Page 15 of The Forbidden Billionaire
“I understand that. I just don’t see why the guy has to be superglued to my ankle.”
“He’s vigilant because I told him to be. I enlightened him with all the ways you tortured previous officers, and I informed him that he needed to make sure the same thing didn’t happen with him. So stop giving the guy a hard time. He’s only doing his job.”
“He’s ex-military, isn’t he?” Caesar asks.
Marcus nods.
I’m interested in spite of myself. “Why did he leave?”
“That’s personal,” he says, “and not my place to say.”
“Oh, don’t act like you have principles,” I scoff. “Come on, the least you can do is give me a bit of background if the guy’s going to be Velcroed to me.”
But he just shakes his head.
“You’re unbearable now you’re getting married,” I tell him crossly. “If Wren has any sense, she’s going to scarper as soon as she gets what she wants.”
His smile fades, and he drops his gaze to the table. I immediately feel a stab of guilt. When Caesar told us Wren had asked him for a baby, Marcus’s fury and disappointment was written all over his face. He loves her, but Caesar told me yesterday that although Wren has agreed to marry Marcus, he’s worried she’s only said yes because she wants a baby.
Dad clears his throat and changes the subject. Marcus looks up and our eyes meet, and I mouth,Sorry. His lips curve up then, and he winks at me, so I know he’s forgiven me, but even so, I still feel awful. I love both him and Caesar, and I would never hurt either of them on purpose.
I get up to make myself a coffee, and as I return to the table, my gaze drifts outside through the glass wall. I can just see reception from here. The bouquet of red roses is still sitting on the desk. Strange. The office manager doesn’t like flowers sitting in reception as some people are allergic.
I think about the message Dom sent me yesterday.I miss you. Can we meet for coffee? Just want to chat.I give a long, quiet sigh. We broke up just before Christmas. I miss him too, but the relationship had become untenable. Dom is short for Dominic, but also for dominant, and domineering. I like a confident, capable man, but when that turned controlling, I had to end it. It’ll be a mistake to meet him, even if he insists it’s just to catch up.
I hate being single, though. I like coming home to someone. I miss his presence. And I miss sex. I was very sad when we broke up. I thought we were going to be together forever. Is it possible he’s changed? He did send flowers, which is very unlike him. He’s trying hard. Maybe I should agree to meet him…
Luke is leaning on the reception desk, talking to Carol. As I watch, he picks up the roses and walks away. I frown. Did she ask him to get rid of them?
It doesn’t matter that my spidey senses are tingling, though. Clearly, nobody’s going to tell me anything. I’m going to have to take this into my own hands.
He might have been smart enough to foil my attempts to escape him today, but I have plenty more tricks up my sleeve.
Chapter Four
Luke
I take the roses down to the security team’s main room on the ground floor of the Ashford offices. Rick’s sitting at the main desk, surrounded by a dozen screens with images of the building, as well as Aurelia’s apartment building.
He holds his hands up as I approach. “I’m really sorry. I’d just come back from a bathroom visit. Kai was handing over, and the delivery guy slipped through.”
“It’s okay, I got to them before she did.” I put the roses on the desk. “She thinks they’re from Dominic.” I take a pair of plastic gloves from the box on his desk and remove the small envelope from my pocket.
He glances at her name on the front. “Looks like the same typeface as the others.”
“Yeah.” I take a photo of the envelope with my phone for my files, then extract the card.
We both look at it. It just says, in the same typeface,Love the butterfly earrings.
I go cold inside. She’s wearing butterflies today. He was either at her apartment, or at the studio.
“Fuck,” Rick says.
“Yeah.” Fury sweeps through me. It could have been the guy at the water cooler, but equally we’ve passed lots of men today, any of whom could easily have spotted what earrings she was wearing without me suspecting them.
I slide both the card and the envelope into a plastic bag and hand it to him. “Can you get Theo to check for fingerprints?”
“Yes, sir.” We both know the only ones he’ll find are mine from when I quickly pocketed the card and the delivery guy’s.
