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I clicked further through the article. Hunter Malone, one of the senior partners of Malone Law—the lawyer hired by King Enterprises—declined an interview. No wonder Carter hadn’t mentioned anything to me. I sat in deep thought, staring at the words on the computer screen, until I heard the shower shut off. He had been so argumentative and distracted lately, working so late into the night, I felt like I barely saw him. Now I knew why: Trent King. Carter had always done what he could to protect me from things, and I could understand his not wanting to tell me about Trent. I shut the screen off and went to stand up when Carter’s cell phone screen lit up. I hadn’t meant to look and wished I hadn’t, but when the name flashed across the screen, I couldn’t help myself.
FELICE: RESERVATIONS BOOKED AT SILVER MEADOWS RESTAURANT. LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING YOU.
I frowned, my eyes burning while trying to fight back tears from my eyes. Why was Felice messaging him dinner reservations? As far as I knew, they hadn’t spoken in years. A funny feeling hit my stomach, thinking about Carter’s business trip next week to meet with clients over a custody battle. I tried to take a deep breath. Felice was a damn nightmare, to say the least—a name from his past, our past, and a name I had never cared to hear again in my life.
I drank down the remainder of my sparkling grape juice, wishing now I could have a glass of wine. I slowly ran my hand over my flat stomach. I had been trying to find the perfect moment to tell him the news, but lately there didn’t seem to be a right time, and possibly tonight or this weekend wasn’t the right time either. However, I felt more disturbed than ever now after seeing Felice’s name on his phone. Perhaps she had finally won him, and I was the fool all along. Maybe I had finally lost him to her. I got up from his chair, walked to the door, and shut the lights off in his office, returning to the living room to wait for him.
Chapter Three
Hope
Iwas quiet all theway to the hotel. I wanted so badly to bring up the message I had seen on his phone; however, I also didn’t want to spend the night or the weekend arguing. “Everything okay, love?” he asked as he pulled the car into the parking lot.
“Yes, of course, why?” I smiled, swallowing hard.
“You just seem quiet, but as long as you’re sure.” He reached over and grabbed my hand, taking mine into his.
“Dad told me about Trent. Is that the reason you have been so quiet about work?”
“Yes, it’s been tough. Since we weren’t sure what was going to happen, I didn’t think there was any point to mention it. Hunter has been working like crazy on this case. He did what he could, but the evidence doesn’t lie. Are you okay?”
“Of course, it’s just you normally share things with me, so I was surprised you didn’t tell me.”
“I didn’t want you to worry. It certainly wasn’t on purpose, Hope. This was a big case.”
He ran his thumb over the back of my hand. “Let’s get settled, shall we?”
We checked in and then we made our way to our room. Carter wheeled the suitcase in and set it up on the luggage rack. I followed behind him. Immediately, my eyes went straight to a large vase of red roses on the desk. I noticed a small envelope tucked between the roses, and a bottle of wine sat beside them in a chiller.
I walked over to the desk and stuck my face into the roses, taking a deep breath, and then I tugged at the little envelope and opened it.
“Congratulations on ten years. Love, Mackenzie, Kendall, Grandma, and Grandpa.”
I let out a small laugh. “The girls sent us flowers,” I said, looking over to where Carter was standing. Instead of paying attention to me, his face was buried in his phone as he typed back a response to whomever had contacted him, a look of annoyance and frustration on his face.
“Great,” he grumbled. I knew that tone too well; he had barely heard a word I had said.
“What time is dinner?” he asked again, furiously typing away.
“Seven. We have a couple hours,” I said. Walking over to him, I reached up, my hands shaking, and opened the top two buttons on his dress shirt, slowly making my way for the third as he continued typing away. “We could always use that time to...you know...spend a little private time together.” My fingers danced in circles across his chest before running down the front of his shirt and gripping his cock through his dress pants.
He stopped, turning his attention away from his phone to my eyes. He smiled down at me. “I could probably be persuaded to release some tension.” His large hand took my face and held it gently. Leaning down, he met my lips. His kiss felt like fire, and as his tongue swept through my mouth, I started to get that familiar ache in between my legs. As it built and as his hands started to travel my body, we were interrupted once again by his phone pinging numerous times in a row. He pulled away, my lips feeling a void that I wasn’t quite ready to feel just yet. “Give me a minute.”
As he read the messages on his phone, his brows drew together in an agonized expression. His expression said it all. “You have to respond, don’t you?”
“I do. It’s a client.” His eyes met mine despairingly. I wanted to say no, put it away, spend time with me, but the look in his eyes told me it was important.
I held back tears and gave him a weak smile instead. “Go ahead.”
I expected him to sit down at the desk and take the call that was going to come in, but instead, he took his phone and headed out the hotel room door, leaving me in the room, alone.
I busied myself while waiting for him to return by starting to unpack our bags. Once I had everything hung up, I sat down on the bed, arranged the pillows behind my head, and started thumbing through a magazine that I had found on the desk. Half an hour later the door to our room opened and Carter came in.
“That didn’t take too long. We should get ready and head out to the restaurant,” I said, laying the magazine beside me. When he didn’t say anything, I looked up at him. He was just standing in the doorway looking at me. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
He shook his head regretfully. “Honey, I don’t know how to tell you this. The clients that I am seeing in New York...they need me to come now.”
The smile that had been on my face when he had come back had slowly diminished. “But this weekend...”
