He’s pulling me into his arms so quickly my head spins. “I love you, Jaclyn Gallant, with all my heart. You’ve made me the happiest man in the world.” His kiss is everything I never knew I needed. He pours all his love, devotion, and concern into the kiss, and when we break apart, I even feel different—whole—like he said earlier.
“Now go get dressed so we can get rid of Adrian. My brother is not the person I want to spend tonight with.”
“Yes, Daddy,” I sass, because I can. He raises his eyebrow and laughs.
“You’re going to be a handful, aren’t you, little bit?”
I nod. “Maybe even two.” I love that I can make him laugh, and he’s still chuckling as he closes the door behind him.
Looking around, I don’t see my suitcase anywhere. It’s got to be in the closet, right? When I open the door and peek in, my suitcase is leaning on one of those stands you see in hotels. My clothes are hanging there, next to Andrew’s. When did he have time to do all of this? The girls and I didn’t take that long to get me ready.
After pulling a pair of jeans and a T-shirt off the hangers, I toss his T-shirt onto the bed for later and drag on my clothes. Shit! The hickeys! I need to do something with my hair, anyway, since I didn’t dry it, so I step into the bathroom and turn on the light, wincing when I see what a mess I am.
At least this time, I’m not doing an impersonation of a trash panda. But still, yikes. Damn, even my toiletries are all unpacked, and a scrunchy is in the same drawer as my brush. My hair is thick, kind of wavy, so when I don’t blow it dry, it has a mind of its own—like now. Luckily, over the years, I learned how to tame the beast, and dragging it into a messy bun on top of my head is the easiest.
With my hair up, you can see four hickeys on my neck. Holy shitshow. Is he really a vampire? My breasts are covered with them, too, but thankfully, you can’t see them through the shirt. I nibble my bottom lip, trying to decide whether it’s worth the effort to try to hide them, and decide, fuck it. I have a feeling this won’t be the only time I’m walking around like I have purple polka dots covering me.
After one more check in the mirror and a teeny pep talk, I grow a pair and head down the hallway to see what is going on.
I don’t try to be quiet, but I’m barefoot, so it just happens, but they’re on to me quickly. All I manage to overhear is the fucktard’s name. Whatever is going on is about JNG.
“Hi Jaclyn, sorry to interrupt dinner,” Adrian says. I don’t know him well, and I can’t tell if he’s lying to save my life. This is one reason I chose contract law. Can you imagine me questioning people on the stand? What a fucking disaster.
“It’s okay, we were just having dessert.” As soon as I say the words, I want to swallow them back down. My cheeks heat, and I know I look guilty. So much for calm, put-together me.
“Come sit, baby.” Andrew pulls me onto his lap when I move close enough.
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” I bite the inside of my lip because even though Andrew said it was nothing, I need to hear it for myself.
“I told you, I would. Do you remember us telling you about Tristan?” Andrew asks.
“Yeah, vaguely. It’s all sort of mixed up with the feds and David and getting married.” I sigh. Usually, I’m more on top of things. Details are my life and make me great at my job.
“Want me to explain?” Adrian asks.
“Go ahead.”
Before he can start, his phone buzzes. He pulls it out to check, and while we wait, he clicks through a few screens. I lean into Andrew, soaking up his warmth, as Adrian sends off a few text messages.
“Problem?” Andrew asks, his eyebrow quirked. Oh, I know that look well already.
“Got it handled.” Adrian nods. Whatever the heck that means.
“Now, where were we? Oh yeah. Here’s the basics. When you wrote to Andrew, it alerted us to a problem with the contracts, specifically Enki Inc.’s contracts. I called an associate—Tristan—who did a deep dive for us. Taking the information you found and what you told us about Mercier, he tracked down more than enough to pinpoint the issue and those involved. Sure, the asshole alerted the feds the other day, but it was solely to cover his ass. He made several mistakes, the biggest one was trying to implicate you and my brother.”
“So, does that mean I’m not under investigation anymore? I can go back to work?” A tiny flame of hope burns deep in my chest, and when Andrew covers my hands with his, I realize I’m clenching my fingers. Trying to rein in my excitement is so hard, as I wait to hear whatever else Adrian has to say.
“Yes, that’s exactly what it means,” Adrian answers.
Yes! I don’t know how I refrain from bouncing up and down in Andrew’s lap.
“There’s more, baby,” Andrew says against my ear.
“A joint taskforce from the FBI and Homeland Security took Mercier into custody this morning. You’re in the clear. I’ve already heard from our attorneys that they want to take statements from all of us. The legal department will work with the task force to make the arrangements. Jaclyn, I know you don’t know us very well yet, but we protect our own, and the truth always comes out.”
His own? Is this what being part of a family feels like? I want to jump off Andrew’s lap and hug Adrian for all his help, but I doubt my possessive Daddy would appreciate it, so I keep my relieved butt exactly where it is, in my husband’s lap.
“Thank you so much. I don’t know what to say. It had to be a lot of work. I still can’t believe I was the only one to see the discrepancies.” It’s hard to believe none of my coworkers bothered to review any of the contracts for irregularities.
