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“You’re hired.” Hannah looks down at her phone. “Ooh, I’m vibrating. And... it’s your husband’s secretary. His car has just pulled up to the gate.”
I hate the elation I feel knowing that. The bond startles to life and I know that it’s just going to get more intense the closer he is to me. Does it get stronger during periods of absence?
“He probably won’t come see me right away.” I stand and go to the window; from my tower, I can see the private drive near the exterior entrance to the residence. I’ll get a glimpse of Nathan before he comes inside, and maybe that will prepare me to interact with him later.
Or maybe the tie will make me super horny and miserable until he bothers to come around and mount me.
A sleek black sedan pulls to a stop on the white gravel shoulder of the paved drive. The back door opens, and Nathan gets out.
So does someone else.
“Hannah!” I call, waving my hand frantically. “Hannah, do you know who this person is?”
As Hannah crosses the room, I rattle off details, just in case she misses her. “Red hair, big boobs, kissing my fucking husband?”
“What?” Hannah picks up the pace and gets to the window just in time to see Nathan and the mystery woman before they stop sucking face.
It doesn’t matter, I tell myself. It doesn’t matter because you don’t care about him, and he doesn’t care about you. And yet, I still want to claw his face off.
“Oh my god...” Hannah drags the word out. “Bailey...that’s her. That’s Amber Rogers.”
The name rings a bell as the woman Nathan is rumored to be romantically involved in. Not so much a rumor now.
“I’ve heard of her,” I say woodenly.
“Yeah, because she’s the former queen of this pack.” Hannah gasps as Nathan kisses Amber’s hand and helps her back into the car, which drives off again.
“He took her to London.” I step back from the window with a bitter laugh. “I’ve been logging six hours a day on TikTok in this musty old dungeon and he took her to London.”
Hannah watches me pace; she’s not great at providing unrealistic comfort in terrible situations. “Did you really want to spend all that time with the guy? You hate him.”
“That’s what headphones are for! I’d put them on noise cancelling mode and at least I’d be able to get out of the damn house. I haven’t even seen the sky in like—”
The door to the sitting room opens and Nathan strides in; he must have bolted up the stairs to get here so fast, and he’s not wearing the navy jacket he had on in the driveway. He’s pretty close to not having a shirt on; he’s working the buttons and doesn’t notice Hannah and me standing there.
“Bailey?” He calls, and only then does he catch sight of us. He motions to Hannah. “Take the baby and give us the room, please?”
“Uh. Your Majesty, I—” Hannah gets caught somewhere between a curtsey and a scramble. She collects up Jo and their diaper bag and hurries out, pausing just long enough to say, “I’ll be in my office.”
Nathan pulls his shirt and undershirt over his head, nodding toward me. “Get undressed.”
“What?” After I saw him sucking on some random woman’s tongue? Not some random woman. The former queen, who still thinks she belongs on the throne.
The former queen who apparently wants my mate.
CHAPTER 29
“Stop!”
My shout alarms Nathan, but he does, at least, stop taking his clothes off.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I demand.
“It’s the twenty-third.” He gives me a moment to realize my error, which I obviously don’t, and then goes on, “My secretary said—”
“Who the fuck was that?” I jab my index finger toward the window, but Nathan’s gaze falls on the playpen and he looks over his shoulder, in the direction Hannah has just gone.
“I assumed she was someone you knew—”
“Not Hannah!” I press my fingers into my temples. “The woman you were kissing outside!”
He doesn’t react the way a man who’s been caught cheating on his wife should react. That is, with any remorse at all. He blinks. “You saw that?”
“Yes, I saw!” I pace furiously in front of the fireplace. I wish he gave me a wedding ring, so I could throw it into the flames. “Who is she?”
“Amber Rogers.” He doesn’t try to deny it at all.
“The former queen?” I hate the way my voice accelerates upward with my anger.
“The deposed queen, yes.” Nathan still doesn’t seem to grasp that he’s done anything wrong. That he’s hurt me in any way.
But has he? When I think about what I saw in the driveway, I can’t tell if my feelings are hurt, or just my pride.
“Did she go to London with you?” I ask, folding my arms over my chest.
