“Nothing,” Daniel answered. “Just get out of here.”
“Wait, you don’t know?” Anders looked at Gabriel.
“Know what?”
Anders shook his head. “Remember that little trip to Vegas three months ago? When our man Rogers here disappeared, he didn’t just hook up with little miss inked goddess here. He also married her.”
“You got married?” Gabriel exclaimed. “I thought you just got her pregnant!”
“Pregnant?” Sarah sputtered. “You thought I was …” No wonder he kept trying to make her comfortable. “I’m not pregnant.” She slapped a hand on her forehead. “I can’t believe I’ve had to say that twice in twenty-four hours.”
“What the hell is going on here?”
All three men went stiff as a board.
The man who walked inside the office filled the room with his mere presence. He was tall, dark-haired, and there was something menacing about him that Sarah just couldn’t explain. His bright green gaze bore right into her with a laser-like precision.
“Chief,” Daniel began, his tone deferential. “I can explain.”
“Who’s this, and why is she in here? This area is for employees only,” he said.
“I’m sure you can give her a pass,” Daniel said. “After all, she’s my wife.”
A thrill ran down her spine at the possessive way he said those words. The chief, on the other hand, went slack-jawed.
“Wife?”
“I can explain. Maybe we should go into your office?” Daniel suggested. “If you give me a few minutes, I can get Sarah settled.”
The chief composed himself. “Fine. I’ll see you in five—ten minutes.” Turning on his heel, he walked away.
Anders chortled. “I’ve never seen him so—”
“Buzz off,” Daniel ordered. “Now.”
“But—”
“C’mon.” Gabriel hooked an arm around his. “Let’s go.” Ignoring Anders’s protests, he dragged him out of the office.
“I’m sorry,” Daniel said. “I’m really sorry about this mess.”
“There was no way this was going to be easy,” she said. “That was your boss, right? Are you going to be okay? Will he fire you?”
“For having you in here? Nah. His wife comes by all the time.” He grinned sheepishly. “But I do have a full workday ahead of me. I could try to get out early and—”
“No, please. Don’t take off work on my account.”
“All right. But we should talk. Do you want to stay here for a bit? Or go back to your motel?”
The thought of going out there and facing the people waiting outside did not sit well with her. “Would you mind if I, uh, stayed here while you met your boss? And use your computer? I need to check my email.” Since she was going to stay here for a while, she might as well get some work done and have Darcey overnight her some of her stuff, like her tablet PC where she did all her work.
“No, go ahead.” He gestured to the chair behind the desk. “Take all the time you need. If you’re hungry, there’s a cafeteria outside.” An awkward silence hung between them. “I’ll go talk to Damon, and then I’ll come back and we can figure this out.”
“Sure,” she said as she sat down on the leather office chair.
“I’ll see you. I won’t be long.”
“Okay.”
He hesitated for a moment, then turned on his heel. When the door closed behind him, she let out a sigh. Focus, Sarah. She had decided to go on with this farce for her business and her family, so she had to think of the end goal. With that in mind, she called Darcey.
“Hey, Darce, it’s me. Everything okay?”
“Uh-huh. Whew!” It sounded like she plopped down on the couch. “The manufacturer got back to me and said they can push our delivery up, and we can have the stock next week. And I’m getting ready to start packing all the stuff and sending them out.”
“Great, but we’re fresh out of what we have on the site?”
“’Fraid so,” Darcey said. “But we do have the new collection in the storage locker.”
“I wasn’t planning to have that out until fall.” Sarah bit her lip. “It’s not ready to go on the site yet. I haven’t even photographed the samples.”
“Yeah, but next week might be too late,” her sister replied. “We’ve got nothing to sell, and our social media’s getting flooded with messages and comments. I’ve put up ‘sold out’ graphics and everything, but people are still wanting more.”
Sarah wanted to kick herself for this lost opportunity. If she had an actual store, it wouldn’t have been a problem keeping extra stock. “All right. Can you send me a couple samples from the fall collection? Overnight it to me. And I’ll need my tablet, some clothes and a couple of things, too. I’ll message you a list and give you the address to my motel.”
“I’m heading out for some packing material so I’ll get that out right away.”
“Thanks, Darce.”
Am I doing the right thing, she thought as she hung up. Everything happened fast and soon she was the one propositioning him to stay married, and now, here she was. How did one fake a marriage anyway? Would this even work? What if someone discovered this was all a lie?
Don’t concern yourself with that. Growing up the way she did, there was no use in thinking of all the bad things that could happen, because at some point or another, something bad would happen anyway. It was better to live in the moment. But hopefully, none of this would blow up in her face.
Chapter Five
Daniel didn’t want to leave Sarah all alone in the office. Hell, his bear didn’t want to leave her, at all. But her coming here was a surprise—a pleasant one, but a surprise nonetheless—and it was like his world was thrown off its axis.
God, she was even more beautiful than yesterday. The white linen top she wore went up to her neck but left her arms bare, making her skin seem like golden bronze and the stained glass tattoo stand out even more. Her hair was pulled back in a high, sleek ponytail that fell behind her like a glossy waterfall.
He didn’t expect to
