and decided they could be friends, and for the last eight years, they had.
Since then, she’d remarried a great guy who’d made her happy and they had two kids. Beverly worked for the government as one of the heads of Homeland Security. If she was calling him, that meant...
“Please put her through.”
When he heard the click, he said, “Beverly?”
“Hello, Mercury. How have you been?”
He smiled. “Great, and you?”
“Pregnant again. You know what that means. Morning sickness is kicking my butt, but I’ll survive.”
“Of course you will. You always do.”
“The reason I was calling was to let you know of activity with the names you gave me. A plane carrying Carter Haywood Donahue landed in Phoenix less than an hour ago. He didn’t have any checked luggage.”
Mercury nodded. That meant the man didn’t intend to stay in Phoenix long. “Thanks. I appreciate the information.”
Moments later Mercury stood and reached for his cell phone to let Sloan know her father was in town. Chances were, he’d found out where she lived and would go straight to her place. He quickly changed his mind about phoning Sloan. There was no way he would let her face her tyrant of a father alone.
He had stood and was reaching for his jacket when the buzzer on his desk sounded. “Yes, Pauline?”
“Quade Westmoreland is on line two.”
“Thanks.”
Sitting back down in his chair, Mercury said, “Quade? You have something for me?”
“Yes, man, I do.”
Sloan ended her conference call with the pageant committee feeling excited about what they’d told her. She had two more weeks to enjoy life as she now knew it before her work with them officially began. She had been assigned five countries. All five were now holding their individual pageants that would determine the woman to represent their country in the Miss Universe pageant in December.
She leaned back in her chair and thought about her five days in Dallas with Mercury and the time they’d constantly been together since. More often than not, he would spend the night after taking her to dinner or to the movies or just hanging out at her place watching television. And she’d been invited to his place more than once to spend the night. He’d told her that he’d never invited a woman overnight before.
More than once she wondered if there had been a reason for him telling her that. Had he been insinuating that she was special in some way? That he could possibly love her as much as she loved him? He’d even invited her to attend his parents’ Thursday dinners and she felt right at home. No one had questioned their relationship. It was as if his family was giving them the time they needed to build the relationship they wanted. At least the one she wanted.
Did he?
Mercury saw to her every need, both in and out of the bedroom. She was feeling like a woman who was living the independent life she’d always wanted. She had to answer to no one. And she was involved with a man who understood how much her feelings of self-worth and her happiness mattered. She was free of dependency and she felt like a new person. A person in love.
She wanted to believe the last two weeks were the beginning of something special between her and Mercury. She wanted to believe the more they got to know each other the stronger their relationship would grow.
She wanted to believe she could have both her independence and Mercury, too, because he understood how much not depending on anyone meant to her. He respected her desire for liberation.
A smile touched her lips when she remembered how he’d even helped by allowing her to test her dominance in bed. She’d loved it. He’d loved it. She had a lot to learn and he’d happily volunteered to teach her.
She heard the sound of the doorbell. It wasn’t even noon yet. Who would be visiting her? Mercury had said he would be going into the office this morning to get caught up on work. She then remembered that she had ordered a