Page 114 of Forbidden Kisses

"Listen, we talked about this. It's a great opportunity. I wouldn't want for you to miss your first social get-together."

She waved her hand. "I'm sure there will be more."

"Riley."

She bit her lip.

"I mean it. Go."

"But if he wakes up and he doesn't see me, he might get upset."

"We could wake him up now and explain."

She shook her head. "No way. He seems exhausted."

I stepped closer, kissing her forehead and then one corner of her mouth. "I'll talk to him when he wakes up. If you want, I’ll call you and put you on the phone so you explain."

She looked up at me. "Okay, that’s a good compromise. But honestly, I would prefer not to go."

"Riley, you can't miss work every time he gets sick. Trust me, if I know anything from the past few years, it’s that kids get sick a lot. You actually caught him on a good streak these past few months. But there will be times when you’ll be at a client's or whatever and he’ll be unwell."

She looked stricken. "Right, okay. But I really hoped to spend as much time with him as possible, especially since I’m visiting Mom next weekend.”

“There will be plenty of weekends. I've got this covered," I promised. "You go and focus on your event. Do you still have enough time to go home and change?"

"Yeah, there's plenty of time. I put the reminder two hours before I needed to go. I figured we might need it in case we totally lost track of time on the camping trip.”

She was hesitating, but I nodded encouragingly. This event was important. I wanted her to focus on it.

“Okay, then. I'm going to go."

"Before you go…" I pulled her against me, sealing my mouth over hers. I didn't get many chances to kiss her even though we'd been together for the past forty-eight hours. And even though I'd enjoyed this closeness and our time as a family, I wanted her desperately. The more I held Riley, the more I needed her.

I kissed her until she groaned, then took a step back.

"Why did you stop?" she asked.

"Because you've got to go. I don't want to keep you any longer."

"You can always make me late with sexy distractions."

I growled. "No. Go now, before I change my mind and don’t let you out that door."

She winked at me, putting her shoes, then taking her bag from the entrance, putting it over her shoulder. "I won't come back here after the event, though," she said.

That felt like a punch to the gut. These two days had felt like we were a family. I didn't like this. Something needed to change.

I nodded. "Sure. I'll call you when Jeremy wakes up.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Riley

It turned out to be a good idea to join the event because even the equity partners were participating. They seemed to genuinely want to get to know the new hires.

"Look, the hours are still long, but it's very rewarding, and I'm not nearly as stressed as I was when I first started out. Probably because after so much experience, things become routine," Lilly, one of the female partners, said.

I asked her about her day-to-day activities, but I was still on pins and needles, waiting for Duncan's call. Finally, at nine o'clock, my phone buzzed. I was chitchatting with the other new hires and excused myself, going out on the balcony.