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I see it in Bill’s eyes that we’ve moved him closer to believing in our marriage with this conversation. “Just don’t leave it too late. I’d hate for you to miss out on the family you want.”
Jeff joins us and lets me know dinner is ready to be served.
As we stand, a text comes through for me.
Gabriel: The gossip about Adeline is all originating from Black Diamant. They want her out of business.
I glance at Adeline. “I have to make a call.”
She nods and leaves the room with Bill, directing the conversation to questions about how his cancer treatment is going.
My eyes are glued to her ass while I call Hudson.
“I’m in the middle of a date,” Hudson answers the call, drawing my attention back to where it should be.
“This won’t take long.”
“Okay, shoot.”
“You were right about Black Diamant. They’re feeding the gossip on Adeline. I want you to either put them out of business or take them over. I don’t care which.”
Hudson’s main job is to identify risks to my company and execute plans to mitigate them. When I signed my marriage contract with Adeline, I asked him to learn everything there is to know about her company and advise me of potential risks for her. He put Black Diamant, one of her biggest competitors, on his list, but it was only a hunch at the time. Hudson’s gut feelings usually pan out, so I asked him to keeping digging into this; however, he hasn’t been able to substantiate it.
“I’m on it,” he says.
We end the call and I text Gabriel back to thank him. I then head into the dining room to join Adeline and Bill.
I find them laughing over something. Adeline’s eyes meet mine and I take in the flush of her cheeks. She’s still got that just-fucked glow, which causes my gut to tighten as my gaze settles on it.
“Bill was just telling me the story about your mom and that time she traipsed around London with toilet paper stuck to her shoe,” she says.
I sit next to her. “That’s one of her favorite stories to tell.” I reach for the glass of whiskey in front of me. “I’m surprised she hasn’t already shared it with you. She tells anyone who will listen.”
Adeline smiles. “I love that she and I have so many more stories still to tell each other.”
She means every word of that. I sense it in her tone. She’s really taken a liking to my mother, which was evident last night. I can’t deny I like this.
“Reese is one of Gods gifts to the world,” Bill says to Adeline. “Does your mother have any funny stories like this?”
Without intending to, I place my hand on her leg. She looks at me for a brief moment, her forehead creasing slightly, before looking back at Bill. “My mother isn’t like Jameson’s,” she says softly. “If she has any funny stories like that one of Reese’s, they were from before I was born, and I’ve never heard them.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Bill says gently.
Jeff serves dinner and we change the subject after that, keeping things light.
Adeline is the perfect partner tonight, entertaining Bill with stories about the people she met in her modeling days. Bill’s an Elton John fan and is delighted to hear about the night Adeline met him, not to mention the times she met Bruce Springsteen and Chris Martin.
Over dessert, he brings up the Brown deal. The property deal that involves sensitive information about a building that will be coming up for sale in a month. Don Brown, a friend of Bill’s, gave him the information a few months ago, detailing everything we need to make a successful bid. I’d prefer Adeline not be privy to this information. In the past, I’ve had people close to me attempt to screw me out of deals after they’ve discovered important details. These days, I never allow anyone to know anything. Bill is aware of this, so including her in the conversation is his way of testing me.
If the way he leaves my penthouse after dinner with a smile on his face is anything to go by, we passed tonight’s tests.
Adeline finishes saying her goodbyes and looks at me. “I’ve got some work to do.” With one last smile at Bill, she walks toward her office.
Bill meets my gaze. “Is Adeline okay? She seemed a little off tonight.”
He’s right; she did. However, that could be due to the fact I fucked her right before he arrived. And the fact she was furious about not being made aware of this dinner earlier.
“She’s had a stressful day. She’ll be okay.” I have no idea if her day was stressful, but she did say she’s having the week from hell, so I’m guessing it was.
