Page 35 of The CEO

He pulled away. “I think I’ll get dressed and go for a drive. I need to figure some things out.”

She stood straighter, her back as stiff as if she had a steel rod up it. “Fine. I’m going to check on Lilly. And Adam? Don’t come back until you have your head on straight.”

Bree slipped around him before he could see the tears in her eyes and headed up the stairs.

He followed her up.

She heard the door to his bedroom slam, followed just minutes later by the door to the garage. Bree knew he was leaving until he wasn’t angry any longer. What would happen when he got back…she had no idea.

CHAPTER 9

Valerie Kincaid’s condo

Two days after the party

“What doyou mean you hit her? Why in the world would you do that, Valerie? If the Danvers find out, you have as good as assured that Kincaid’s bid will be accepted over mine.” Simon Chandler lashed out with his left hand and backhanded her.

Valerie fell to the floor and crawled over to him, wrapping her arms around his legs and looking up. “I’m sorry, Master. It will never happen again. I’ll make nice with her. I promise, it will be okay.”

Simon placed a palm on her upturned face and pushed her away.

“Please, Master, let me fix this.”

“I don’t think you can. Leave me, now.”

She bowed as she backed away. “Yes, Master.”

Stupid woman. If she didn’t satisfy other needs, I would get rid of her, but she is so good at being submissive, and I enjoy her too much. But what she did will set back my efforts. I thought I had it in the bag until Kincaid showed up with hisperfect wife. I hadn’t realized how good Bree Taylor was or I might have married her myself. Now I have to see if I can fix what my submissive likely cost me and I’m not sure how to go about it.

Sunday,two days after the party and the disastrous aftermath, Bree was in a good mood as she fed Lilly her jar of baby food.

Lilly liked the pureed peas and even more wanted to play with the spoon Bree was using to feed her. She kept grabbing for the spoon .

But Bree was faster, keeping it out of Lilly’s hands.

Adam appeared in the kitchen, going over to Lilly and kissing the top of her head. “How are my two favorite girls this morning?”

Bree looked up and smiled. “We are doing great. She’s eating her peas and trying to grab the spoon. We’re having a typical day. I think I’ll let her play on the floor in the living room with a wooden spoon and a couple of pans. She’ll like that, even if it will be noisy for us.” Bree was wearing yoga pants and a huge Colorado University Buffaloes t-shirt along with Nike sneakers. She knew better than to wear nice clothes when feeding Lilly her baby food. It got literally everywhere.

Adam grabbed a coffee pod and placed it in the Keurig machine. “That will be fun for her and won’t bother me. I’ll be ensconced in my office all morning.”

“Working on the Danvers proposal?”

He nodded. “Thanks to you I think we have a good shot at him accepting my offer. I don’t believe Simon can come up with something better, but stranger things have happened.”

“If they knew what Valerie did to me in the bathroom, then you would definitely have a lock on it. But I didn’t want to be the one to make trouble for you.”

He added sugar to his coffee and took a sip. “You didn’t do anything wrong. You were perfect, and they loved you.”

“I really liked them, too.” She took another spoonful of peas and madechoo-choonoises. “Here comes the train. Open the tunnel.”

Lilly giggled and opened her mouth.

Bree put the spoon in her mouth, smoothing it on the top of Lilly’s palate to make sure she got the whole spoonful. She did this a couple more times before Lilly turned away and shook her head.

“Looks like our little girl is full.”

“Yes, and she needs cleaning up and a diaper change. Would you do that while I take care of her highchair? I’m afraid not all of the peas went in her mouth.”