“But for some crazy reason, he chose me? Thanks for the vote of confidence, Gran.”
“Bah. I raised you myself, missy. I know you’re tough enough to handle the truth,” Maura said gruffly, “and tough is what you’ll need to be, now that you’re dating your boss.”
“I don’t care about what other people say.”
“I hope that’s true. Because it truly won’t be easy for the two of you. Most people will try to tear you down out of jealousy and greed, and the only way they’ll succeed is if you start believing in their lies.”
“So if they say I’m not in his league, that’s a lie, right?”
But the older woman refused to be baited. “You are who you are,” Maura said calmly, “and it was the real you that Etienne Hirsche fell in love with. Don’t let yourself forget that.”
Spencer couldn’t help closing her eyes as she listened to her grandmother’s advice. It reminded her of the old days, with Maura always being the guiding force and voice of wisdom in her life.
“I miss you, Gran.”
“I miss you, too.”
“Do you think Etienne and I will last?”
“It’s not a matter of will or won’t, child. You’re going to hurt and disappoint each other sooner or later, and it won’t be once or twice. It will happen again and again, and every time it does, that’s when both of you have to make a choice. Do you still want it to last?”
Hirsche Enterprises had become a beehive of frenzied activity, with everyone – from the company’s handful of executives to the hundreds of individuals making up its rank and file – talking (or texting) about last night’s explosive news.
“And it all started with that Facebook status change,” one of the company’s security officers revealed to his comrade.
“Does he even know what his new status means?” a receptionist joked. “We know he’s had girlfriends before, but he had never changed his Facebook status for any of them. Maybe he thinks having Spencer de Vries as his driver is already a relationship of sorts?”
“She could be blackmailing him,” the nurse at the company’s in-house medical facility whispered to her superior. “Things like that happen all the time to people like Mr. Hirsche. Just watch Dynasty.”
“If I had known Mr. Hirsche likes his women plain,” a secretary complained, “I’d have had plastic surgery to make myself uglier. I just can’t believe someone like her could nab a man like him, and I’m still single. F! M! L!”
It went on and on, with everyone seemingly incapable of holding themselves back from gossiping the moment Etienne walked past them. And because they were all humans, none of them realized that no amount of whispering would have their words escape his Caro senses.
Torv was already waiting outside the building when Etienne came out, and the bodyguard-turned-driver bowed with flourish as he opened the door. “Good afternoon, sir.”
“Not one word,” Etienne warned.
The seven-foot hulk feigned a look of hurt. “Aw, come on, Your Highness.” As he was Caro as well, he, too, had been able to overhear what the humans were saying about their boss. “Where did your sense of humor go?”
“It never existed.”
But because Torv had been working for the prince for years, the older man pretended to hear nothing and launched instead into a gleeful recounting of the craziest rumors he had overheard as soon as he was behind the wheel.
“They say you’re just a fool like all other the rich guys in the world, and that you fell for a gold-digger.”
“I wish,” Etienne muttered. Life would be a lot easier if money was the sole basis of his relationship with Spencer.
“A few others, they think you knocked her up, boss.”
“Again: I wish.”
Hearing this, Torv couldn’t help but shoot a look of disbelief at his employer’s direction, and through the rearview mirror he saw that the prince wasn’t even smiling. It was true then? Etienne Hirsche actually wanted his woman round with his child?
Oblivious to the thoughts running through his driver’s mind, Etienne’s attention was fully focused on his phone, having seen a new message from Spencer come in.
Spencer: Hey.
Etienne: Hey back.
Spencer: *giggle*
A moment later, the message disappeared.
Spencer removed a message.
Etienne: *smirk*
Spencer: I can’t believe how silly I’m acting.
Etienne: Must be something in the air.
Spencer: Yeah. I might be coming down with something.
Etienne: If you’re having trouble breathing and your heartbeat’s irregular…
Spencer: I might be lovesick?
Spencer removed a message.
Etienne: I was going to suggest heartburn. But that could work, too.
Spencer left the group.
Etienne threw his head back with a laugh.
The rest of the afternoon was spent in a closed-door meeting with Domenico Moretti, and by the end of it, both men had successfully ironed out the conditions for an alliance between the old bloods and the packs under the Lyccan prince’s leadership.
“I hear you’ve established the same alliance with the Souris as well?” Etienne asked.