“Kerri, I do. But a couple of shots doesn’t mean somebody’s digging into your life. Most people aren’t going to recognize your name anyway.” This couldn’t really be about her privacy. The kind of people who attracted attention at those events tended to be celebrities. Kerri might have had a privileged upbringing, but she didn’t fit the mold.
“All the same. I’m sorry, by the way,” she said stiffly, “if I’m making you feel like a gigolo.”
He considered pressing for answers, then decided against it. She was obviously hiding something, but she wouldn’t reveal anything until she was ready. He wasn’t prepared to push hard…yet. Timing was everything.
“Well…some aspects of the gigolo thing are okay,” he said. That drew a smile, as he’d intended. But something was definitely going on with her…and he was going to find out her secret.
*
Kerri sighed softly. She was such an idiot. She’d ruined a perfectly nice walk by talking about Elizabeth.
Kerri had wanted to be at the ball. To be in his arms. To dance and laugh and talk with his friends and acquaintances.
But she didn’t want to face her family either. There was no way she could’ve gone when she knew Barron would be at the ball.
Besides, with the confirmation of how poorly The Lloyds Development was doing, she had to be extra careful. She sighed inwardly at how complicated everything had suddenly become. She’d thought it’d be sort of fun to work for the enemy, but she hadn’t expected things to turn out the way they had. If anybody from the Lloyd family figured out who she was, Ethan would have hell to pay. Not because she had anything to do with the current trouble. But they would want a scapegoat, and the only grandchild of Barron Sterling would make a splendid target.
She didn’t want Ethan to suffer because of her.
Her family had already created problems for her, and she didn’t want them to create more. For once she was content with a man. She liked that she didn’t have to micromanage the relationship, including the precise timing of the end. Ethan had obviously already thought about that, and it was nice that he didn’t have any illusions about where things were going. That took the pressure off.
So why did their arrangement leave her vaguely dissatisfied?
Her job was done—well, too—and she needed to move on. She needed something that paid well to continue to build her savings. Having money of her own was the only way to be truly independent of Barron. All the Sterlings kowtowed to his every whim, including his directive to hide what had happened on the day she’d been born…and all because they needed his money.
She took an empty bench and stared at the trees, their limbs swaying in the wind. The scent of fresh grass tickled her nose. Ethan settled next to her.
“By the way, we need to meet with the executive team,” he said. “Make them realize we know how poorly the company’s been run and that the era of doing whatever they want is over.”
“Um, ‘we’?”
He nodded.
“Where’s this going to happen?”
“Houston. I already made the arrangements. First thing Tuesday morning.”
Houston! She shook her head, staring straight ahead. “That’s just not going to work.”
Houston was where her family lived. Going there would be crazy, especially given that she’d spent years avoiding the place. Good god, what if she ran into one of them? Her stomach lurched, and a bitter taste filled her mouth. She knew it was a slim possibility, but irrational fe
ar or not she didn’t want to see any of them. Not her grandfather, not her cousins or aunts or uncles. No one.
They would only end up hurting her, like they had done since…well, forever.
“Your presence is required,” Ethan insisted.
“But why? I’m not an executive, I don’t work for TLD. I’m helping you—temporarily—to balance your load at Global Strategies and your family’s company, nothing more. The executives will pay more attention to you if I’m not there as a distraction.”
“But you’re not. You’re an asset.” He took her hand again. “You have the entire cash flow and balance sheet for the last five years memorized, don’t you?”
She nodded reluctantly. How could she make him understand why Houston was the last place she wanted to visit?
“See?”
She should’ve never told him about her talent. Now that Ethan knew, he wasn’t going to let her demur and stay safe in Virginia.
Still, she couldn’t just tell him no without a good reason, and she didn’t know what would be a sufficient excuse to stay back. “How long are we going to be in Houston?”