He grinned. “What do you want me to call you at work? Ms. Greer? Mrs. Grayson? Darling?”
She walked out without answering and returned to her desk. She made a quick call to an old friend. He knew how to dig up information better than a private investigator. She asked him to find everything he could on Poppy, especially on the years before she met and married a Grayson.
Let Poppy try to destroy her reputation.
If that gold-digging woman wanted war, Katie would do her best to give her one. In the meantime, she’d arm herself with enough ammunition to knock out a third world country. Poppy wouldn’t know what hit her.
♥♥♥
After Katie returned to work, they fell into a nice routine, and for a short time he forgot to be miserable. He even forgot how much he loathed the idea of marriage. She worked with him three days each week and then returned to the lake house by herself for two days. He joined her every Friday night and stayed the weekend before traveling back to San Francisco with her in the car behind him. He would have liked for her to sit beside him inhiscar, but she needed hers since she drove herself back home halfway through each week.
One day he caught himself humming at his desk, and he had to admit that he felt... happy. For the first time in his life, happiness wasn’t dodging him.
He should have known it wouldn’t last.
Chase stared up at his lawyer, speechless. Were his ears playing tricks on him? There was no way the man had said what he thought he’d heard. Sitting at his desk with a dry mouth and pounding heart, he slowly shook his head. A slew of questions crowded his mind, and he didn’t know where to begin. The whole thing just seemed so impossible to him.
“Can you repeat that?” Chase asked. Maybe hehadheard the lawyer wrong.
“We overturned the codicil, Mr. Grayson. You no longer have to produce an heir in order to hold onto your stock. The judge reversed his earlier decision after we presented him with new information.”
Chase spread his hands wide. “So, that’s it? We’re done?”
The lawyer nodded.
“What if my brother or his wife try to get the decision overturned? Can they take me to court and sue for the stock later?”
“There isn’t anything they can do now. The judge’s decision was final, and all the necessary documents have been filed. You are free to live your life however you see fit.”
“I don’t understand. What changed the judge’s mind? What is this new information you found?”
“Your father’s lawyer admitted Theodore Grayson was under duress at the time the codicil was drawn up. He ordered it hours after suffering his heart attack and wasn’t in a good frame of mind.”
Relief flooded Chase’s system, quickly followed by a wave of happiness. Two years of stress and worry instantly evaporated. He felt a hundred pounds lighter. He wanted to go to the roof and shout for joy.
Then reality intervened. His gaze dropped to the gold band on his left hand, and he remembered he had a wife, a possibly pregnant wife. He slammed his desk with a tight fist. “Why the hell didn’t you make this happen before...”
“Before what, sir?”
He grumbled, “Nothing. Never mind. Get out of my office.”
The lawyer left, and Chase caught a glimpse of Katie as his door closed. Sitting at her desk, she tapped a pen against her chin while staring at her computer screen. He wanted her to look his way, but the door shut with a soft click before the telepathic message could reach her.
So many thoughts went through his head that it was impossible to keep them straight. In the midst of it all, Katie’s face. He’d promised her a child. Backing out at this point didn’t seem viable, and it was possible she was already carrying his baby.
He had a few options at his disposal. He could tell Katie the truth and let her decide what she wanted to do about the situation. If she wasn’t pregnant, she might be relieved to forget the whole thing. Another option was going through with the deal and not saying a word. He’d made a promise to her, so he should see it through. They had a contract, after all.
If neither of those choices appealed to him, he could put his foot down and call the whole thing off without asking for her opinion. That was probably what he should do. But first he’d have to make sure she wasn’t already having his baby.
To be honest, he didn’t want a child. He already had enough responsibility, enough people to look after without adding a baby, and he’d make a terrible father anyway.
Chase called Katie to join him in his office via the intercom. He was prepared to tell her they would divorce quietly after the pregnancy test came up negative. She could keep her job with him and forget any of this mess ever happened. Or, if she wanted, he would write a shining recommendation for her and help her find a good job, a better job, somewhere else.
He hoped she was having second thoughts, too.
She entered his office with a slow, sexy walk that wiped away his good intentions. Her sparkling green eyes and wide smile invited him to stare. With graceful movements, her hand set a list on his desk. He remembered those fingers, the feel of them on his heated flesh and the sweet pleasure they so easily wrought.
Their time together couldn’t be over yet. He wasn’t ready for it to end. A startling revelation nearly knocked him out of his cushy high-backed swivel chair. He was falling for his secretary.