Warm. Solid.
Familiar.
My breath stops.
Nick.
Nick?
He stands beside me like he’s been doing it every day for a lifetime.
Broad shoulders in a perfectly tailored charcoal suit, jaw clean-shaven, blue eyes steady and unreadable—but softer than I remember. Softer in a way that hurts.
“Sorry, I’m late, sweetheart.”
Barclay blinks. His date’s mouth falls open just a little.
He extends his hand coolly. “Dominic Delacour.”
Barclay shakes it like he’s gripping a live wire. “Delacour?”
“Yes.”
Nick kisses my temple.
I can’t move. I can’t speak. My body goes utterly still, like I’ve been struck from the inside out.
Is Dominic even his real name or another alias? Is Nick short for Dominic?
“You…ah….” Barclay clears his throat, visibly rattled. I’ve never seen him like this. “Oh my God. You’re the new?—”
“Senior Vice President of Strategic Operations at Sentinel Group,” Nick supplies calmly.
Even I have heard of Sentinel Group. They’re one of those firms people mention carefully—private, well-funded, and trusted with problems that never make the news.
Barclay looks just as shocked as I am to have Nick…Dominic—whoever he is—touching me again. For a moment, I wonder if he knows about the baby, and that’s why he’s here.
I reject that thought immediately. How would he know? I barely know.
“Right. Yes. Of course.” Barclay laughs weakly. “And you’re with?—”
“Enya,” he finishes. “We’ve been dating for a while.”
Barclay is having trouble with that concept. So am I. I was dating Nick Smith for a while. I have no idea who this Dominic Delacour is. And why does that last name sound so familiar?
“Dominic, it’s a pleasure.” Now, Barclay’s date is clamoring for Nick’s attention. “You know, I worked quite closely with Senator Mount on your brother-in-law’s federal judgeship.”
I’ve lived in D.C. my entire life. I know how to put two and two together—and I finally do.
Delacour.
Daisy Delacour. Hollywood producer married to Forest Knight, a California Supreme Court justice who’s expected to run for governor.
The same judge who famously shut down the Senate hearings when they turned ugly, who refused to let senators take swingsat his wife, and walked away from a federal appeals court nomination without looking back.
This is not an alias, a legend—Nick is Dominic Delacour, related to the Knight family, one of the wealthiest in America.
And he’s my baby daddy.
