If only Drake Morrison hadn’t come so highly recommended, Nicholas would have long fired him and replaced with someone else, preferably someone without a dick.
Nicholas asked for the bartender to refill his glass, and as he watched the other man pour another shot of bourbon into his glass, he wondered broodingly if he had accidentally hit on the real reason behind his wife’s change of heart.
Had she stopped loving him because she had found someone more deserving of her?
Chapter 16
“Heading somewhere?” Nicholas asked the next morning when he saw his wife coming down the stairs and looking exceptionally lovely in a cream-colored pantsuit.
“San Antonio,” she answered hesitantly, “for a board meeting.”
“One of your non-profits?”
She nodded.
“Let me drive you then, since I need to head up to the office as well.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh, but you don’t have to—”
“I know,” he said pleasantly. “But I want to.”
Outside, Nicholas bit back a curse when he saw Drake already waiting by the Bentley.
“Good morning, Mr. Sutherland, Mrs. Sutherland.”
Too damn fucking handsome to be a bodyguard, Nicholas thought darkly. When Drake started to open the door, Nicholas derived a lot of pleasure in saying, “That won’t be necessary.” He slid a possessive arm around his wife’s waist. “I’ll be the one driving her to the city—”
“Mr. Sutherland?” Thomas came out of the main house, the wireless receiver in his hand. “It’s a phone call from one of your partners in Munich.”
Fuck.
Seeing her chance to avoid getting trapped in a confined space with Nicholas, Bee said quickly, “You should take that. I can just go with Drake and Jerry as planned.” She moved away, and her heart squeezed as she felt his arm loosen its hold.
Nicholas’ face hardened as he watched her smile up at the bodyguard before stepping inside the Bentley.
After closing the door, Drake glanced at him, murmuring, “Mr. Sutherland.”
He had the strongest urge to drive a fist into the bodyguard’s face, but managed to control the impulse. “Make sure nothing happens to her,” he said curtly.
“I’ll take good care of her, sir.”
Nicholas’ jaw clenched. Asshole. That wasn’t what he had asked, dammit.
As the Bentley cruised down the highway, Bee couldn’t help wondering about the seeming tension she noticed between Nicholas and her bodyguard.
“Drake?”
“Yes, ma’am?”
“Has my…has Nicholas spoken to you recently about anything?”
“I was to make sure nothing happened to you.”
“And that’s it?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Oh well.
Maybe she had just been imagining things.
The weather was pleasantly cool and cloudy when Bee arrived at a clubhouse in San Antonio, with her bodyguard tailing behind her. As always, the sight of Drake Morrison’s dark good looks had most of the women around them sighing and literally batting their eyelashes at him, but Bee’s bodyguard didn’t even spare them a glance.
It was probably why, Bee thought ruefully, a few women also took the time to shoot envious glares at her back. If looks could kill, she would have long been dead. Several times over even, since people’s interest in Drake had been quite intense, from the very first time his photo had gone viral and joined the select ranks of The World’s Sexiest Bodyguards.
There was only one other person around when Bee entered the boardroom, and Drake came to stand behind her as she took her usual seat.
Today would be her last time to attend meetings like this, Bee couldn’t help thinking. In two days, she would be moving out of the ranch and into an apartment near the city headquarters of Nicholas’ company. It wasn’t complete freedom, but at least she no longer had to see him every day.
So just hang in there for two days more, Bee told herself. Two days and all this would be over.
Drake bent down, a curious look on his strikingly attractive face as he asked, “What about two days?”
“Oh, um, it’s nothing,” Bee said quickly with a shake of her head even as she was privately aghast that she had unintentionally blurted her thought out loud.
She placed a hand over her growing belly, the gesture unconsciously protective. This whole business of leaving Nicholas and starting over was stressing her more than what was safe for the baby. Maybe…maybe she should simply jump right in and leave?
It was just two days, anyway. Surely, in the larger scheme of things, it wouldn’t really matter that she hadn’t been able to fully comply with the month-long rest that the doctor had ordered?
“You’re quite the character, Mrs. Sutherland.” The words, spoken out of the blue in a soft, malicious drawl, startled Bee into lifting her head and meeting the rather catty gaze of the elegant-looking redhead seated across her.
Chloe, Bee belatedly recalled. The woman was a four-time divorcée, and if rumors were to be believed, the redhead would soon be on her fifth wedding, this time to a Bolivian tycoon whose source of income was dubious to say the least.