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and things went to shit while she was gone. It had taken her

almost all the time she’d been back to put things back together.

She had a backlog of meetings and paperwork to wade

through. Everyone wanted a piece of her time. No wonder she

never took sick days. Not once. Not ever. The few times she

couldn’t come into the office, she’d worked from home,

soldiering through the worst of it.

She’d been on the phone all morning and her head was

starting to pound. She snatched the bottle of water off the edge

of her desk and drank deeply, hoping hydration would help.

She knew it wouldn’t. The real headache was five foot four,

petite, with blue eyes, beauty that was almost pixielike, and an

aura of mystery and pain.

The real headache was her wife.

Coralyn Anderson.

Despite her harsh words at the house, which she’d regretted

even as she said them because there was cold and then there

was icy cold and unforgiveable, Giana had kept tabs on her.

She’d hired a guy, and the fact that she’d had to research

carefully to find one was perhaps a treatment to the way she

did business.

People weren’t wrong when they called her ruthless, but at

least she was honest. She had reports sent via email and phone

calls every morning and afternoon. She’d left Coralyn alone

for almost two weeks, but she hadn’t left her truly alone.

Something she didn’t recognize in herself refused to stop. It

was the same kind of dogged determination she usually

applied to business. She’d never let it extend to a living,

breathing entity before.

It wasn’t care. It was obligation.