“She won’t want to go. She hates outdoor stuff.” I didn’t know what to say, but that came out of my mouth so quickly. It seemed I could lie pretty easily.
Mom patted me on the back. “Let her know that you won’t be joining her next weekend. We’ll have a nice time, you’ll see. I want to get back to this movie and finish it before I fall asleep. And you’ve got work to get up early for. It’s nearly eleven now. You came in later than you did last Sunday night.”
It was much harder to pull myself away from Christopher this time.
Heading back to the stairs, I picked up my bag off the step then went up to my bedroom. My only hope was that Christopher would help me figure out a way to get out of this.
The next morning I hurried to work, only to find Christopher hadn’t come in yet. Then around eleven o’clock, Mrs. Kramer told me that he’d gone to meet the men from China in Concord. I’d forgotten all about that meeting.
He would be bringing them back for the meeting sometime after lunch. That meant he’d be busy with them all day and even into the evening. We’d never get a chance to talk.
Suddenly, I hated the fact that we couldn’t talk in the open. That I couldn’t pick up the phone and call him.
“Where’s Daddy?” I heard a woman say as I stepped out into the hallway.
Mrs. Kramer stood in front of Christopher’s office door as two tall, willowy blondes dressed to the nines stood in front of her. “He’s with some clients. He’ll be busy all day. Tomorrow the clients will be leaving, and he can see you two after that. I don’t want you girls to bother him today—or tomorrow morning either.”
One of them rolled her eyes. “We haven’t seen him in days, since he went out of town this weekend. He came in so late last night and left so early this morning that we didn’t get to talk to him. And we wanted to talk to him about a surprise we want to give our mother. We need his approval for it.”
Jealousy spiked through me at the thought that he would have anything to do with a surprise for his ex-wife. But Mrs. Kramer quickly put their idea to rest. “If it has to do with your mother and him, I can tell you what he’ll say.”
“I know.” The shorter of the two nearly identical girls said. “But Mom really wants to spend the Fourth of July weekend at our lake house, and that’s next weekend.”
I hadn’t even realized this coming weekend was the holiday. And with me having to go with Mom and Dad, what if Christopher did end up spending the weekend with his daughters and ex-wife?
Mrs. Kramer gave a quick reply, “That lake house is your father’s home. And you both know very well that he does not want your mother there. Now, why are you two trying to make them spend time together when you know what happened between them? Your father was very hurt by what your mother did. I thought you loved your father and understood this.”
“She won’t stop bothering us about it, Mrs. Kramer,” the taller of the two confessed.
“Then I’ll give her a call,” Mrs. Kramer said. “After all she’s done to him, I’m not going to allow her to bother him. You two run along now. I’ve got work to get to.” Mrs. Kramer turned and found me standing just outside my office door. “Miss Hancock, there you are. I need you to get the conference room ready. Hurry now.”
I rushed passed the three women, Christopher’s daughters not even bothering to glance my way, which made me feel oddly insignificant. I immediately understood why he worried about his daughters finding out about us—there’s no way in the world that he and I could have a relationship that those two were aware of.
As I hurried to get the conference room ready, I stopped a moment to look out the window. I saw Christopher walking up the sidewalk, his daughters meeting him halfway. He hugged them both, then shook his head as they said something to him.
Those girls had asked him about their mother coming for the weekend anyway!
I just knew they had. I could tell by his reaction and the stern look on his handsome face.
The men I’d expected to see with him were nowhere to be seen, so I hauled ass to see if I could speak with Christopher if only for a second. Heading down to the main floor in his private elevator, I knew that would be the best way to get a tiny bit of alone time with the man.
When I got to the lobby, the doors opened and Christopher stepped onto the elevator with his head down, not noticing me. He pushed the button to our floor. “Hi there,” I finally said, grabbing his attention.
He spun around then frowned at me. “Emma!”
“I’ve just gotta say this really quick. My parents are making me go to Canada this weekend for their anniversary trip. I don’t know what to do.” I wanted to reach out and touch him but didn’t dare.
The way his eyes drooped told me he’d had a bad day already and that this wasn’t helping. “Damn.”
“Are you okay?” I asked, and then I looked at the numbers as they flashed with each floor we passed. Our time was running out.
“I’ll be fine. The Chinese merchants want a different deal than we’d planned. And my ex-wife is trying to weasel her way into my home. And now this.” He stepped toward me and pulled me into his arms. “God, I need you, baby.”
My heart hurt so much as he held onto me. The ding of the elevator had us jumping apart. We’d reached the top floor. “Maybe we can meet at our place after work?”
“I’ll be too busy trying to close this deal with them.” He looked at the doors as they opened. “Fuck it. Meet me there around ten. Tell your parents you’re going to Concord to pick up some things our guests left behind, and that we’ve set you up to stay the night there.” Then he walked out, leaving me there as the doors closed on me once more.
I felt as if I were in the middle of a whirlwind. My head was a little out of it, wondering what had just happened, but I was also elated that I would get to spend the night with my sexy man again.
But what about the weekend?
Chapter 19
Christopher
The problems kept stacking up. I had to think about how to get Emma out of the trip with her parents, when all I really needed to be thinking about was how to solve the difference of opinions between myself and my potential clients.
“We’re talking about a few cents, guys,” I told the gentlemen, who wouldn’t budge a penny on their offer.
Sebastien showed up, coming in only a couple of minutes late. “Sorry, everyone. I got tied up.” He took the seat at the other end of the table, and I let him have the floor. I was tired of trying to get the men to understand my reasoning.
“I’m going to take a break. I’ll be back in a little while, Sebastien.” I left the room, feeling worn out.
I had a stack of problems in front of me and no idea how to handle any of them—except for the issue of my ex-wife wanting to come to my home for the holiday weekend. That one was easy. I’d told my daughters that they could tell their mother it would never happen.
The four-day weekend had crept up on me. That could be attributed to Emma; my mind had been occupied with nothing but thoughts of her for the past two weeks. All I wanted to do was spend that long weekend with her, but it seemed that wasn’t going to be as easy I wanted it to be.
If Emma and I could’ve just been honest about our relationship, then this wouldn’t have been a problem. But since we couldn’t, it felt like an enormous issue.
I supposed it wouldn’t have seemed like a big deal to most people. So what if I couldn’t spend the holiday with Emma; it’s only one weekend, right?
The thing was I’d had a hard enough time letting her go just the night before. Knowing I would have her back in my arms in only four days was the only thing that got me through it. If I couldn’t see her that weekend, it would be eleven days before I got to hold her, kiss her, make love to her again.
I just couldn’t hold out for that long. And by the desperation in her voice and expression when she’d surprised me on the elevator, Emma didn’t think she could hold out that long either. Funny how a couple of weekends
together could make us so needy for each other.
Going into my office, I sat at my desk and opened my laptop. Whenever my own brain wasn’t working as it should, I always turned to the web. When I searched, ‘great excuses to get out of plans,’ the first excuse on the list I’d found was to fake illness.
I thought about that for a second. Emma could tell her parents she felt sick or had a stomach bug and didn’t want to ruin their trip by getting everyone sick.
The idea sounded great until I really thought about it. Her parents would most likely put their trip off and stay home with her. And that would still mean she wouldn’t be able to spend the weekend with me.
Onto the next idea. The old, ‘my boss is making me work’ excuse. Another one that just wouldn’t work for us, since I was her father’s friend, and I would never pull rank on his family outing.
Then there were a bunch of other excuses that wouldn’t work: ‘I’ve gotta clean my house;’ ‘I’ve sprained my ankle;’ ‘I’ve got personal family issues;’ ‘Car trouble;’ and the best one I’d ever heard: ‘I’m ovulating and we’re trying for a baby.’
So, no luck there. I sat staring at the screen, trying to come up with anything better than the garbage I’d just read, when there was a knock at my door. Closing the laptop, I called out, “Come in.”
Sebastien strode in like some kind of a hero, swaggering with each step. The smile on his face told it all. “So, I’ve come to an agreement with our new clients, Christopher.” He came to my desk, placing the signed contract on it. “And we didn’t lose a cent.” With his chest puffed up with great pride, he took a seat in the chair opposite me.
I didn’t care how he’d accomplished it, I was just happy he’d done it. “Well, congratulations, my good man.” I got up and went to pat him on the back then poured us a couple of glasses of my good Scotch. And as I did that, an idea formed in my brain. “Don’t you and Celeste have an anniversary coming up?”
“We do. It’s this weekend.” Sebastien took the glass I offered him. “Thank you.”
As he took a sip, I came up with a plan on the fly. “As a token of my appreciation for this job well done, I would like to offer you and your lovely wife a five night, six-day anniversary trip to Bora Bora.”
He looked properly stunned. “When?”
“Well, for your anniversary of course.” I retook my seat then sipped the Scotch.
“But we’ve already made plans to go to Canada. Celeste rented a cabin, and we were going to go fishing.” He took another drink as he seemed to rethink things.
I could see I needed to sweeten the already sweet deal. “Of course, there’s also the big bonus you’re getting for bringing me a signed contract—you’ll probably want to celebrate that, too.”
Taking out my pen, I jotted down a very nice number on a piece of paper then slid it to him. He picked it up, looking at it with wide eyes. “Is this the amount of the bonus?”
“It is.” I opened the laptop to send an e-mail to Mrs. Kramer. “My assistant will have that amount deposited into your bank account by tomorrow morning. That should help you and Celeste have a nice time on your little anniversary vacation. I expect she’ll be pleasantly surprised that you two will be having a little fun in the sun, instead of fighting off bears in the Canadian wilderness.”
“Yeah, she’ll be surprised alright.” He took his eyes off the paper and then shook his head as he looked at me. “But Emma.”
I held up my hand. “She’ll be fine, Sebastien. Go have a nice anniversary with your wife. Taking your daughter with you everywhere you go has to have been cramping the romance in your marriage all these years?”
He nodded. “A little, yeah. But Celeste won’t want to leave Emma here all alone for such a long time.”
“Convince her to.” I took another drink of my Scotch, feeling like I’d just cured cancer or something for coming up with this plan.
Not only would I get to spend the weekend with Emma, but I’d have her for nearly an entire week if I could pull this off. My nether regions were already getting excited, but I sternly cleared my mind of those thoughts, not wanting my friend to be aware of any of that.
Sebastien slapped his hand on my desk. “I’ll convince her! This is by far the coolest thing anyone has ever done for me, Christopher.”
“Hey, you’ve earned this, ol’ boy. I didn’t give you anything.” I got up and shook his hand. “You’ve just made this company millions, maybe even billions, Sebastien!”
“Yeah, I have, haven’t I?” He got up as well and started making his way to the office door. “I’m going to my office to call Celeste now and tell her the great news. And I’m sure Emma will be happy for us. Plus, you’ll be here to help her if anything happens, right?”
“I will.” I walked with him to the door then opened it. “She’ll be in good hands here. You two just go and have a great time. I’ll have Mrs. Kramer e-mail you the details about the trip, the flight, and everything else you’ll need.”
While Sebastien went to his office, I headed to my assistant’s office. Opening the door, I found Mrs. Kramer talking to Emma. “I need you to make some arrangements, Mrs. Kramer.” I nodded at Emma. “How are you doing today, Miss Hancock?”
“Just fine, sir.” Emma smiled as she ducked her head, looking shy.
“Good to hear.” I turned my attention to my assistant. “Have you checked your e-mail yet? I’ve just sent you something.”
“No, sir.” Mrs. Kramer looked at Emma. “Can you do that for me?”
Emma sat at the desk, pulling up the e-mail. I knew the moment she opened it, as she smiled knowingly. “Seems my father’s earned a nice bonus.” Emma turned the computer around for Mrs. Kramer to see.
“Oh, I need to get that done fairly quickly then.” Mrs. Kramer took the seat that Emma had vacated.
“And I want you to make Mr. Hancock and his wife reservations at one of the resorts in Bora Bora. Get them everything. The plane, the hotel, the whole thing. I want them to leave on Thursday, and they’ll be spending five nights there. Okay?”
“I’ll do it. I’ll e-mail everything to Mr. Hancock as soon as I get it all done, Mr. Taylor.” Mrs. Kramer got right to work as Emma stared at me with a shocked expression.
“Your father got the contract signed, Miss Hancock. He’s earned this reward,” I informed her. “We treat our people very well here.”
“You sure do,” she said quietly.
Knowing that Mrs. Kramer was unaware of everything but the task in front of her, I winked at Emma. “I’ll be leaving around three today. I’m going to need you to leave around then too. It seems one of our guests left something behind at the hotel in Concord, and it needs to be retrieved before they leave tomorrow morning. I’ll need you to get it, Miss Hancock. I’ll let your father know that you’ll be out of town for the night and that he’ll see you here tomorrow morning.”
“’Kay,” she said, still stunned. “I’ll leave at three to go to Concord.”
“Have a good trip,” I said before leaving. “Drive carefully.”
A couple of hours later, I wasn’t surprised at all when Emma strolled into our cabin with a grin that wouldn’t quit on her face. “So, am I to expect that you and I will be spending our nights here while my parents are away?”
“Not just the nights, Miss Hancock.” I pulled her into my arms then kissed her sweet lips before telling her the good news. “You’ve got the same days off that I gave your father. This Thursday all the way through to next Tuesday. Do you think you can stand spending that much time with me in our little love nest, baby?”
The way she wrapped her body around mine told me she thought she could handle that. “I must warn you, sexy, you’re spoiling me terribly.”
I can think of worse things.
Chapter 20
Emma
Two months went by with me and Christopher spending as much time together as we could steal at the cabin. Another Monday had come where I’d had to pull myself away
from the man at nearly two in the morning to go back to my parents’ house.
The day hit me hard and heavy as my alarm went off. Staggering to my bathroom, I felt a knot in my stomach that made me nauseous. I held my stomach as I went to the sink to brush my teeth.
In a sudden wave of heat and dizziness, I changed directions, heading to the toilet instead where I puked my very soul up. I felt so weak I had to sit on the cold tile floor. “What the hell?” I whimpered.
After a few minutes I managed to heave my body up and went right back to bed, lying down and trying to figure out what I’d eaten or drank to suddenly be feeling so terrible.
Christopher and I had made spaghetti for dinner Sunday night. I’d had one glass of wine with that, certainly not enough to make me feel this sick.
Rolling onto my side, I closed my eyes, which felt like they were burning for some reason. When I opened them, I found ten minutes had passed. I got out of bed and went to get into the shower to wake myself up and hope that it would make me feel better.
The cool water did bring me around. My head felt better, and after toweling off and giving my teeth a good brushing, I felt more alive and able to take on the workday.
I needed to get a fresh hand towel from underneath the sink, and I reached down to grab one. That’s when my attention was caught by an unopened box of tampons.
…the same box of tampons I’d bought to replace the one I’d used up during my last period. Two months ago.
Leaning over, I said the words out loud. “Two. Months. Ago.”
Two months ago?
Standing up straight, I looked at myself in the mirror. “Emma Eileen Hancock, you did not do this to yourself!”
In a daze, I went back to my bed to sit down before I fell down. It all came flooding back to me. Each and every time Christopher and I had made love flashed in my head—and then the most significant thing illuminated in my brain, burning a hole in it. Birth control.
I’d never gotten on it. I’d never talked about it with Christopher either. We’d never used protection a single time in the last two months. And now I’d missed a period.
His Secret Virgin: A Forbidden Romance (The Sons of Sin Book 3) Page 12