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CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO

HECTOR

After the elevator doors opened on Monday morning, I stepped out onto our floor, sipped my coffee, and headed straight for Jacob’s office. Evelyn nervously glanced at me from her desk, but I continued without saying a word to her.

Once I gave a soft knock, I opened the door and peered into the room. Have a minute?

Jacob nodded and stood, gesturing for me to sit across from him.

I hadn’t talked to Jacob since Heather had passed out the other night and Evelyn had come to pick him up from my guest room. But today, Jacob was sober and quieter than usual, something obviously on his mind.

Heather had mentioned that he asked her out for dinner tonight, but I needed to talk to him before then, in case he tried to talk shit to her about our relationship or about me. He wasn t going to ruin the only good thing in my life.

I d like to talk about Heather, I said, sitting down in front of him and making direct, firm eye contact so he would know that I wasn t going to back down. We were going to talk like adults without any fists being thrown or fingers being broken.

Jacob cleared his desk, turned off his computer, and flipped over his phone so there weren’t any distractions between us. Then, he cleared his throat and sat up straight. “Before we start, I want to apologize for the other night.”

“For what exactly?”

I shouldn t have been here, drinking my life away, he said. That was wrong of me.

Did Evelyn knock some sense into him yesterday?

“It would’ve made us as a company look bad if anyone found out about that,” I hummed. “Just don’t do anything like that again. And if you plan to, do it somewhere that isn’t our office. You scared the fucking hell out of Heather.”

“How’s she doing?” Jacob asked. “Good, I hope.”

She s good, I said. You ll see her tonight, right?

“Yes.”

“And … if you don’t mind me asking, what’re you going to talk to her about?”

“I asked her to dinner to apologize,” Jacob said. “Nothing more.”

I pressed my lips together and narrowed my eyes at him, waiting for him to break, waiting for him to stumble all over his words, which would tell me that this was all a lie and that he planned to do more than just that over dinner.

But his expression stayed neutral.

“I don’t care if she’s your daughter anymore,” I warned, feeling more protective over her than any other woman—or any other submissive—I had ever had. “If you hurt her, it’s not going to go over well between us.”

I m not going to hurt her, Jacob said. Then, a couple of quiet moments passed, and his expression softened to a smile. You love her, don t you?

“Yes.” I stood. “And I will do what I can to protect her. Even from her own father.”