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He released her, the disappointment clearly evident on his face. “That’s too bad. For me, not for him. How are the boys?”
“Good. Actually, I have to get back to my friends.”
“Of course. Of course. Say hi to Theo and Josiah for me.”
They didn’t have a clue who he was.
She nodded. “Will do.”
He squeezed her wrist.
She stepped around him, headed back to the table, and reclaimed her seat next to Tayler. Joel continued to stare in the direction of the restrooms.
“Somebody you know?” he asked.
She resisted the urge to turn around. “Somebody I used to know.”
Adrían Queirós used to work out of a massive office space down the hall from hers. She never entirely understood what he did, but he’d been successful at it from the looks of things.
One afternoon, Adrían stopped in to introduce himself because he was new to the building, and he ended up staying and chatting and playing with Theo for close to an hour. She’d thought nothing of it or about him. He was attractive, and she’d noticed, but that was it.
They ran into each other again in the building’s café during lunch. A few days later, when he didn’t spot her in the café, he brought up a container of food, which she’d appreciated because she’d worked through lunch and had been breastfeeding at the time.
After that, they regularly spent lunch together. She let him know she was a recent widow and not looking for anything serious, and he told her he’d recently ended a long-term relationship himself.
A month later, he kissed her in the parking lot. She’d craved human touch, human comfort, so she kissed him back.
It kept happening, going from lips lightly brushing in the tenuous space between pleasure and guilt, to open-mouthed and desperate within a matter of weeks.
One month, Gage flew in and took Josiah and Theo back to California to spend time with him, so she and Adrían agreed to meet somewhere outside the office for a late afternoon lunch. That somewhere turned out to be a restaurant in a luxury hotel overlooking the Pacific.
After they ate, they kissed.
And kissed.
Adrían booked a room, and they had sex for the first time.
When Theo was with the nanny, Adrían was with her in her office. On the days she didn’t have Theo, despite those days being few and far between, they had sex in Adrían’s office and, eventually, at his Maui estate.
Then, one morning, she woke up in his arms and found him staring down at her. After gracing her with a soft smile, he’d said,“Ayesha? I’m afraid I might be falling in love, querida.”
So,they broke things off.
That same week, he shut down his office.
After that, she never saw him again.
* * *
Dmitri Sokolov continued his search, for the first time regretting the nine-bedroom estate he called home—technically, one of his homes—in Santorini, Greece. Nine bedrooms and seven bathrooms gave his woman too many places to hide, and while he did enjoy the games they played, he could feel that Sydney wasn’t hiding because he’d find her naked somewhere.
“Dorogaya,” he called. “Where are you hiding, my love?”
He stood outside the next bathroom he came to and placed his ear against the wall. He heard what sounded like someone in pain, so he dragged the door open.
There she was.
Sydney was sitting tucked in a corner, her face so wet with tears that, at first, he thought it was sweat.
