The Mogul and the Muscle - Claire Kingsley Page 0,96

I think she already went for a run this morning.”

“Of course she did, she’s crazy. Nicholas was pretty badass yesterday, wasn’t he?”

“He was. I’m glad he was there.”

Nicholas and Inda worked for me, but really, they were so much more. They were my friends. Family, even. I was surrounded by a lot more love than I’d realized. I’d just needed to open my eyes and see it.

“You know, they might want more room if they decide to have kids,” I said. “I bet we could build an extension on their cottage. Add a playroom and a couple more bedrooms. Or maybe combine two of them. The other two never get used. What do you think?”

“I think that’s a great idea. You’re not going to move Bert into the other one, are you?”

“No, why?”

“He’s a magician with plants, but I think I’d feel like a high school kid sneaking around with his girlfriend all the time. He still tells me to have you back by curfew.”

I laughed.

He kept rubbing my arm, his soft touch soothing. “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“Do you want kids?”

I bit my bottom lip. “Yes. Do you?”

“Definitely.”

A giddy sense of joy swept through me. We were really having this conversation. “I actually want more than one. I grew up alone and it wasn’t all bad, but… I want at least two.”

“Good,” he said. “Because we’re going to make fucking adorable little redhead babies. It would be a shame to stop at one.”

I laughed and he squeezed me tight against him.

We spent a leisurely morning on the balcony, lying in each other’s arms. We kissed, and touched, and played. Got each other so hot, we started right there in the open, in front of the dolphins and sea turtles in the bay. Moved to the bedroom where our bodies tangled in the sheets. We were insatiable. And so in love.

Eventually hunger of a different sort won out. We peeled ourselves out of bed, dressed, and went downstairs. I took a quick call from Derek, just to get an update on the PR efforts.

“What’s the latest?” Jude asked after I hung up with Derek.

We sat at the kitchen island, the remnants of our midday grazing strewn across the counter. Leftover chicken and Spanish rice, fresh bread with butter and jam, and a perfectly delectable key lime tart Nicholas must have made this morning.

“Things are looking up. Sydney Phillips posted what she’s calling a clarification that’s essentially a retraction without admitting it’s a retraction. And several of the news outlets picked up the story about my charitable foundation.”

“That’s a better angle than Cameron Whitbury the sociopathic backstabber,” he said.

“I didn’t start the foundation for the media attention, but right now I’ll take the good press. Derek said someone interviewed Everly this morning and she charmed their faces off.”

“Sounds like the worst is behind you.”

I swiped my finger through the last of the key lime tart and licked it off. “As long as that video Aldrich has doesn’t get out. That could do more damage than everything else combined.”

“Don’t worry,” he said with a subtle turn of his lips. “That won’t be a problem much longer.”

36

Cameron

I checked Jude’s text. He’d said to meet him outside Beach Burgers at ten. It was an odd place to meet, but he’d said he had some business to take care of this morning. The burger place wasn’t open for another hour, but there was a tiki-hut style coffee bar that sold breakfast burritos, and a food truck parked nearby with a sign that said bubble waffles. Maybe he thought I’d never had street food before.

Of course I had. I wasn’t that fancy.

The sun blazed overhead, and the air felt still, almost no breeze coming off the water. It was going to be a scorcher. I was meeting my friends for DQB after this, so I’d chosen a black and white minidress with thin spaghetti straps. It was adorable, and short, and very much not a business suit. It felt good to tone down the CEO image once in a while.

I’d paired it with my favorite red suede and crystal Jimmy Choos. Because if there was anywhere a girl could wear a pair of red suede and crystal Jimmy Choos, it was Mordecai’s Bistro on a Sunday for Drag Queen Brunch.

Plus, they’d always be my favorite shoes. I’d even left the tiny tracking device Jude had installed. I liked knowing it was there. It gave me a warm fuzzy feeling, like even when we were apart, we