasy—for that’s what it was, a fantasy of epic proportions—going to become a reality? She couldn’t imagine fitting into Chadwick’s world, with expensive clothes and fancy dinners and galas all the time. And, as adorably hot as he’d looked standing in her kitchen in nothing but his tux trousers, she also couldn’t imagine Chadwick being happy in her small apartment, clipping coupons and shopping consignment stores for a bargain.
God, how she wanted him. She’d been waiting for her chance for years, really. But she had no idea how she could bridge the gap between their lives.
In a fit of pique, Serena started cleaning. Which was saying something, as she’d already cleaned in anticipation of Chadwick possibly seeing the inside of her apartment—and her bedroom.
But there was laundry to be done, dishes to be washed, beds to be made—more than enough to keep her busy. But not enough to keep her mind off Chadwick.
She changed into her grubby sweat shorts and a stained T-shirt. What the heck was going to happen on Monday? It was going to be hard to keep her hands off him, especially behind the closed door of his office. But doing anything, even touching him, was a violation of company policy. It went against her morals to violate policies, especially ones she’d helped write.
How was she supposed to be in love with Chadwick while she worked for him?
She couldn’t be. Not unless...
Unless she didn’t work for him.
No. She couldn’t just quit her job. Even if the whole company was about to be sold off, she couldn’t walk away from a steady paycheck and benefits. The sale and changeover might take months, after all—months during which she could be covered for prenatal care, could be making plans. Or some miracle could occur and the whole sale could fall through. Then she’d be safe.
So what was she going to do about Chadwick? She didn’t want to wait months before she could kiss him again, before she could hold him in her arms. She was tired of pretending she didn’t have feelings for him. If things stayed the same...
Well, one thing she knew for certain was that things wouldn’t stay the same. She’d slept with him—multiple times—and she was pregnant. Those two things completely changed everything.
She was transferring the bedsheets from the washer to the dryer when she heard something at the door. Her first thought was that maybe Chadwick had changed his mind and decided to spend the day with her.
But, as she raced for the door, it swung open. Chadwick doesn’t have a key, she thought. And she always kept her door locked.
That was as far as she got in her thinking before Neil Moore, semi-pro golf player and ex-everything, walked in.
“Hey, babe.”
“Neil?” The sight of him walking in like he’d never walked out caused such a visceral reaction that she almost threw up. “What are you doing here?”
“Got your email,” he said, putting his keys back on his hook beside the door as he closed it. He looked at her in her cleaning clothes. “You look...good. Have you put on weight?”
The boldness of this insult—for that’s what it was—shook her back to herself. “For crying out loud, Neil. I sent you an email. Not an invitation to walk in, unannounced.”
Another wave of nausea hit her. What if Neil had shown up two hours before—when she was still tangled up with Chadwick? Good lord. She fought the emotion down and tried to sound pissed. Which wasn’t that hard, really.
“You don’t live here anymore, remember? You moved out.”
Then he said, “I missed you.”
Nothing about his posture or attitude suggested this was the case. He slouched his way over to the couch—her couch—and slid down into it, just like he always had. What had she seen in this man, besides the stability he’d offered her?
“Is that so? I’ve been here for three months, Neil. Three months without a single call or text from you. Doesn’t seem like you’ve missed me very much at all.”
“Well, I did,” he snapped. “I see that nothing’s changed here. Same old couch, same old...” He waved his hand around in a gesture that was probably supposed to encompass the whole apartment but mostly seemed directed at her. “So what did you want to talk to me about?”
She glared at him. Maybe it would have been better if Chadwick had still been here. For starters, Neil would have seen that nothing was the same anymore—she wasn’t, anyway. She wasn’t the same frugal executive assistant she’d been when he’d left. She was a woman who went shopping in the finest stores and made small talk with the titans of industry and looked damn good doing it. She was a woman who invited her boss into her apartment and then into her bed. She was pregnant and changing and bringing home her own bacon and frying it up in her own pan, thank you very much.
Neil didn’t notice her look of death. He was staring at the spot where the TV had been before he’d taken that with him. “You haven’t even gotten a new television yet? Geez, Serena. I didn’t realize you were going to take me leaving so hard.”
“I don’t need one. I don’t watch TV.” A fact she would have thought he’d figured out after nine years of cohabitating—or at least figured out after she told him to take the TV when he moved. “Did you come here just to criticize me? Because I can think of a lot better ways to spend a Sunday morning.”
Neil rolled his eyes, but then he sat up straighter. “You know, I’ve been thinking. We had nine good years together. Why did we let that get away from us?”
She could not believe the words coming out of this man’s mouth. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe ‘we’ let that get away from ‘us’ when you started sleeping with groupies at the country club.”
“That was a mistake.” He agreed far more quickly than he had when Serena had found the incriminating text messages. They’d gone out to dinner that night to try and “work things out,” but it’d all fallen apart instead. “I’ve changed, babe. I know what I did was wrong. Let me make it up to you.”
This was Neil “making it up to her”—criticizing her appearance and her apartment?
“I’ll do better. Be better for you.” For a second, he managed to look sincere, but it didn’t last. “I heard that the brewery might get sold. You own stock in the company, right? We could get a bigger place—much nicer than this dump—and start over. It could be really good, babe.”
Oh, for the love of Pete. That’s what this was. He’d gotten wind of the AllBev offer and was looking for a big payout.
“What happened? Your lover go back to her husband?”
The way Neil’s face turned a ruddy red answered the question for her, even though he didn’t. He just went back to staring at the space where the television used to be.
The more she talked to him, the less she could figure out what she had ever seen in him. The petty little criticisms—it wasn’t that those were new, it was just that she’d gotten used to not having her appearance, her housekeeping and her cooking sniped at.
In three months, she’d realized how much she’d settled by staying with Neil. No wonder the passion had long since bled out of their relationship. Hard to be passionate when the man who supposedly loved you was constantly tearing you down.
Chadwick didn’t do that to her. Even before this last week had turned everything upside down, he’d always let her know how much he appreciated her hard work. That had just carried over into her bed. Boy, had he appreciated her hard work.
Serena shook her head. This wasn’t exactly an either/or situation. Just because she didn’t want Nei
l didn’t necessarily mean her only other option was Chadwick. Even if whatever was going on between her and Chadwick was nothing more than a really satisfying rebound—for both of them—well, that didn’t mean she wanted to throw herself at Neil. She was no longer a scared college girl existing just above the poverty line. She was a grown woman fully capable of taking care of herself.
It was a damn good thing to realize.
“I’m pregnant. You’re the father.” There. She’d gotten it out. “That’s what I needed to talk to you about. And because you were sleeping around, I have to get tested.”
For a moment, Neil was well and truly shocked. His mouth flopped open and his eyes bugged out of his head. “You’re...”
“Pregnant. Have been for three months.”
“Are you sure I’m the father?”
Her blood began to boil. “Of course you’re the father, you idiot. Just because you were sleeping around doesn’t mean I was. I was faithful to you—to us—until the very end. But that wasn’t enough for you. And now you’re not enough for me.”
“I...I...” He seemed stuck.
Well, he could just stick. She was the one that was pregnant. She’d spend the rest of her life raising his—her—baby. But that didn’t mean she had to spend the rest of her life with him. “I thought you should know.”
“I didn’t want—I can’t—” He wasn’t making a lot of progress. “Can’t you just end it?”
“Get out.” The words flew from her mouth. “Get out now.”
“But—”
“This is my child. I don’t need anything from you, and what’s more is I don’t want anything from you. I won’t sue you for child support. I never want to see you again.” She hadn’t said that when he’d left the last time. Maybe because she hadn’t believed the words. But now she did.
Neil’s eyes hadn’t made a lot of progress back into his skull. “You don’t want money? Damn—how much is Beaumont paying you now?”
Was that all she was—a back-up source of funding? “If you’re still here in one minute, I’m calling the police. Goodbye, Neil.”
He got up, looking like she’d smacked him. “Leave your key,” she called after him. She didn’t want any more surprise visits.
He took the key off his key ring and hung it back on the hook.
Then he closed the door on his way out.
And that was that.
She looked around the apartment as if the blinders had suddenly been lifted from her eyes. This wasn’t her place. It had never been hers. This had been their place—hers and Neil’s. She’d wanted to stay here because it was safe.
But Neil would always feel like he was entitled to be there because it had been his apartment before she’d moved in.
She didn’t want to raise her baby in a place that was haunted by unfaithfulness and snide put-downs.
She needed a fresh start.
The thought terrified her.
Twelve
“Ms. Chase, if you could join me in my office.”
Serena tried not to grin as she gathered up her tablet. He was paging her a full forty minutes earlier than their normal meeting time. What a difference a week made. Seven days before, she’d been shell-shocked after realizing she was pregnant. This week? She was sort of her boss’s secret lover.
No, best not to think of it in those terms. Company policy and all that.
She opened the door to Chadwick’s office and shut it behind her. That was what she normally did, but today the action had an air of secrecy about it.
Chadwick was sitting behind his desk, looking as normal as she’d ever seen him. Well, maybe not that normal. He glanced up and his face broke into one huge grin. God, he was so handsome. It almost hurt to look at him, to know that he was so happy because of her.
He didn’t say anything as she walked toward her regular seat. Instead, he got up and met her halfway with the kind of kiss that melted every single part of her body. He pulled her in tight, and his lips explored hers.
“I missed you,” he breathed in her ear as he wrapped his arms around her.
She took in his clean scent, her body responding to his touch. How different was this from Neil telling her he missed her the day before? Chadwick wasn’t all talk. He followed up everything he said with actions.
“Me, too.” Now that she knew exactly what was underneath that suit jacket, she couldn’t stop running her hands over the muscles of his back. “I’ve never wanted Monday to get here so fast.”
“Hmmm” was all he replied as he took another kiss from her. “When can I see you again?”
She gave him a look that was supposed to be stern. It must not have come across the way she intended it to, because he cracked a goofy grin. “This doesn’t count?”
“You know what I mean.”
She did. When could they spend another night wrapped in each other’s arms? She wanted to say tonight. Right now. They could leave work and not come back until much, much later.
That wasn’t an option.
“What are we going to do? I hate breaking the rules.”
“You wrote the rule.”
“That makes it even worse.”
Instead of looking disgruntled with her, his grin turned positively wicked. “Look, I know this is a problem. But I’m working on a solution.”
“Oh?”
“It’s in process.” She must have given him a look because he squeezed her a little tighter. “Trust me.”
She stared into his eyes, wanting nothing more than to go back to Saturday night. Or even Sunday morning.
But reality was impossible to ignore. “If you need any help solving things, you just let me know.”
“Done. When’s your doctor’s appointment?”
She touched the cleanly shaven line of his chin. “Friday next week.”
“You want me to come with you?”
Love. The word floated up to the top of her consciousness, unbidden. That’s what this was—love. Even if she hadn’t said the exact word, she felt it with all of her heart.
Her throat closed up as tears threatened. Oh, God, she was in love with Chadwick Beaumont. It was both the best thing that had ever happened to her and one hell of a big problem.
He ran his finger under her chin again—much like he had the week before—and smiled down at her. “You all right?”
“I am. You wouldn’t mind coming with me?”
“I’ve recently discovered that it’s good to get out of the office every so often. I’d love to accompany you.”
She had to swallow past the lump in her throat.
“Are you sure you’re all right?”
She leaned her head against his shoulder, loving the solid, strong way he felt against her. “I hope you get that solution figured out soon.”
“I won’t fail you, Serena.” He sounded so serious about it that she had no choice but to believe him. To hope that whatever he was planning would work. “Now, I believe I have time tonight to have a business dinner with my assistant, don’t I? We can discuss my schedule in a little more...detail.”
How could she say no to that? It was a business-professional activity, after all. “I believe we can make that happen.”
“So,” Chadwick said, pulling back and leading her toward the couch. “Tell me about your weekend.”
“Funny about that.” Sitting on the couch, her head against his shoulder, she related what had happened with Neil.
“You want me to take care of it?”
The way he said it—sounding much like he had when he’d nearly started a fight with his brother at the gala—made her smile. It should have been him being something of a Neanderthal male. As it was, it made her feel...secure.
“No, I think he got the message. He’s not getting anything out of me or this company.”
She then told Chadwick how she was thinking of moving to a new place and making a clean break with the past.
He got an odd look on his face as she talked. She knew that look—
he was thinking.
“Got a solution to this problem yet?”
He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her—not the heated kiss from earlier, but something that was softer, gentler. Then he touched his forehead to hers. “You’ll be the first to know.”
That lump moved up in her throat again. She knew he’d keep his promise.
But what would it cost him?
* * *
“Mr. Beaumont.” Serena’s voice over the intercom sounded...different. Like she was being strangled.
“Yes?” He looked at Bob Larsen sitting across the desk from him, who froze mid-pitch. It wasn’t like Serena to interrupt a meeting without a damn good reason.
There was a tortured pause. “Mrs. Beaumont is here to see you.”
Stark panic flooded Chadwick’s system. There were only a few women who went by that name and all of the options were less than pleasant. Blindly, he chose the least offensive option. “My mother?”
“Mrs. Helen Beaumont is here to see you.”
Oh, hell.
Chadwick locked eyes with Bob. Sure, he and Bob had worked together for a long time, and yes, Chadwick’s never-ending divorce was probably watercooler fodder, but Chadwick had worked hard to keep his personal drama and business life separate.
Until now.
“One moment,” he managed to get out before he shut the intercom off. “Bob...”
“Yeah, we can pick this up later.” Bob was hastily gathering his things and heading for the door. “Um...good luck?”
“Thanks.” Chadwick was going to need a lot more than luck.
What was Helen doing there? She’d never come to the office when they were semi happily married. He hadn’t talked to her without lawyers present in over a year. He couldn’t imagine she wanted to reconcile. But what else would bring her there?
He knew one thing—he had to play this right. He could not give her something to use against him. He took a second to straighten his tie before he opened his door.
Helen Beaumont was not sitting in the waiting chairs across from Serena’s desk. Instead, she was standing at one of the side windows, staring out at the brewery campus. Or maybe at nothing at all.
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