Reunited in Love

Chapter Ten

KERRI OPENED HER EYES and blinked several times, slowly making her way back to wakefulness. She remembered falling asleep in the study, but then…

Her mouth parted as she took in the big bed and rumpled sheets laced with Ethan’s scent.

She’d spent the night in Ethan’s room. She stared up at the ceiling fan and sighed. How could she have slept so soundly?

Well, whatever. She was done with what Ethan had hired her to do. No need to stick around much longer, was there?

Once she explained to him the sad state of affairs at The Lloyds Development, she was free to go.

She waited for the sense of ease and lightness that always came at the thought of breaking it off with a lover. It didn’t take more than three or four weeks for her to feel claustrophobic in a relationship, and they had been together for close to seven .

But now, it felt like there was a boulder lodged inside her heart. One that seemed to grow heavier and heavier as the ceiling fan spun, that might have pinned her to the bed forever.

With a massive effort she forced herself up and went out, shrugging into a thin satiny robe. Time to face reality.

Ethan had her breakfast ready, plain yogurt with fresh fruit cubes and berries in a pretty Venetian glass bowl. The lines of his white robe said he was naked underneath. He poured her coffee and slid the mug across the counter. “Here.”

She took a big swallow. First things first. Soon she felt almost normal, the gears in her brain jolted into motion by the caffeine. “You having breakfast?”

“Already ate. It’s ten. I couldn’t wait.”

She blinked. “Ten?” She shook her head. “I can’t believe how long I slept in.”

“Well, you worked late.” He made it sound like she’d been out hustling on the streets.

Him and his anti-weekend-work mindset. “No, that’s not it. I’m used to late nights.” She spooned the yogurt—perfect as usual. She regarded the bowl. The recipe had to be simple, but whenever she tried any recipe at all, nothing came out the way she imagined. It was always just sort of “good enough.” Was there anything Ethan couldn’t do?

She thought, I’ll miss this, then caught herself.

This—the delicious food and coffee—she could get from any decent breakfast bistro.

What she’d miss would be Ethan.

Her coffee mug clattered slightly as she placed it on the counter. She cleared her throat. “I’m done with the TLD review. Have you taken a look at it yet? I emailed it to you last night.”

“It can wait until after you eat.”

“I can talk and eat at the same time.”

He closed his eyes briefly.

She ignored him. Some of the clients she’d dealt with had been worse. “I sent you an email last night,” she repeated.

“Okay, okay. What’s in this apocalyptically important email?”

“Ethan,” she said, trying her best for a gentle tone, “I think somebody’s been fooling with the TLD accounts.” The business wasn’t just any entity. It belonged to and was run by his family, and she didn’t want to sound like she was accusing them of impropriety. Though honestly speaking—if it had been some other company she would’ve given him a list that contained items like possible embezzlement, gross mismanagement and incompetence that bordered on criminality.

Ethan’s gaze suddenly sharpened. “What do you mean, ‘fooling with’?”

Ah, now I have your attention. “Several million dollars seem to be unaccounted for, among other things. Of course, you’ll have to get an audit team to know for sure.”

He swore.

“Look, don’t jump to any conclusions. I might be mistaken—”

He turned to look directly at her. After a moment she broke eye contact. “Right,” he said. “People like you don’t make mistakes.”

Kerri cleared her throat. “Oh. Well, thanks.” She fiddled with her spoon and yogurt. “Anyway, the numbers don’t look great.”


“How bad?” he asked.

“Long story short? The company’s bleeding cash.”

*



Bleeding cash.

What the hell? That wasn’t how The Lloyds Development was supposed to be. Jacob had always said he knew exactly what he was doing. Every Christmas, he toasted to another successful year. The money kept flowing to every member of the family who owned a piece of the company. Ethan had always received his share of the profits as well, direct deposited to his bank account every quarter like clockwork.

He didn’t particularly care about the money coming into his account. The TLD income was minor compared to his other business interests. But several members of the family depended on the dividend, some of whom were retired. Though the quarterly payments were generous, they needed to keep coming; quite a few of the family had expenditures that ate up the whole amount—yachts, fancy club memberships, private beaches, vacation homes. Most of them would be able to downsize if they had to. They could handle the scandal involving Jacob’s bigamy and TLD’s financial trouble. But not both at the same time. The humiliation was too devastating.

Had Jacob run to avoid facing the consequences of his mismanagement? Was the sudden “Vegas stripper wife” just a convenient excuse? He was a prideful man, and hated admitting mistakes or failures.

“Ethan?” Kerri said, her tone calm. Despite the cool “this is just business” expression on her face, her gaze flickered.

“How did you find the problem so quickly? I gave you five years’ worth of data.” Intentionally, as he’d assumed it would take her at least three months to go through everything alone.

“Oh, I’m just, you know. Good with numbers.”

“I’ll say.”

She shrugged. “It only takes one look for me to memorize a column of figures, and I can do most kinds of math in my head.”

Ethan stared at her. “You have a photographic memory?”

“No, nothing like that.” She blushed. “It’s just this weird thing with numbers.”

“That’s amazing.”

Her answering smile was so uncertain, Ethan had to wonder if this was the first time anyone had ever complimented her on her gift. Perhaps her family thought a talent for math made her odd or something. “Well, I’m glad you found the problem so soon.”

“Was this something you suspected?”

“No. I actually thought the company was doing fine.”

“I see.” She took another sip of coffee. “The quarterly reports actually look pretty convincing on the face of it. But if you start digging into the line items…”

He nodded. “And none of us had any reason to do so.”

“Right. Jacob is family.”

She still hadn’t eaten most of her yogurt, even though she had to be starving. She’d only had half a sandwich for dinner—he’d checked. None of the leftover chicken parmesan or roast beef had been touched. She’d gone for the artificially flavored, sodium-laden turkey slices he’d bought for the rare occasions he wanted to indulge in culinary slumming. Hardly the kind of food someone with cholesterol problems should be having.

“You know, Kerri, this is your home too, even if it’s temporary,” he said.

She looked up with a small frown.

“You’re welcome to take whatever you want.”

Her mouth curved into a smile, though her eyes remained a little wary and uncertain. “Okay.” She drew the word out, and the intonation almost made it a question. “Thanks.”

“I want you to feel at home and relaxed.”

“Okay.” Her lips stretched further into a bigger smile, though her eyes were still somewhat distant. “Again, thanks.”

His hands curled. He hated her uncertainty, like she didn’t know how to share the penthouse with him or what to do with his suggestion that she treat it as her own home. He wanted her to be more at ease, take what she wanted because she could. Hadn’t she understood she could do that and more in the last few weeks? Yesterday in the study, he’d had to force her into demanding something from him with words. Explicitly. Selfishly.

Who was it that had hurt her?

People didn’t become this tentative in relationships without reason. Kerri was so beautiful, so smart, he wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d been a bit spoiled as well. He’d thought she’d be a tough nut to crack because she had so many options in her life. But perhaps he’d been wrong. She was difficult to crack because she was so protective of herself, wary of people trying to get too close to her.

Ethan was certain it wasn’t just some casual boyfriend who’d hurt her. It had to be someone who’d meant a lot more, someone from whom she had every right to expect love and protection.

Ethan wanted to kick whoever had wounded her like this. He wanted to—

She paused in the middle of spooning another mouthful of her yogurt. “What’s wrong?”

“What?”

“You’re glaring at that vase.”

“Nothing,” he said automatically. Then he shook his head and laughed. “Actually, that’s a lie. Everything.” He put his face closer to hers, until he could count her eyelashes. “You are unbelievably beautiful.”

A delicate rose tinted her cheeks. She smiled shyly. “Thank you. You look pretty awesome yourself in the morning.”

He kissed her mouth, her lips softening under his instantly. Just like that he was rock hard. “Finished with your breakfast?” he murmured.

“Yeah.”

He picked her up, his hands cupping her butt, as she put her arms around his neck and wrapped her legs around his waist. “I think it’s about time we shower. What do you say?”

Her answer was a laugh and a kiss.