Bet he was working for Alex because that was what he wanted to do, not because he lacked other options. Interesting.
“Seriously Kerri, I think he’d be good for you.”
Kerri sighed, half-amused and half-exasperated. No matter what Natalie said, she knew what was going on. Her friend had decided to play matchmaker. Natalie was smart enough to know Kerri wasn’t looking for anything long-term, so she was aiming for something short-term and fun. Kerri had lots of experience deflecting such attempts, and could deal with Natalie’s rather unsubtle try, but she wished Natalie hadn’t chosen Ethan. He was way too dangerous. Not in an abusive way or anything, but the kind of damage a man like him could do to a woman’s heart could be devastating. Like, no recovery devastating.
Natalie’s expression grew serious. “Hey, I heard about what happened. I can’t believe you fainted.”
“Oh, it wasn’t really anything. Just a spell of tiredness.”
“Twice that I heard of.”
“Okay, which one of the associates opened his big mouth?”
“Not gonna give up my source. But I still have friends and contacts in Hong Kong who feed me the latest gossip.”
Kerri huffed. Natalie had friends alright, lots and lots of them. Everyone knew about her father—a retired U.S. senator—and members of the ambitious set considered it an excellent investment in their future to be on friendly terms with someone so well-connected. Of course most of them didn’t know that she wasn’t all that close to her family. Or at least, hadn’t been until recently. Becoming Mrs. Billionaire tended to reshuffle a lot of things, including family dynamics.
“Have there been other times?”
“What other times?”
“Kerri! What have we been talking about? Your fainting.”
“No.”
“You got it checked out though, right?”
Kerri sighed. “Yes, Mother.”
“Hey, I was worried. You’re not exactly the fainting type.”
“I just forgot breakfast and had low blood sugar a couple of times. That’s all.” Not the full truth, but close enough. She hated fudging with Natalie, but her crappy health wasn’t something she wanted to discuss. She hadn’t flown out to the States to bemoan her horrible cholesterol or half-dead liver or the years of damage the stress from her life as an investment banker had inflicted on her. But she couldn’t really blame her job for all of it. Most of the stress had come from her family. Harried as she’d been at work, it was the job that had kept her sane.
And now she didn’t have that job anymore. Damn Barron. After eleven years, why the need to see her all of a sudden? It wasn’t like they ever had a warm, lovely time together.
But there was no way she would’ve been able to continue at Goldreich Stanley. Not after he’d marched through its expensive lobby like a ram, mindlessly homing in on his target—her.
Barron Sterling always got what he wanted. It was his right as one of the richest men in history, a man who was on a first-name basis with every top politician and kingmaker in the world.
“You’re not even thirty. Skipping breakfast shouldn’t make anybody faint,” Natalie said stubbornly.
“It was on top of a really light dinner the day before. But since you sicced Ethan on me I’m sure I won’t be able to escape with a salad tonight.” Kerri narrowed her eyes accusingly. “He said he’d pick me up for dinner.”
“Good. I asked him to sort of watch over you and keep you amused.”
“Amused, huh?”
“Yes.”
“Why him?”
“Because despite what you said, he’s exactly your type. When you say ‘manageable,’ what you really mean is somebody you can get rid of easily when you’re through. He’s not clingy or emotional. Alex told me he’s never seen Ethan with the same woman for more than a year. And most importantly, you’ll be less likely to call in to check up on things at the office if you have someone to distract you.”
“I’m sure Global Strategies’ second-in-command has better things to do than babysit. But all right.” Kerri raised her right hand. “I solemnly swear I will not call the office to check up on things. Even if I don’t have some man hovering over me.” She didn’t have an office to call, of course, but she didn’t want to talk about that with Natalie right now. They could do the whole info-dump face-to-face after her honeymoon.
Natalie shook her head. “The problem is I don’t believe you.”
Kerri sighed again, putting a little extra oomph into it this time. Still, she had no one to blame but herself for Natalie’s lack of faith. Kerri couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a vacation free of a conference call or some other corporate task. “Seriously, Ethan’s too…something.”