Once at the door to my penthouse, I punched in the key code and took off my suit coat, letting the door slam behind me.
"Milo!" I called as I unbuttoned my dress shirt and took off my tie. I heard the dog bark. What was he up to? Normally he ran to greet me when I returned home. For a brief moment, I thought Chloe might have let herself in to surprise me.
Unfortunately, I was having no such luck. There was Hartleigh in my living room, wearing the skimpy lingerie I'd bought for Chloe. She didn't fill it out as well as I knew Chloe would have.
"You need to leave," I told her, furious. "I don't know how you even snuck in here!"
"The security guard gave me the code. I wasverypersuasive," she said.
"I guess some people have low standards," I said coldly.
"You're so bad to me, Jack," she said, trying to walk seductively towards me. "And all I want is to make a baby with you. We could make a Christmas baby. Your parents would be happy."
"You are the last person in the world I would have a baby with," I snapped at her.
"I saw your parents," she told me, her eyes wide. They didn't seem like they were even that focused on me. "Your parents want grandkids. We could do that for them."
"There is no us!" I roared. "You can't keep stalking me!"
She took off the lingerie and stood there stark naked. I didn't feel a thing. Instead, I picked up her coat from the couch and threw it at her.
"Out," I ordered.
She blew me a kiss, put on the coat, and left.
Angrily I walked through my space, furious that she had been there touching my things. I looked at the expensive present I had bought for Chloe. It was lying on the floor. There was no way I could give it to her. I picked it up and threw the lingerie in the trash.
As I tried to force myself to calm down, there was another knock on the door.
"I swear, if that's Hartleigh..."
I wrenched open the door to find Chloe standing there, a big bag in her hand, looking up at me. She seemed a little scared, and I tried to tamp down my anger.
"What do you want?" I asked more harshly than I intended. "I mean…" I blew out a breath. "Sorry. I've had a difficult evening."
"Sounds like it," she said and smiled at me. "Can I come in, or is this a bad time?"
"No, of course." I stepped aside.
"There's a recipe that's been bouncing around my head that I wanted to make for you," she said, walking towards the kitchen.
I took a few cleansing breaths. Chloe was here, but of course I had done something to screw it up. So much for my merry Christmas.
As I joined her in the kitchen, I heard Chloe say angrily, "What's this?"
Oh no.
31
Chloe
When I walked into Jack's kitchen, I emptied out the bag and started laying out the ingredients to chop. I didn't see a muffin tin in my cursory glance through his cupboards, so I ripped the paper off the one I had bought. As I opened the trashcan to dispose of the wrapping, I saw it.
Lingerie.
There was lingerie in the trashcan—a very expensive, very sexy-looking set of lingerie. It was red with white furry edging.
"What is this?" I yelled. Was this why Jack was acting so strangely, why he looked disheveled and half dressed?
