AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“There’s more.” Emma lowered her voice to a conspiratorial level. “And you can’t let this get around yet, but Noah asked me to move in with him, and I said yes. I know what you’re gonna say. It’s too soon, way too soon, but...” She held her arms up in surrender. “But I already know all that, and I said yes anyway. I’m crazy. No, I’myou.”
Gwen positively beamed. “And since you’re me, I must tell you that crazy is the best way to go through life, especially when said life includes having fun times with the World’s Sexiest Bachelor?”
And Gwen wasn’t being hyperbolic about the title. Noah had graced the cover ofPeopleafter being voted the World’s Sexiest Bachelor.
And that bachelor was hers!
She wrapped a hand around her necklace as a knock sounded and Brad appeared in her doorway. “You have a minute?” he asked, face stern.
“Of course.” Emma turned to Gwen. “We’ll talk later.”
Gwen nodded and practically danced her way out of the office.
Brad closed the door behind Gwen. “I saw the news reports yesterday about your house, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. How are you holding up?”
“I could be worse,” she answered honestly. “It was scary, but we got out just after the fire started.”
“I’m not gonna lie…” He dropped into the chair opposite her. “It shook me and made me think about—” He paused and then seemed to change lanes. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
Sitting back in her chair, she studied him. Should she take his concern at face value? Or was he playing an angle?
In the end, she decided brutal honesty was the best way to go. “Why did you tell Gwen not to contact me after David’s heart attack?” she asked.
“What did Iwhat?”
“When David had his heart attack, Gwen said you ordered her not to contact me. Why? Me, being the cynical person I am, thought you were trying to sabotage me because I made equity partner before you, but now, you’re in here acting all concerned, and I just don’t know what to think.”
Confusion crossed his face before morphing into concentration and, finally, shock. “No,” he said, shaking his head. “No.I’m not at all upset that you made equity partner. You’re a fantastic attorney, Emma, and you deserve it. I told David as much when he approached me about his plans.”
Emma leaned back and took a moment to process this new information. “So, you’re not upset they offered me equity partner before you?”
He laughed. “Emma, I turned down equity partner about six months before they hired you. When I started here, I thought that was what I wanted. I’d worked hard for it, but after my wife died and I suddenly found myself a single father, I knew I wouldn’t be able to give the firm one hundred percent anymore.”
“Then why did you ask Gwen not to contact me that day?”
He glanced down and then back up with a sheepish expression that took ten years off his face and made him look positively adorable. “Because you work so damn hard and never seem to take time for yourself. I’d hoped to give you a few days to decompress on the beach before having Gwen call you. I shouldn’t have made that decision for you, and I apologize for that. It’s just, I knew you’d drop everything and come running because that’s just how you’re built. It’s part of what makes you so you.”
Okay, color her shocked.
Her office phone rang. She glanced at the base. It was one of Noah’s office lines. Odd, he usually texted or called her cell.
“One sec, Brad,” Emma said as she picked up. “Noah, hi. What’s—”
“Get up here now.” Urgency thinned the frantic female voice, and it took Emma a moment to place it as Noah’s executive assistant. “The police just walked into Mr. Whitlow’s office, and they have a search warrant.”
“I’ll be right there,” Emma said and took off running, leaving Brad sitting at her desk.
The elevator trip to floor fifty seemed to take four hours. When she arrived, she found Caroline pacing. Detective Tanaka, judging by the cut of his suit, size, and hairstyle, stood just inside Noah’s office, and wherever Tanaka was, his partner was close by.
Three steps from his office, Hill’s voice cut through the pounding of Emma’s heart with the lethality of a freshly sharpened knife. “We have you cold. You initiated a farcical relationship with Emma Morgan for the sole purpose of conjuring a better image for yourself and your company after the Lone-Star Tech acquisition went south, and I can prove it.”
No.
Emma’s legs faltered. Noah had staged their entire relationship to garner goodwill after the Lone-Star Tech debacle?
She shook her head. No, not Noah. It couldn’t be. He’d asked her to move in with him. They’d spent all night making love. This morning, too. They’d even talked about changing his house as what, an elaborate hoax?
No.
