Or she could do nothing.She could stand here and sip her champagne while the party moved around her.The people moved around her.She could stand and smile and wait for Cash to reappear.She could ignore the signs that she’d seen before.The slightly rumpled shirt.The way his lips looked freshly kissed, even though she hadn’t been kissing him.The scent of someone else’s perfume hanging in the air around him.
She could pretend she didn’t notice.
Pretend she didn’t know what Lorelei had told her.
Just like her mother did with her father.
But she had never wanted to be her mother.
Turning felt like an out-of-body experience.Like someone else was in control of her body, moving her like a puppet through the crowd.The smile on her lips felt brittle, as if it might crack at any moment.No one stopped her.They moved around her like pretty decorations, flowing without purpose.
By the time she reached the door to the hall, there was no turning back.She knew it deep in her heart, even though part of her was still begging her to turn around.To walk away.To go back to the party and back to pretending.Because this was going to change everything.
ChapterOne
Six MonthsLater
Audrey
Looking around the lobby of Black Fox Security while she waited for her brother, Audrey felt a rush of exhilaration.She was really here and not just to visit.No longer under her parents’ thumb.No longer dodging Cash’s calls and impromptu visits.No more pretending.
The lobby of the security firm was spacious and quiet since it was a Saturday.No one was working.She was looking forward to meeting his team, though, at the welcome party he and his girlfriend, Cassidy, were throwing for her tonight.It looked like a regular lobby—not that she knew what security firm lobbies were supposed to look like.But she hadn’t been expecting something like an accounting firm.
She was leaning her elbow on the counter of the receptionist’s desk—it was two-tiered, with the desk part lower than the counter side where she was standing—facing the hallway David had gone down.There were a few small piles of fliers and cards for local businesses on the counter.Audrey wasn’t sure how much foot traffic security firms got, but maybe she should bring something in for her bakery once it opened.
At the very least, it wouldn’t hurt to go around to other businesses in the area and see if they would let her leave some kind of flier or card.It was a good idea.The kind of thing she needed to be thinking about now that she was opening her own business.She needed to make it work.While her grandfather had left her a hefty trust fund, she only had access to a small part of it right now.The rest would come to her after her parents passed.As frustrated as she was with them right now, that wasn’t a day she was looking forward to.
Which meant she had a safety net for the future, but it wouldn’t be there to catch her in time if she was one of the businesses that failed in its first five years… which was something like fifty percent of businesses.Almost twenty percent failed in the first year.
Stop thinking about that.Visualize success.Visualize people loving your baking and coming in regularly.Visualize all the special event cakes you’re going to make and how happy you’re going to be here in your new life.
Yes.
She could do this.
She was a damn good baker, and she knew it.She was smart.She could figure out the business stuff.
“I can do this,” she muttered under her breath as the door to the office beeped, the same sound it had made when David had used his keycard to get in.Audrey jumped, straightening and turning.She felt her eyes widen as one of the most gorgeous men she’d ever seen in real life came through the door.
Even though he must have seen her through the glass, he still looked surprised to see her there.
Tall, broad-shouldered, with a swimmer’s muscled build that made his body look like an upside-down triangle.The grey turtleneck he was wearing hid whether he had that hot little ‘v’ at his hips, but Audrey would bet her bakery that he did.The wire-rimmed glasses did nothing to detract from the handsomely sculpted lines of his face.Tanned skin, black hair, black piercing eyes… he looked like a model, not a former military turned security guy.
But that’s exactly what he was.
It took a moment for her floundering brain to recognize him from the pictures David had sent her of his team.He looked different out of uniform and with the hair on top of his head grown longer.
Mason.That was his name.The one who liked baklava.
“Mason?”She beamed at him, trying to cover up her immediate reaction—which would have been full of drool if she hadn’t controlled herself—with the bubbly excitement of meeting one of David’s team members.In fact, David had often referred to Mason as the closest thing he had to a best friend.“Oh my God, it’s so nice to finally meet you!”
Taking several steps forward, Audrey flung out her arms.If she hugged him, he wouldn’t be able to see her expression, and she could have a moment to control herself.Sure, she’d seen plenty of handsome men in real life, but there was something aboutthisman that was affecting her in an entirely different way.Cash had never made her feel an immediate surge of lust when she looked at him, and he was incredibly handsome.
If looking at Mason had been good, touching him was electric.He was taller than her, even in her heels, and rock hard.Granted, her brother was rock-hard muscle when she hugged him, too, but this was nothing like hugging her brother.Mason was slimmer, with leaner muscles, and it felt like her entire body lit up.
Touching him might have been a mistake.Now, she didn’t need to just get her face under control; she needed to get her whole damn body under control.
“Audrey?”He didn’t sound certain, and she realized he hadn’t immediately recognized her.
