But still… Wouldn’t it be great to be loved? Have somebody she could come home to? Someone she could love and support, who would love and support her back?
“So are you going to resume house-hunting?” Ethan asked.
“Yes,” Alex said with a sigh. “The realtor said she’d send a list.”
“There’s no way I’m moving once I’m pregnant,” Natalie said. “Well, I guess technically I could, but I’d rather be moved in and settled first, you know? This place just isn’t going to work. The entire condo complex was designed for working professionals, not families with young kids.”
“I had no idea you wanted to start one so soon,” Kerri said. This was a different side of Natalie, one she’d never seen before.
“We don’t,” Alex said firmly. “I want her to myself for a while, but we were thinking maybe in a couple of years.” Alex toyed with a loose strand from Natalie’s chignon and she smiled indulgently at him.
Their easy intimacy created a lump in Kerri’s throat, made her heart constrict with longing.
But a relationship asked too much, especially if she wanted something like what Natalie had. She’d have to strip the protective armor from around her heart and gamble in a big way. Not possible. She’d done that and more with her family, but they’d rejected her for eighteen years. Granted her family had some justification, but they were still flesh and blood, supposedly unbreakable ties.
Romance came with none of that. Men like Ethan… She stole a quick glance at him. He’d want someone who could be everything he needed her to be. Go to social functions with him. Be relaxed and fun and cool and sexy and incredibly self-assured with him, his friends and family. Kerri knew she couldn’t meet the requirements, and she suspected that deep inside he knew it as well. That was why he’d proposed a temporary arrangement.
She picked up her glass and took a sip. She’d do well to remember a temporary affair was exactly what she wanted too.
*
Late that night, Ethan slipped out of bed, then stopped on the way to his study and looked in on Kerri. He eased the door open and saw she was on her side, her slim back curved. She’d been unusually quiet and pensive after the dinner, and Ethan hadn’t been able to figure out why. He thought she’d be happy to spend time with her best friend and her husband.
Ethan might never be able to figure Kerri out.
Sighing, he went to his study and sprawled in the leather chair at the desk. He dialed the team he’d hired to track down Jacob for a status update.
“Still nothing?”
“Sorry. Not a bleep,” Pattington said.
Ethan frowned. This wasn’t like Jacob. How much cash had he taken to last this long without using his credit card or accessing an ATM for more money? From what people had said, he hadn’t cleaned out the accounts he held jointly with Catherine. Did he have some secret stash no one knew about?
“But he’s bound to turn up sooner or later,” Pattington said. “We’ll keep an eye out.”
“Okay.” Ethan pulled up the paperwork Kerri had filled out. “By the way, I want you to check on something else.”
“Sure.”
“I have an employee looking into some sensitive stuff. I should’ve done a background check before hiring her, but better late than never, right?”
“Of course,” the man replied diplomatically.
Ethan gave Pattington Kerri’s full name, social security number and other pertinent information. “Be discreet. Email me what you find.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Don’t let anybody know you did this. Send the bill for this job directly to me. Got it?”
“Understood.”
Ethan leaned back in his chair. What would he do if Gavin was right about Kerri’s family?
He knew for a fact that Kerri hadn’t tried to lure him in. He had pursued her, not the other way around.
The notion didn’t fit with her personality, either. She was too efficient to spend over seven years on a project with such an uncertain outcome, especially considering the fact that she could have latched onto him immediately after their first one-night stand.
And if the Sterlings really were trying to infiltrate TLD, it would have made more sense to use a woman who was completely unrelated. Why take the risk of having a