Page 45 of Mr. Risky

“Well, if that necklace is real, it would look amazing around my neck,” Pippa said after a few minutes. “But I have something else to say.”

I shifted to face her, my stomach a ball of nerves and anxiety. Granger’s foot brushed mine, and I had to suppress a shattered squeak.

There was something fucking wrong with him.

“I found a positive pregnancy test in my bathroom,” Pippa continued, her eyes on Granger. “I always take a bunch at once, but I don’t remember seeing this one.”

“Oh, so congratulations are in order?” Chamberlain said.

“No,” Pippa replied, and her voice was hard and brittle. “I took seven more tests after that and they were all negative.”

“Maybe next month,” Hayden said. “I’m sure it’ll happen next month.”

Granger said nothing.

Hope and suspicion seemed to war in Pippa’s face, but for once it didn’t seem like Granger was in any hurry to reassure her.

“Is there anyone else those tests could have belonged to?”

My face seemed to heat.

Granger’s fingers were still clamped onto my thigh. Could anyone see how flushed my face was. Should I say something? Were they all looking at me? Why wouldn’t he say a damn thing to rescue me?

“Definitely not Sosie,” Hayden said. “Yet.”

I could feel tension rise in the air, and I wondered if anyone else could taste the danger.

“You’re drunk,” Granger said coldly.

“I am not⁠—”

“OK, girl talk,” Pippa chirped. Her voice sounded brittle, artificial. “You boys get out of here.”

Oh fuck. Was she going to demand my birth control methods? I cringed.

“That’s our cue,” Chamberlain stood up. “Come on.”

As the older man left, he tapped my shoulder with one finger.

“Young lady, if you are interested in my grandson, I’m sure we could have a conversation about further opportunities for you. There’s an interesting chamber orchestra one of my associates is pulling together that could use a flute player.”

“I’ll—I’ll think about it,” I said.

But the idea of staying under the thumb of the Hollingsworth family just to have a hope of a career in music—I couldn’t stand it.

Granger got up and left with them, leaving my thigh throbbing with heat.

“No kiss for me?” Pippa asked.

“Of course, baby.”

She gripped his shirt as he bent over, so close I could see the pulse of his throat, hear the sound of her holding him tight, her mouth sloppy, eager on his.

When they had left, Pippa smiled at me.

“There’s a lot I can do for you too, Sosie. If you’re willing to do a few things for me.”

“Ok,” I said neutrally. “What things?”