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His phone beeped with a message. He read it. He considered ignoring it. Then he gave in and dialed the number.
“Miss Maitland, how may I help you?”
“I’ve been trying to reach you for days. I kept getting out of office replies.”
“An appropriate response seeing that I was out of the office. Again, how may I help you?”
“Do you know that your little… Are you aware that Noah and Leia are practically living together?” she asked through gritted teeth.
Warren strolled out of his bedroom and entered the space he’d been using as a study. Pressing a button on his laptop, the screen flared to life. “For the sake of expediency, I’ll say yes and suggest you get to the point.”
“Don’t you care?”
“Your point, if you please.”
She laughed. “You must really enjoy leftovers from NoahKing’s table. Or you would have done something about our situation by now.”
She wasn’t worth the effort of him informing her he was doing something about it.
“I don’t doubt that you and King deserve each other. After all, he’s a thug and you’re a hapless shrew. I’m not in the habit of revisiting failed ventures, Miss Maitland. But I suppose, if you insist on pursing your objectives…” He trailed off and waited.
“What?” she demanded after a minute.
He told her. And listened to her gloat. “This will be the last time we communicate. I strongly suggest you lose my number.”
He hung up, placed the phone on his desk and clicked through the various electronic files until he located the one he needed. The puppet had responded to its master’s command.
Flicking open the button of his single-breasted jacket, he sat at his desk, steepled his fingers, and watched the time.
The email pinged at the stroke of the hour.
He read it.
Warren smiled, his pride a touch placated.
25
Regaining her focus after Noah left took a pathetically long time, but once Leia got into the swing of things again, excitement bubbled under her skin as her pencil flew over the sketchpad. After completing her sixth design, she got up from the sofa and stretched.
Going into her kitchen, Leia poured a glass of wine and eyed the clock. An hour and fifteen minutes since she’d said goodbye to him. She leaned against the sink and grimaced at the full-scale yearning taking root inside her.
Hell, it had grown into more than a yearning. It was becoming a full-blown obsession. She craved Noah all the time. In bed, out of it. She even craved him when he was deep inside her, rocking her world the way only he knew how.
Was this how love was meant to be? Or was her particular brand a special strain because she knew she could lose him to his unborn child at any time?
Ashley…
She knew the other woman spoke to Noah from time totime. Noah always kept the conversation short, sometimes curt. But Leia couldn’t hide from the fact that they had a relationship of sorts.
And always would.
Could she deal with that in the long term, if there was a long term for them?
She contemplated the other side of the coin—a life without Noah.
A spike of pain shot up her spine. Taking a deep breath, she pushed the thoughts away.
When the time came to deal with it, she’d deal with it. Until then…