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"I have to find the right time."
"He’s going to think that you’re ashamed of him. What is Daddy dearest going to do? Disinherit his only child?" There was a note of impatience in his voice.
"I don't want him to be disappointed in me." She confessed.
"Ah. The whole approval thing. You’ve done everything they wanted since you were growing up." He gave her a curious look. "I‘m going to play devil's advocate and ask you this - is it just rebelling? Being with Maxwell- is it just a case where you’re throwing off comfortable and putting on danger?"
"How can you ask that?"
"I’m sure you’ve asked yourself the same thing. You’ve always been a good girl, doing everything that Daddy wants and not making any waves. This could be a form of rebellion."
She looked away for an instant, eyes landing on the exquisite Ming vase in the middle of the elegant pinewood table. It’d been her mother's favorite as well. Surrounded by it all, she could feel her mother's presence and took comfort from it.
"I love him." She said quietly as she looked back at her friend. "I thought it was that at first, a way to break out of the mold, but it's not that." She smiled slightly. "I didn’t want to fall in love with him because he isn’t my usual type, but I couldn’t help it.
Something about him, perhaps it's the hardship he went through or that he speaks whatever is on his mind, just appeals to me. I rarely say what I’m thinking, but he’s different. He doesn’t care about offending anyone. He’s fearless and tough, but there’s a side to him that only I’m allowed to see."
She paused and reached for her glass of lemonade. "A gentle side, he’s baffled by it, but he can’t help himself." Taking a sip, she put the glass away. "I love him so much it’s like an ache inside my heart."
Michael stared at her for a moment and then nodded. "I’m convinced. The question is this - what are you going to do about it?"
She laughed shakily. "If it turns out I’m mistaken and he isn’t making love to that woman in his bed, I am going to find the right time to tell Daddy."
"My advice- do so before it's too late."
Chapter 7
He swallowed the painkillers even though he didn’t like them, but the headache felt like someone was hammering inside his temple with a red-hot poker. He’d contemplated calling her several times, but was angry she was judging him without knowing the details.
He was also upset that she would think he was screwing around on her after the weekend they’d spent at the cabin.
He wasn’t in the mood to call and soothe her flustered nerves and the temper he’d witnessed on her exquisite face. He wasn’t going to call her up and try to placate her, like he was a child. He was an adult and not accustomed to explaining his actions.
Feeling the weight of her disapproval or anger was getting to him. He was having a bitch of a headache, wasn’t he? He‘d screwed up several emails he had tried to write. On top of that, he’d sat in the meeting with his CFO and had drifted off enough for the man to call out his name and ask if he was okay.
Damn her! She was the one who insisted on this secrecy, not him. She was the one to be blamed for all of it, all because she refused to stand up to her old man.
He’d promised to stay in the background, didn’t he? He refused to put away the rest of his life as well. What did she expect him to do? Not go out in public with a friend? Well, to hell with her! He was going to-
The buzzing of the intercom had him spinning towards his desk.
“Yes.”
“Your two p.m. is in Conference Room B.”
“I need two minutes.”
“Right sir.”
Releasing the button, he sat behind his desk and leaned his head back wearily. The painkillers weren’t working fast enough and he had a meeting with several people from out of town. He was going to need his wits about him.
A crisis had come up in New York and he might have to fly out there to sort things out. His company hired the best in the industry and the training and background information they gathered were extensive. But somehow, someone had slithered through the cracks and had stolen some items from a highly placed government official.
It would require his apology and assurance that something like that would never happen again. The perpetrator had been caught and was now awaiting sentencing. Sensitive Government documents had also been tampered with. That could never happen again.
He was going to make sure that all the leaks were plugged. He was scrupulous when it came to his company. He’d worked too hard to build it from scratch to allow anyone or anything to destroy that.
As for the woman he’d fallen hopelessly and helplessly in love with – that was another matter altogether. He couldn’t deal with those jagged emotions right now.
