“I could get used to this,” he says as his heavy eyelids close.
“What?”
“You being the very last thing I see at night and the very first thing in the morning.” He peeks one eye open at me to see my reaction.
I’m sure my cheeks heat up and I tease, “Isn’t that romantic?”
“Yeah, I thought you’d like that one.” Now Theo yawns, and as if picking up on his lead, I yawn, too. “Alright, now we actually need to get some sleep.”
He doesn’t need to tell me again. Succumbing to the delicious exhaustion of my body and the warm presence of him next to me, I barely make out the sound of his whispered ‘goodnight’ before I slide into a deep sleep.
Theo
“Theo?”Whitney asks from my doorway once I hang up my phone call. I look up to see her frowning at me. “What is this meeting on the schedule before lunch? I don’t remember putting it there, and there are no details.”
She wouldn’t remember, since I was the one who called the last-minute meeting with the Board of Directors. My eyes dart down to the manilla folder Chase delivered to my desk yesterday. She also wouldn’t know that the individual I was just speaking with was a liaison from the FBI’s corporate fraud division.
What Chase’s PI uncovered during his investigation was enough to make sure that Elena and the other two members of the Board who were involved in this white-collar crime are locked away and tried for their transgressions.
Once Chase handed me the smoking gun, it took very little time to get everything rolling into motion. I had scheduled the emergency meeting with the Board of Directors, knowing that the FBI would be hot on my tail, arriving to arrest Elena and the other two.
I stand up out of my chair and button my suit jacket, holding Whitney’s gaze. “Yes, I scheduled that.”
She blinks but then nods, catching the severity of my tone that I mean business. “With the Board of Directors?”
I nod. “Yes.”
“To go over?—”
“My ninety-day review, among other things,” I tell her, hoping she’ll catch on to what I’m saying without saying.
When her face pales, I know she’s on the right track. Whitney steps further into my office and then closes the door behind her. “Are you saying what I think you are?”
My lips twist in a smirk. “Perhaps. Are you thinking that I’m going to call Elena out on her shady bullshit in front of the rest of the Board?” Her lips fall open, but I don’t give her a chance to say anything yet, but my smirk widens. “Then yes, I am saying precisely that.”
She rolls her lips into a thin line, and I can see the wheels of her brain piecing together everything she just heard. “And your review? Have you finished everything?”
I dip my chin. “Everything that matters at this point. With Elena potentially out of my hair and no longer breathing down my neck, I’ll be able to have a little more time to complete everything I want to complete. Without the threat of a deadline looming over my head.”
“So, this is really it then? You found enough dirt on her that you can confidently say she was involved?”
“Yes. Her, Maxwell, and Kurt. They will all be terminated, effective immediately, after the meeting today. And I’m sure our good friends at the FBI will have a number of important questions to ask them.”
“Three of them?” Whitney asks, shock evident on her face now as I list off the members whom the personal investigator foundto be involved.
I nod my head grimly. “Indeed.”
“That’s—” She runs her hand over her neck, shaking her head as if at a loss for words. “That’s insane.”
“It is,” I agree. “Which is why I couldn’t sit on this any longer than necessary. After today, we’ll begin the search for new members to join our Board of Directors and hopefully move forward and past this indiscretion.”
“I think that sounds wonderful,” she says.
I clear my throat. “Additionally, I think today would be a good time to announce that we are going to start seeing each other.”
Again, her lips fall open, and her chest rises with a deep breath. “You think?”
I move forward then, walking across the length of my office to where she’s still standing by the door. When I’m close enough, I reach out and take her hand, threading our fingers together. She watches me with wide, wistful eyes. “I don’t think I can go another day without the world knowing you’re mine.”
