I’ve bumped into someone else, and he's...I feel like I've seen him before, but I can't remember where. And right now, it doesn't really matter—
"Nicole, dammit!"
Because that...that shape is still calling my name out, and now he actually soundsresentful?
The way he’s acting, it’s as if I’m an inconvenience. And being hysterical and mean. It’s as if he hasn’t just been in bed with another—
“Sir!”
That’s Sandy exclaiming the word, and since I know I’mnotsomeone he’d call that, I look up, and—
Why does this man seem familiar?
“S-Sir, I’m sorry, this is a misunderstanding.”
Sandy is actually stuttering behind me, but he also sounds like he’s coming closer and closer, and I...I just panic. I look up at the stranger who’s still holding my elbow like he thinks my knees will give out at any moment. And maybe...maybe he’s right. Because the moment I hear Sandy bite out my name like he’s dying to punish me—
“P-Please.”
The word stumbles out like the broken plea that it is.
“Please help me.”
Chapter Two
"WHAT SEEMS TO BE THEmatter here?"
It's the British accent that clears the haze in my mind, and I realize...oh.
Right.
This man...
He's familiar because he's Chase Everford.
Dark hair, blue eyes, and recently voted as one of the World's Sexiest Men.
But more importantly than that, Mr. Everford is also the 38-year-old London-born billionaire that my husband works for...and is low-key envious of.
I’ve seen his face on the cover of magazines at times. Other times, posts about him pop up on my feed. And of course, there’s not a week that goes by in which Sandy doesn’t talk about how his CEO just got “lucky” by being born rich. That he could do what Mr. Everford does if he had the same advantages to start with.
It’sthat manwho’s standing in front of me right now.
That man who knows my husband, not me, and when I think about that, I start panicking again because of course Sandy would take advantage of that—
“Mr. Everford, I’m so sorry about this.”
And see, he’s usingthattone I’ve heard him use countless times...with me.
“I apologize on my wife’s behalf.”
When something goes wrong, he uses this tone to make me feel guilty about being upset, and somehow, he always ends up painting himself a victim when I’m the one who’s hurting—
"Nicole, will you please come here?"
I can't believe how fast his tone has changed. One moment, he sounds so servile to Mr. Everford, and then now he sounds resentful again, and is that...is that humiliation I hear?
He thinks I humiliated him?