Chapter 27

Chase and Alex both left the office at noon on Thursday. So far Piper and Chase had kept their attraction under the radar. As she saw it, they should probably have a first date before they admitted to anyone at Stone Enterprises that they were dating.

Something she still hadn’t wrapped her mind around.

He would let his smile linger on her when no one was looking, let his hand graze over hers to let her know he wanted to be closer. But more than that . . . Chase would pass by her desk in the morning and drop off individually wrapped packages of crackers. “Just in case.”

She nibbled on them even on days she felt completely fine. Truth was, she felt the worst part of that morning-sickness nonsense was behind her.

Thank God.

Now, while Chase and Alex were hammering out the details with the estate attorney, Piper was walking the third floor with the design team Chase wanted to hire and pointing out a few details.

“Lots of glass. Mr. Stone wants light spilling into the center of the room regardless of how many individual offices line the walls. But at the same time, he doesn’t want the space to come off as cold.”

There were three designers following her around the empty space. The clutter in the area was gone, giving the team a relatively clean slate.

“What about the corner offices?” one of the designers asked.

“Let’s see what you can come up with to give the executive offices privacy and light and let the boss decide.” She moved to where a small break room had been before. “An L-shaped kitchen with an island and a large space for staff. Range . . . two microwaves, perhaps one on top of the other. Dishwasher, sink, side-by-side refrigerator/freezer.”

“Any brand preferences?”

Piper grinned. “It’s an office, we don’t need Wolf or Thermador. We want quality and efficiency. Warm colors. Gender-neutral bathroom stalls with a central area to wash your hands. Think of your favorite restaurant that has such a design and make it work here. Make sure every stall is big enough for a storage cupboard or cabinet to house the supplies for that bathroom. We have a lot of room in here, don’t design tiny work areas. One locked cabinet in each space. We want an idea room, whiteboards. A media room for those who don’t want to take a break in a kitchen. And a soundproof conference room.” Piper smiled. “People can see you arguing but can’t hear it.”

One of the three of them laughed.

Piper kept walking, kept talking . . . and kept pointing.

She liked this.

Chase had given her the reins to fill the designers’ heads with ideas. Piper had asked a few key questions that Chase answered, and now she was running with it. Being creative with an office design and leading the charge on this was giving her a distraction she desperately needed.

After giving the designers the must-haves for the space, Piper lingered behind after they all climbed into the elevator and left.

The current reception area was blocking off the rest of the floor and needed to be torn down. With a marker, she was in the process of putting a giant X on the wall to indicate it needed to go when the chime to the elevator told her someone was returning.

“Did you forget something?” Piper turned to find Floyd walking off the elevator. “Oh, hi.”

Without saying hello, Floyd walked her way, staring up at the walls. “Looks like they have you doing a little bit of everything.”

Piper walked to the opposite wall, put another X. “That’s what you do when you’re an assistant.”

“I bet you do a lot more than most.”

Piper wasn’t sure where Floyd was going with this, but instead of giving him room to say more, she asked, “Is there something you needed?”

He walked farther into the area as he continued to look at the walls as if he was interested in the space.

Piper knew he wasn’t.

“Yeah, there is.”

She put the lid back on the marker and faced him.

He stopped moving around, looked at her, and his fake smile fell. “Don’t talk to my wife ever . . . again.”

Piper’s knees started to knock. The last time she’d been cornered in a space alone with a man, it had been Aaron Stone, only his tone was an attempt at flirtation.

Floyd’s was threatening.

“Excuse me?”

“Don’t play dumb. Aaron sensed you were trouble and got rid of you.”

Did he think he could make that happen again?

“I doubt I will see your wife in a social situation in the future.” Not completely true. She could just as easily be a plus-one for Chase or the assistant for Alex. But Floyd didn’t need to hear that. Not yet anyway.

“If she visits the office, I suggest you walk to the opposite side of the building.”

“I’ll take that under advisement.”

“See that you do.” Floyd rolled his gaze up and down her body, a scowl on his face. “I’m glad we had this little chat.”

Once the elevator doors closed behind him, Piper let her disposition collapse.

Blowing out a breath, she glanced down and realized that her hands had gone to her abdomen and held on.

Chase pulled into the Stone Estate driveway first, Alex and Nick followed behind.

The sight of Piper’s car in the driveway put a smile on Chase’s lips. He hadn’t seen her outside of work since Sunday morning, and he couldn’t wait to put his arms around her.

The second he exited his car, he heard Nick.

“Girl, we could have the best parties here.”

“We just did,” Alex told him.

“Please, funerals don’t count.”

Chase laughed. “Depends on who died.”

Nick pointed his finger in Chase’s direction. “Karma, Stone,” he said in warning.

Piper walked through the front door. “How was traffic?”

“Stupid,” Alex replied.

Chase jogged up the steps and pulled her in his arms. “Hi.”

She grinned and placed her hands on his chest. “This is new.”

“I can’t touch you at work. I need to make up for it now.”

He leaned down, brushed his lips to hers. “Hi.”

“Hi,” she replied softly.

Nick cleared his throat.

Keeping his arm around Piper’s waist, Chase did the introductions. “Piper, this is Nick. Nick . . . be nice.”

Nick slapped a hand to his chest with a gasp. “I’m always nice.”

Alex rolled her eyes.

“A pleasure to meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet someone who has turned this one’s head. He’s picky,” Nick told Piper. “And you’re beautiful. I saw the spread from the gala. That dress was fabulous.”

The gossip magazine had captured a small picture of the two of them, but the Regional Heart Association had filled its website with images from the dinner.

“I had help picking it out.” Piper pointed to Alex.

“Well, that’s to be expected. Alex gets all that from me.”

“I am capable of picking out my own dress,” Alex countered.

“Once upon a time . . . not so much . . .”

Chase pulled Piper closer. “They argue like an old married couple.”

Inside the house, Alex let out a sigh. “It doesn’t feel quite as oppressive without Dad and Melissa here.”

Chase could beat that. Since he and Piper had spent more time in the house together than he’d ever done with his dad . . . all Chase felt in the place was Piper’s presence.

“I took the liberty of putting together a little something to snack on, and I grabbed a few bottles of wine from the cellar to pick from. A Google search led me to the most expensive ones,” Piper told them.

“I like how you think,” Nick said.

Chase saw the “little something” Piper referred to on a buffet table in the living room. Meats and cheeses . . . crackers and fruit.

Nick half jogged to the table and started to inspect the wines Piper had pulled out.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Chase said at her side.

“It’s completely selfish,” she said where only he could hear. “I went from feeling sick to hungry all the time.”

“Why are there only three glasses?” Nick called out.

“I’m not drinking,” Piper said at the exact time that Chase and Alex both said, “Piper’s not drinking.”

Nick raised both hands. “Okay, okay.”

Piper looked at Nick.

Chase looked at Alex.

Alex looked at Nick.

“Oh, for crying out loud,” Piper started. “I’m pregnant.”

Nick gasped and immediately looked at Chase.

“He’s not . . .” Piper blew out a breath, sucked another one in.

“Oh . . .” Nick looked at all three of them. “This I want to hear.”

“Loud music, tequila, and bad decisions. There’s not much more to add,” Piper told him.

Nick crossed his arms over his chest. “That sounds like the perfect night for me.”

Alex moved beside her friend and pushed him out of the way. “That’s because you can’t get anyone you sleep with pregnant.”

“I win,” Nick boasted, hands in the air like he shot the winning field goal.

Chase saw Piper smile.

“It’s getting easier to say out loud, isn’t it?” he asked her.

She nodded. “You’re going to get that look and question a lot, dating me.”

“I know.”

“You sure?” she asked him for the hundredth time.

“We’re not having this conversation again,” he teased.

“I don’t know any of these wines.” Nick was yanking a cork out of a bottle as he spoke.

“That’s because we can’t afford this stuff.”

“You can now, Alex.”

The cork came free with a loud pop.

“I’ll grab some waters. Anyone want one?” Piper asked.

“I’ll take one,” Alex said.

Piper looked up at Chase. “That would be great,” he told her.

As she headed to the kitchen, Chase walked back out to his truck, where he’d forgotten the files from the lawyer’s office.

Thirty minutes later, they sat around the living room with the estate files spread out in front of them.

Alex held a paper in her hand. “You mean to tell me all these paintings have names? Fulfillment by O’Neil.” She looked around the room. “Which one is that?”

“Start with the signatures?” Nick asked.

Piper looked up from her laptop, left . . . then right. “It’s not in this room.”

“You know who O’Neil is?”

She twisted her computer for all of them to see. “The Google does.”

Chase sipped the wine Piper had picked out and once again was reminded how quick she was to solutions.

“Brilliant. She’s brilliant,” Nick said.

Piper made a gimme motion with her hands. “I’ll take the list of paintings, print each one out, and you can go on a scavenger hunt.”

Alex stood. “While you do that, Chase . . . why don’t you show me this safe.”

He patted Piper’s arm before taking Alex up to their father’s room.

Nick sat opposite Piper, legs crossed, foot bouncing in the air. He swirled the wine in his glass. “How much did this little bottle of lovely cost?” he asked.

Piper glanced up from the Google search. “Which one is that?”

“Rothschild. It’s French. Quite good.”

Piper had done a search before they arrived. “About a thousand bucks.” She went back to Google.

Nick started coughing. “You’ve got to be joking.”

Piper smiled and shook her head.

“And we’re drinking it with Triscuits?”

“Don’t knock my crackers. I’ve become quite the connoisseur since it’s the only thing I’ve been able to keep down for most of the last month.”

Piper sent another painting information page to the printer and went on to the next.

“How is it being pregnant?” he asked.

“It sucks. How is it being gay?” she asked with a grin.

Nick tossed his head back and laughed. “It’s fantastic. Highly recommend.”

It felt good to smile about her condition.

“Holy shit, Nick. You’ve got to see this!” Alex’s voice called from upstairs.

He jumped to his feet, took his wine with him.

While they partied with a safe full of more money than Piper could even dream of, she printed out a dozen pages of paintings.

She was on her way back into the living room with the papers when the three of them returned from upstairs.

Alex pointed from the direction they came. “That shit is crazy!”

“Right?” Piper asked.

“I thought the safety deposit boxes were over the top.” Alex refilled her glass, followed by Nick.

“What were in those?” Piper asked.

“A little bit of Fort Knox and more of what is upstairs.”

“Gold?” she asked.

Chase nodded. “Coins.”

“I guess we know now why he didn’t give the house to Melissa,” Piper pointed out.

“That bimbo would have sold the house without knowing about the hidden room,” Nick said.

“We need more of this wine.” Alex waved the empty bottle in the air.

Piper handed out the papers. “I’ll get the wine, you guys work on finding these.”

Alex and Nick headed off, wineglasses in hand.

Piper glanced up at Chase, his smile had mischief in his eyes.

“What are you—”

“I thought they’d never leave.” He dropped his scavenger-hunt papers on the floor and reached for her.

Next thing she knew, his lips were on hers.

She sighed into his touch and wrapped her arms around his back. She went from zero to hello there in two seconds.

The kiss on the porch was soft and gentle, like good morning, or have a nice day.

And then there was this kind, where Chase damn near lifted her off her feet to get close, his tongue searching for hers. The kind of kiss that they hadn’t explored all that much, but now that kissing was on the table . . . Piper wanted more.

Her body started to wake up the way hungry, open-mouth kisses made you do.

Her nails dug into his back, and Chase pulled her body so close she felt his arousal press against her belly.

She wanted that. Really, really wanted all of that.

Piper dropped one hand to his hip and pushed up against him the way a cat wraps around a leg of a table.

Alex’s and Nick’s voices drifted in from the other side of the house, reminding her that they weren’t alone.

Chase clasped the back of her neck and moaned as he tore himself away.

Her heart beating fast and lips swollen, she uttered, “Wow.”

He huffed out a breathy, staccato laugh. “Is it Saturday yet?”

“No,” she whispered.

“Found one!” Alex called out.

“I should go get that wine,” Piper said as she pulled out of Chase’s orbit.

He looked down at himself, shifted his hips. “I should find a cold shower.”

She tapped his shoulder. “There’re ice packs in the freezer.”

As she walked away, Chase gave her butt a playful slap.

“Careful, Stone. I kinda like that.”

His head fell back, and he shook his hand with a balled fist. “Yes!”

Piper laughed all the way to the cellar.