Sweet Heart (The Hearts of Sawyers Bend #2) - Ivy Layne Page 0,72

lunch with Daisy. I had my priorities straight.

“I'm ready. Picnic or my office?”

“You haven't been outside lately?” she asked. I shook my head. I'd had my face buried in a monitor for the last half hour and hadn't bothered to look out the window. “It's pouring. I'm voting for your office.”

“Works for me.”

I took the bag from her, sliding my arm around her shoulder. She fit into my side perfectly, keeping pace as we crossed the lobby to the stairwell. Sterling and Forrest were gone from the restaurant.

I reminded myself to mention their lunch to Daisy. She wasn't close to Sterling like she was with Hope, but they were friendly and getting closer since Daisy was around Heartstone so much. Maybe she'd have a perspective more evolved than, ‘Get your hands off my sister!’

Scratch that, there was no maybe about it. Daisy was intelligent and she was a good listener. I was already in the habit of running things by her. She was good at reading people and seeing to the heart of a problem.

Just before we got to the door on the office level, I stopped, turning Daisy to back her against the wall.

She blinked up at me, feigning confusion. “Did you forget something?”

“I did. This.” It had been hours since I'd last kissed her. I didn't want to wait another minute. Sure, I could have kissed her in my office. I had before, spending hours with her settled in my lap in my desk chair or stretched out on the couch after dinner. But Penny was at her desk and I didn't want to scandalize Daisy. No kissing in the office during work hours. The stairwell, on the other hand…

Daisy melted into me with a low moan, her lips parting, tongue sneaking out to stroke mine. I'd never get tired of kissing her, of the way she gave herself over to me without hesitation. I could have kissed her for the rest of the afternoon, but I had a meeting at Heartstone in a few hours, and she had to be back at the bakery long before that.

Lifting my head, I absorbed her dazed expression. “Ready for lunch?” I asked, stroking a spiraling curl that had sprung free from her barrette.

“Mmmhmm.” She nodded but stood there, staring up at me.

“Do you want me to kiss you again first?”

“Mmmhmm.”

Lunch could wait. Kissing Daisy came first. See, didn't I say I had my priorities straight?

I don't know how long we might have lingered in the stairwell, kissing and letting our lunch go cold. With Daisy in my arms, her lips soft and giving under mine, I wasn't in any rush for food. I was thinking about sneaking her into an empty room—something that occurred to me pretty much every time we had lunch in my office—when the heavy stairwell door flew open and a tall figure in sneakers and an Inn uniform came barreling past us, long blond hair sticking out from beneath her Inn cap.

I knew in an instant that this was not one of my people. Like the man who'd bumped me earlier, something about her was familiar but not as one of my employees. The Inn had a big staff, and Tenn and I knew every single one of them. Not just their names, but who they were—hobbies, families, pets.

The problem was I couldn't place either the man in the stairwell earlier or the woman flying down the stairs. They seemed familiar, but that was as far as I got. The only thing I knew for certain was that neither of them should have been wearing an Inn uniform, and there was no reason for anyone to be in the admin suite who didn't work there.

I stepped in front of Daisy, shielding her with my body as I pushed open the door. At first, everything looked normal. Penny's desk was vacant, not unusual since Daisy and I had been delayed in the stairwell long enough to push into Penny's lunch break. Ditto for Tenn, who'd planned to head out for a run during his lunch break.

The reception area was quiet. Tenn's office door was shut, but mine was open. The faint sound of a moan drifted to us, low and undeniably male. A thump followed, and another moan. Pain. Keeping Daisy behind me, I started for my office.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

royal

Daisy, call West,” I ordered, dropping to my knees beside Forrest's prone body.

“I'm fine, I'm fine,” he tried to say, the words cut off as he braced his