Deceived 5 - New Beginnings (2 page)

I pulled back, ignoring my own body’s protests. “No way. You have to work for it now, Mister.” I gave him a teasing look. “That’s what you get for saying that horrible woman’s name in the presence of our unborn child.”

“Really? You’re gonna leave me hanging?” He looked at me with wide, disbelieving eyes.

I moved closer and his face lit up, only to fall again at my words. “Well, if you promise never to say that wretched woman’s name in my presence again, I’ll give you a taste of what you can have tonight.” I circled my arms around his neck and ran my fingers through his hair as I tipped my face up to his.

He put it all into the kiss, his tongue hot and demanding as it plundered my mouth. I could taste his determination to get me to give in, but I wasn’t having it. I was in control at the moment. My teeth scraped against his bottom lip and he groaned. Then I pulled back and the sound he made was one of pure frustration. I licked my lips as I backed away. “To be continued.”

“Come on, babe, that’s just evil.” He gave me a pleading look. “You can’t just leave me like this.”

I wiggled my fingers at him as I reached for the door handle. He gave me a pained expression as he crouched over and slunk back to his desk.

“I’m going to have to hide back here for a bit,” he called after me as I left. “Make sure you close the door behind you.”

I chuckled and shook my head as I pulled the door closed. Wasn’t it just like a man to act like that was the worst pain in the world? Not that he hadn’t deserved it. I ran my finger over my bottom lip, feeling the ghost of his mouth on mine. I wasn’t really mad at him. How could I be? Patrick was the most amazing man I’d ever met and I was the luckiest girl to have married him.
 

As I walked down the hall to my office, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of awe at where my life had ended up. Here I was, working with my husband in a fantastic office in Manhattan, pregnant with our first child. I thought back to all the crazy twists and turns my life had taken, from meeting the Baroness, then going to Paris, and then finally becoming a partner in business with Patrick.

With a start of surprise, I realized that my life was beginning to settle into a comfortable and welcomed routine. Other than my wacky hormones, I was starting to get to the “nesting” phase of pregnancy and I reminded myself to talk to Elyse about helping me with shopping for a baby crib on Saturday. I was undecided about the theme for the baby’s room, too. The stores were brimming with choices and each one I had already looked at was cuter than the next. Some had balloons, some had animals, and others had Disney characters. The choices were overwhelming and I decided I would need Elyse’s good judgment to help me make a decision. When I asked Patrick his advice on the baby’s room theme, he gave me a blank look and wanted to know why there had to be a theme; wasn’t choosing a paint color hard enough? Typical guy. Ryan had countered with choosing all the themes I liked and changing it every couple months. That one was definitely more tempting.

By the time I’d gotten back to my office, my best friend and assistant, Elyse, was there, casually sitting in the black leather chair opposite my desk.

“I was just thinking about you. How do you do that?”

Elyse looked up from tapping her finger on the screen of her tablet and said, “Trade secret.” She set her tablet down in her lap and reached out a hand to touch my protruding belly as I walked past her. She was one of the few people I didn’t mind doing that. “You look so good being pregnant.”

I rolled my eyes. “Ugh. I feel fat.”

“You’re not,” she said firmly. “You look adorable and I’ll kick the ass of anyone who says otherwise.”

“Thanks, hon.” Elyse always could make me smile. “Let’s go shopping Saturday. I need you and your good advice. There’re so many baby themes I can’t decide how to decorate the baby’s room.” I sighed and looked down at my straining clothes. “And I need to pick up some maternity clothes.”

I walked around my desk and sank down into the tall-backed rolling chair. I propped my elbows on the armrests and rested my hands on the swell of my belly. There were so many things I needed to do to get ready for the baby and I hadn’t done much. I was beginning to feel stressed.

“I was thinking jungle theme, or maybe Disney characters…oh, I can’t decide.” Elyse instinctively seemed to know that I’d rather discuss the baby’s room instead of my clothing choices. “I know, let’s go get lunch and Google some baby room ideas so we can go shopping this weekend.”

I looked up at the ceiling as I pondered the various baby themes, imagining different kinds of mobiles hanging over my head. After a few minutes, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Elyse practically bouncing up and down in her chair. I turned my attention back to her, curious.

“You seem antsy. What gives? Are you
that
hungry? We can go to lunch right away if you need to.”

“In a minute, but first I need a small favor.” Elyse’s smile looked about ready to explode out of her.

I sat up straight and leaned forward as much as I could, suddenly sure about what was prompting the behavior. “Do you have a date?”

“Am I that transparent?”

I smiled. “Well, for the past ten minutes, you’ve been scaling that chair like it was Mt. Everest.”

Elyse gripped the arms of her chair and twisted forward, still holding her tablet in one hand. Now I could see it was open to a web site for shoes. “You know those really hot heels you have, the ones with all the straps that zip up the back? I need to borrow them.”

I nodded. I knew the exact pair she had described. They had rows and rows of sexy straps and heels as tall as the Eiffel tower. Elyse and I had been borrowing shoes and clothes from each other ever since we’d first met. The request was actually a precursor to the real story – the guy she wanted to wear the shoes for.

In my state of pregnancy, I wouldn’t be wearing any tall heels for several months to come, but I was definitely interested in hearing about this new prospect Elyse had mentioned. When it came to boyfriends, or potential boyfriends, we’d always had each other’s back and had to run the details by each other before a date. Of course, I had Patrick, so it was all Elyse now.

“Spill it. I want details. Who’s the guy?”

Elyse set aside her tablet as she began her story. “It’s kind of embarrassing because I met him while I was on a date with another guy.” She made a face as she waited for me to say something, but I never judged Elyse and she never judged me. That was one thing I liked about her. No matter what stupid things I had done in the past, no matter what jerk I’d dated or thought I was stupidly in love with, she never made me feel bad about the mistakes I’d made.

“Do tell.” I gestured for her to continue.

“Well,” she began. “It was a really boring date. I met him at happy hour last Friday after work…”

“Wait, is this the red shirt guy or the cop?” I’d heard so many stories lately about guys she’d met, I was confused.

“Red shirt guy. You need to keep up.” She grinned at me. “You never go to happy hour with the old gang anymore, Chloe.”

I glared at her and patted my stomach. I knew she was teasing, but I did miss going out with my friends. They wouldn’t have cared if I’d drank water the whole time, but I would’ve felt awkward, so I stayed away.

She didn’t press the issue. “We were
so
wrong for each other, I just wasn’t feeling it. You know what I mean? And then a friend of his came up to where we were sitting at the bar. I couldn’t take my eyes off him.”

“He’s that hot?” I gave her a knowing look. “What does he do for a living? A male model or stripper?”

She scowled at me for a moment. “Funny. No, actually that’s the crazy part. He’s a race car driver.” Her voice lifted with a slight air of excitement as a smile replaced her scowl.

“Race car driver?” I didn’t try to conceal my surprise. “Really? You mean, ‘race car’ race cars, like
big
race cars?”

“Exactly, like Indianapolis 500 race cars.” She unnecessarily smoothed down her skirt, a gesture I knew very well. “Ricky Bauer. Have you ever heard of him?”

“No, but I don’t exactly follow the racing circuit.”

“Well, he’s a professional race car driver and apparently a pretty good one. And he’s insanely hot.”

“So let me get this straight,” I said. “You’re on a date with this red shirt guy, and you meet his friend, a cool, super-hot race-car driver.” I laughed. “Did he just ask you in front of your date? Or did you do the old ‘slip him your number written on a napkin’?”

She rolled her eyes. “He said he was looking for a promoter to help him find a better sponsor and get more exposure so I sort of gave him my work number.”

“That was slick,” I admitted. “We could definitely help him with promotions.”

“Well, he called yesterday and said he wants to talk business, but we both know what he really wants to talk about.” She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively and I laughed again.

“I don’t know, Elyse,” I said. “These guys have a code.”

“We’ll see about that. Ricky is hot and I’m going for him. He’s mine.” She had that determined tone in her voice that meant it was pointless to argue.

Still, I had to caution her. “All right, just be careful. Race-car drivers are like any other celebrity. They have groupies that they’re used to hooking up with, then forgetting about. I don’t want to see you get burned.”

“Yes, Mom,” she mocked. “You’re really practicing the whole mom thing, you know.” She smiled at me. “But, you know what they say, life’s too short, have fun. Wasn’t that always your motto?”

I thought back to some of my past escapades, especially in Paris, and realized Elyse was right. If I was honest, even when my crazy motto got me in trouble, it had all been worth it, the good and the bad. I had learned and grown richer in experience because of it.

“I guess you’re right,” I admitted. “If I hadn’t followed my heart, I’d probably be living in some middle-of-nowhere Iowa town, married to a fat, over-the-road, gin-drinking truck driver named Curly, who only came home once every three months to see me and the four kids.”

“Six kids.” Elyse corrected me, her expression serious for a moment before we both burst out laughing.

“Come on, Elyse. Let’s go to lunch. Then we can swing by the apartment afterwards and pick up those shoes. Maybe they’ll be as lucky for you as they have been for me.” I stood up from my chair and smiled at her.

Elyse dropped her tablet into her purse and slung the designer bag over her shoulder as we walked to the door. “I know, I know, Patrick is perfect. You have the perfect life and you are going to have the perfect baby.
Yadda
,
yadda
,
yadda
, I’ve heard it all before.”

She said it with a smile and a playful swat on my arm, but I knew that even though she was happy for me, she wanted that for herself, too. And I wanted it for her. She deserved to be as happy as I was.

After lunch, the two of us went to the apartment for my shoes. One of the many things about my married life that I loved was that I no longer had to share an apartment with Andrea, my former roommate. No matter how many times Patrick left the toilet seat up or a wet towel on the floor – which actually wasn’t that often – he still was much neater than Andrea had been.

As Elyse and I rode the elevator to the penthouse where Patrick and I lived, my mind went back to that embarrassing moment when Patrick had met Andrea for the first time. She, in her eternal state of oblivion, had walked out to greet him wearing nothing but her underwear. And I used that term loosely, since she generally bought everything a size too small for her curves. To say it had been awkward would be an understatement, but Patrick had handled the situation grandly.

The tall, heavy door swung shut with a soft puff of air behind us. Elyse smiled and shook her head as we entered the penthouse.

“What? Do you like what I’ve done to the place?” I made a sweeping gesture with one hand and flung my purse onto the small decorative table near the front coat closet with the other.

“I see it still has Patrick written all over it.” Her eyes skimmed over the clean architectural lines of the space, tracking up the brushed steel beams and tall windows, then back down again to the marshmallow white Italian leather couch in the living area.

I shrugged. “I love it. I added a couple of things but mostly it’s still the same.” I paused, then decided I wanted to tell her what every few people knew. Considering she was helping me decorate, it was probably a good idea. “Well, everything except Victoria’s room, of course.”

Before I could take a step into the kitchen, Elyse grabbed my arm, stopping me. “Wait a minute. Victoria? Does this mean…”

“A girl. Yes.” I took both of her hands as I completed her sentence.

She made a decidedly girly squealing sound as she bounced up and down with her usual youthful enthusiasm before throwing her arms around me. “Congratulations! When did you find out?”

“Last week,” I said. “We’d been trying to decide if we wanted to know, and when the doctor said he knew for sure, we asked him to tell us.” I smiled, remembering. “You should’ve seen Patrick’s face, it was so sweet. He’s really excited it’s a girl.”

“He’d better be,” Elyse said, a fierce expression on her face.

I laughed. “Okay, okay. You can let go of my hands now.”

Her enthusiasm was contagious, as if I wasn’t excited enough as it was. Still, no matter how many times I reminded myself that I really
was
pregnant, the realization always hit me like I was hearing it for the first time and I would burst into a wide smile for what appeared to be no apparent reason. The early months of pregnancy had been rather uneventful. Other than some light morning sickness, which I curbed by eating crackers before I got out of bed, my early pregnancy was so unremarkable it sometimes hadn’t seemed real.

“That’s amazing, Chloe, and I
love
the name Victoria.”

I moved to the couch and gratefully sank down onto the soft leather.

“It was Patrick’s suggestion. At first, I wasn’t sure if I liked it. I had to question him, to make sure there were no ex-girlfriends named Victoria.” I chuckled.

Elyse stood next to me, looking down on me as I relaxed back against the brightly colored throw pillows. Now that the news was shared, she seemed almost impatient. I didn’t blame her. She’d always had enviable amounts of energy. It meant she always put a hundred percent into work, but keeping her focused wasn’t always easy.

She motioned toward the master bedroom. “Do you mind if I go find the shoes?”

“Help yourself. I just need a minute here. Being pregnant has its drawbacks. I get tired easily. But knock yourself out.”

She dropped her purse to the floor near the end of the white couch. Best friend duties took priority over shoes. “Can I get you anything? A bottled water, or juice?”

I waved her away. “Nah, you go ahead, search all you want. Just be careful. You might be surprised what you find in there.” I smiled as she traipsed down the long hallway to the master bedroom. When she was about halfway down the hall, I called after her, “Don’t judge me.”

A few beats later, she squealed in delight, “Oh, my God, Chloe. You have an entire shoe store in here.” The last part was muffled as, I imagined, she moved toward the built-in shoe racks at the back end of the walk-in closet.

A couple of minutes went by and Elyse hadn’t surfaced yet so I laid my head back and closed my eyes. Just for a minute, I told myself, just for a minute. But soon, the carbohydrates I’d eaten at lunch lulled me towards drowsiness. What seemed like seconds later, my head jerked and I opened my eyes, startled and a little disoriented. I blinked a couple times and realized I felt a bit better after my little cat nap. Maybe I should incorporate afternoon naps into my workday, I thought, and then I remembered Elyse was still in my closet.

“Hey, did you fall asleep in there?” I called.

The clicking of my shoes on the hardwood floor answered my question, and soon she came strutting her best model walk down the long hallway and out into the living room. She came out wearing not only my shoes, but also one of my dresses.

“What do you think?” She spun around, and then struck a pose. Of course, it looked gorgeous on her. It was a tight, short red dress with a single long sleeve crowned on the shoulder with decorative rhinestones. “Do you mind if I borrow this dress as well?”

 
“Sure. You can borrow anything you like.” I gestured towards my growing body. “I won’t be wearing form-fitting things for quite a while. I think tent-style is more in my future.” I laughed.

She gave me a smile. “Thanks, you’re the best.” She plopped down on the couch next to me. “I’m kind of nervous for tonight. Do you really think he’s just looking for a one-night stand? I mean, you said race car drivers like Ricky have groupies and I don’t want him to think I’m just another air-headed fan.”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. From what you said, it sounds more like a business meeting. Anyway, I’d have to meet him first to say for sure. Who knows? He might be the greatest guy in the world. Well, next to Patrick.” I smiled and rubbed the palm of my hand over my stomach.

“Here’s an idea.” Her face lit up with an idea. The mischievous twinkle in her eye was all too familiar and I waited for what was coming next. “You and Patrick should come to dinner, too. Like you said, it’s business and if you’re going to represent him, I’m sure you’ll want to size him up, see what he’s really all about.”

“Oh, no.” I shook my head. “That’s not part of the deal. Shoes and a dress are enough. Besides, you said yourself he was using the business part as an excuse to take you out. It would ruin the whole thing if Patrick and I showed up.”

“You have to come. I would feel so much better with you there. Please – please – please?”

I sighed melodramatically. “Okay, stop already. I hate to see a grown woman beg.” In truth, I could use an evening out. Who knew how many of those Patrick and I would get once Victoria came. “Just promise me that you’ll let me know if you need some alone time with Mr. Race-car Driver. Kick my leg under the table or something.”

She sat up on the edge of the couch. “Oh, I like that idea. That’ll be our secret signal.”

“You’re a dork, you know.” I tipped my head to the side and gave her a smile. “We’re not spies. It’s just a date.”

“A business meeting,” she corrected me.

“A date,” I insisted.

“Whatever it is, I just want you to check him out.”

I glanced at my watch. “Oh, shit, I gotta get back. Patrick and I have a two o’clock meeting.” With a little difficultly, I pushed myself up from the couch. “Give me the shoes. I’ll find a bag to put them in while you go take off the dress.”

Elyse kicked them off and popped up off the couch with an ease that I envied. “Alright, here. I’ll be just a second.” She rushed off down the hall to change into her own clothes.

I placed the shoes in a bag I found, grabbed my purse and headed to the door. Impatiently, I called down the hall, “Are you coming?”

She laughed as she came trotting out of the bedroom with my dress in her hands. “Yes, of course. Never let a pregnant woman wait.” She handed me the dress and I placed it in the bag. At least it was small enough that it didn’t take up much room.