Page 16 of Dark Truth

“It’s alright. I’m going down to Jacksonville tomorrow. I have a competition down there, then I’ll be back up the next day.” She knew I liked to hear about her dancing competitions. She was one of the best exotic dancers around, and she had the titles to prove it.

“I wish I could go and watch you.” I stuck a bite of chicken in my mouth and wondered if it was possible. I had work to do, though, and I needed to take the job seriously if I expected the staff to treat me with respect.

“I’ll have another one at some point, don’t worry. I’m glad to hear you have a job with Dylan. That’s important. How do you like it?”

“I like it so far. I’m doing a little bit of everything until he gets all of the staff hired. After that, I’ll have less to do. Or more, I guess. The resort will be open then.”

“I hope it stays enjoyable, at least.” She tucked into her own salad, and then our main courses came soon after.

Before I knew it, I was in my car and driving back to the resort. I went up to the penthouse to change and saw that Dylan had left me a note.

“Hope your lunch was fun, I’ll see you this evening.” He’d scrawled his name underneath, and I grinned as I held the note to my heart.

He was always doing this, leaving me notes around the place. It was sweet and he didn’t know it, but I tucked them all into my underwear drawer, as if they were love notes. Sometimes he wrote the notes on a receipt, sometimes a bit of torn paper, but to me they might as well have been written on vellum with gold ink, because I treasured each one.

I changed quickly and put on a pair of black pants, a black silk t-shirt, and a pair of black heels. They were my favorite Louboutin’s, a pair of black patent leather stilettos. I stared down at them, and not for the first time that day, thought about how much being pregnant would change my life.

I wasn’t always the most balanced woman in the world, and a fall could be dangerous. The words in my condition played through my mind, and I smiled, such old-fashioned words. The shoes were impractical, however, and I put them back and reached for a pair of black Versace ballerina slippers. Also, black patent leather with a gold embellishment across the toe. Much more sensible and safer.

Which made me think. I might not carry the baby to term. It was an odd though that came out of nowhere, but it made me sit up. What if I told Dylan I was pregnant, he broke up with me, and then I lost the baby? A cold thought, but logical. I’d have wrecked our relationship over a child that didn’t happen.

Maybe I should wait to tell him, until I knew I was past the three-month mark, at least? Then, I could tell him, and we’d go from there. I could wait the entire nine months, just disappear and come back with a baby in my arms, if I wanted to get carried away with it, but that would just be stupid. No, I’d wait until the three-month mark, then I’d tell him.

With my decision made, I stood up, shook out the loose tank top, and headed for the door. I had work to get done. I made my way down to the elevator, happy now that I’d made a decision. Come what may, I’d tell him about the baby.

I met with some of the new staff, the chef Dylan had hired, and the general manager of the restaurant. Then, I met the new housekeeping brigade and made sure they had what they needed to get ready the grand opening. I went over some order forms that the staff at the pool had sent in by email and sent that on to Dylan. They all knew I was Dylan’s live-in girlfriend, and I was worried it would be hard to get them to take me seriously, but everybody had so far, and I hadn’t had any problems.

It was nice to be taken seriously and to have some say in things. I’d done a lot for my family and had often filled empty roles for the family’s resorts all over the world, but I’d always been my father’s daughter. To be obeyed, but never taken seriously. No major decisions had ever been left up to me, and if I ever received calls about them it was to find out where my father or Trent was.

Now, people actually valued my opinion, and that was something else I had to thank Dylan for. I was part of a team and important. I guessed to most people it would be silly to think like that, but to me, well, it was really nice.

“Are you free, madam?” I heard Dylan sing out as he came into my office.

“I’m free, Dylan.” It was a line from a very old British television show that we’d found one night, during a binge of British shows on YouTube we’d come across. We both loved the show, and the line, and we found ourselves saying it at times.

“I’ve ordered dinner from the chef, kind of his first test.” Dylan wiggled his eyebrows at me in a comic manner, and I snorted at him. “I’ve got a selection of very bad horror films chosen for your perusal, and then a rather good fucking planned, if you should so desire, madam.”

“Oh, that sounds like my kind of night.” I giggled as he kicked the door closed and came over to lean over me for a kiss. “That sounds like a rather magical night, in fact.”

“I thought so. I wouldn’t want to disappoint, madam.” His lips nuzzled up my neck to behind my ear, and I tilted my head as he did so. “I know how you love really bad horror films, after all.”

“Ah, I thought it was the rather good fucking that you thought wouldn’t disappoint me.” I pulled back to look in his glittering eyes and twisted my lips in mock disapproval. “You aren’t teasing me now, are you?”

“As if I’d tease about such a thing.” He knelt in front of me and let his hands skim up my parted thighs. “In fact, it’s a shame you put pants on, Emily.”

“The door does lock, Dylan,” I offered, hopeful.

“I know,” he rocked back onto his heels and tapped at his chin. “I was hoping to push it up around your waist while I buried my face in you.”

“Oh my.” My eyes were round, and I had to shift around in my seat. “I can go change, if you’d like?”

“No,”—he tapped at his chin again, his eyes scrunched up—“that might ruin the mood. Better to just strip these off of you, I guess.”

He wasted no time in getting the pants off of me, or his face between my thighs. I propped my feet on my desk and used it as leverage to push my hips against him. His tongue teased me, hot and knowing, as I gave myself up to his attention. There weren’t many people who would come into my office, and I hoped if someone came to my door, they’d knock first.

The thrill that we could be caught heightened the moment, and I kept glancing at the door. I didn’t want it to open, but knowing it could made this all the more clandestine. Dylan owned the place, it wasn’t like we’d be fired if we were caught, but knowing the danger was there was nice.

“Dylan,” I sighed as my fingers tangled in his hair. “You do that so well.”