CHAPTER ELEVEN
CLAIRE
I should bedouble-checking that the hospitality suite for all the influencers scheduled to arrive today is fully stocked. Or preparing their welcome baskets. Or going over the schedule for tonight’s tree-lighting ceremony.
Instead, I’m at my desk, staring out the frosted window and trying not to spiral over last night’s revelation.
Declan is Joshua’s father.
And I slept with him.
Hell, I did more than sleep with him. I let him see the parts of me I usually keep locked up tight. I let him bite me. Spank me. Use me. Told him my deepest fantasies.
For one glorious night, he fulfilled each and every one of them.
I’ve often imagined running into him again. Played out different scenarios in my head. What I’d say. Whathe’dsay. Whether he’d still look at me with the same heat in his gaze.
Now I know he would.
But I never expected it to be like this.
Never expected for him to be Joshua’s father.
The door creaks open, pulling me out of the same circular thoughts I’ve been stuck in since last night. Genevieve stepsinside carrying a long silver bag I can tell holds a bottle of wine. Her growing belly protrudes beneath her wool coat, and she has a permanent glow that has nothing to do with the chilly temperatures outside.
“Oh, you’re here,” she says, surprised to see me in my office. “I figured you’d be running around like crazy to get things ready for tonight. I just wanted to leave this for you.”
She sets the bag on my desk.
“Thanks, Gen. I was just checking my email before the day got away from me,” I tell her with a forced smile.
I have pages of last-minute checks I want to do before the thousands of people we’re expecting arrive tonight. But my thoughts keep floating back to Declan. To the moment he stood from the table and the world dropped out from under me.
“Are you okay?” She narrows her gaze on me, scrutinizing my appearance.
I should have known she’d pick up on my unease. Sheismy sister. She knows me better than anyone. Since we were kids, we’ve shared everything with each other. First crush. First kiss. First time having sex.
The only thing I haven’t shared with her is my first one-night stand. I didn’t think it mattered. Didn’t think it would have any impact on my life other than being a night of incredible sex.
How wrong I was.
“I’m just a little anxious about tonight. I need everything to be perfect.”
She pinches her lips together, her analytical gaze continuing to sweep over me. “No, that’s not it. Something else is bothering you.”
I could just brush it off. Tell her I’m tired from all the hours I’ve been working. It’s not a complete lie.
But it’s not the late nights and running on caffeine that’s left me exhausted. It’s the secret I’ve been keeping from her. The one that’s grown much heavier since last night.
“I had a one-night stand when I was in Boston,” I blurt out before I can stop myself.
Her eyes light up, lips curving into a slow grin as she lowers herself into the chair across from me, resting her hand on her stomach.
“Mom was right after all.”
“Maybe,” I groan.
After I got back from Boston, Mom claimed she sensed a change in me. Said I gave off an aura of someone who’d been on a journey of sexual enlightenment.
