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"HEADING SOMEWHERE? " Nicholas asked the next morning when he saw his wife coming down the stairs and looking exceptionally lovely in a cream-colored pantsuit.

"San Antonio," she answered hesitantly, "for a board meeting."

"One of your non-profits?"

She nodded.

"Let me drive you then, since I need to head up to the office as well."

Her eyes widened. "Oh, but you don't have to—-"

"I know," he said pleasantly. "But I want to."

Outside, Nicholas bit back a curse when he saw Drake already waiting by the Bentley.

"Good morning, Mr. Sutherland, Mrs. Sutherland."

Too damn fucking handsome to be a bodyguard , Nicholas thought darkly. When Drake started to open the door, Nicholas derived a lot of pleasure in saying, "That won't be necessary." He slid a possessive arm around his wife's waist. "I'll be the one driving her to the city—-"

"Mr. Sutherland?" Thomas came out of the main house, the wireless receiver in his hand. "It's a phone call from one of your partners in Munich."

Fuck.

Seeing her chance to avoid getting trapped in a confined space with Nicholas, Bee said quickly, "You should take that. I can just go with Drake and Jerry as planned." She moved away, and her heart squeezed as she felt his arm loosen its hold.

Nicholas' face hardened as he watched her smile up at the bodyguard before stepping inside the Bentley.

After closing the door, Drake glanced at him, murmuring, "Mr. Sutherland."

He had the strongest urge to drive a fist into the bodyguard's face, but managed to control the impulse. "Make sure nothing happens to her," he said curtly.

"I'll take good care of her, sir."

Nicholas' jaw clenched. Asshole. That wasn't what he had asked, dammit.

As the Bentley cruised down the highway, Bee couldn't help wondering about the seeming tension she noticed between Nicholas and her bodyguard.

"Drake?"

"Yes, ma'am?"

"Has my...has Nicholas spoken to you recently about anything?"

"I was to make sure nothing happened to you."

"And that's it?"

"Yes, ma'am."

Oh well.

Maybe she had just been imagining things.

The weather was pleasantly cool and cloudy when Bee arrived at a clubhouse in San Antonio, with her bodyguard tailing behind her.

As always, the sight of Drake Morrison's dark good looks had most of the women around them sighing and literally batting their eyelashes at him, but Bee's bodyguard didn't even spare them a glance.

It was probably why , Bee thought ruefully, a few women also took the time to shoot envious glares at her back.

If looks could kill, she would have long been dead.

Several times over even, since people's interest in Drake had been quite intense, from the very first time his photo had gone viral and joined the select ranks of The World's Sexiest Bodyguards.

There was only one other person around when Bee entered the boardroom, and Drake came to stand behind her as she took her usual seat.

Today would be her last time to attend meetings like this , Bee couldn't help thinking. In two days, she would be moving out of the ranch and into an apartment near the city headquarters of Nicholas' company. It wasn't complete freedom, but at least she no longer had to see him every day.

So just hang in there for two days more , Bee told herself. Two days and all this would be over.

Drake bent down, a curious look on his strikingly attractive face as he asked, "What about two days?"

"Oh, um, it's nothing," Bee said quickly with a shake of her head even as she was privately aghast that she had unintentionally blurted her thought out loud.

She placed a hand over her growing belly, the gesture unconsciously protective. This whole business of leaving Nicholas and starting over was stressing her more than what was safe for the baby. Maybe...maybe she should simply jump right in and leave?

It was just two days, anyway. Surely, in the larger scheme of things, it wouldn't really matter that she hadn't been able to fully comply with the month-long rest that the doctor had ordered?

"You're quite the character, Mrs. Sutherland." The words, spoken out of the blue in a soft, malicious drawl, startled Bee into lifting her head and meeting the rather catty gaze of the elegant-looking redhead seated across her.

Chloe , Bee belatedly recalled. The woman was a four-time divorcée, and if rumors were to be believed, the redhead would soon be on her fifth wedding, this time to a Bolivian tycoon whose source of income was dubious to say the least.

"When I learned what kind of woman our dear Nicholas had married—-"

Bee couldn't help gritting her teeth at the way the woman spoke his name in a caress.

"I was quite surprised. And your involvement in that ghastly trial in Georgia—-" Chloe gave an affected shudder. "Did you really have to poke that man's eyes out?"

Bee couldn't even find it in herself to feel offended, astonished as she was that there really were women like Chloe in real life. "I was about to get raped," she said finally, "so I had to do what I could."

"But that was just so disgusting..."

"Yes, it was. Wasn't it?" Bee had a hard time keeping her face straight as she realized just how genuinely revolved the other woman was.

"My friends and I were talking about it over lunch," Chloe was sharing, "and after considering all the very visible factors—-" The other woman glanced tellingly at Drake for some reason. "That was when we realized why Nicholas would choose someone like you. Because that's your appeal, isn't it?"

Bee was utterly confused. "Sorry?" And what did her bodyguard have to do with her marriage to Nicholas?

Chloe tittered. "Oh, come on, darling. Don't start playing coy now.

We both know you understand me perfectly fine.

Nicholas' just so conservative and decent on the outside, it was only natural he'd need someone like you to balance things out.

" Chloe wrinkled her nose. "Honestly, if I had realized this sooner, I wouldn't have hesitated to play the freak for Nicholas.

I've always thought he was the most exciting one among the SAFEs. "

The media-coined acronym stood for San Antonio's Finest Eligibles, of which Nicholas, along with Devon, Sean, and Logan, was a member of.

Bee had only learned about the name weeks ago, and realizing what it meant had only served to further convince her that she really wasn't meant to be a wife to someone like Nicholas.

And apparently, Chloe and no doubt most of Nicholas' peers, too, thought the same.

"I'm just curious..."

Bee suppressed a sigh, realizing the other woman still wasn't done.

"Is he meant to make your husband jealous?"

She saw Chloe direct another oddly telling glance at her bodyguard and couldn't help frowning. "Excuse me?"

"Oh, please. It's not like the whole world don't know about you two."

Bee stiffened. "If you're saying what I think you're saying—-"

"I absolutely am," Chloe cooed just as the doors swung open and the rest of the board members started filing in.

The meeting started soon after, leaving no chance for Bee to ask what Chloe meant. Even so, the other woman's innuendos continued to bother her, and as soon as she and Drake were in the privacy of Nicholas' car, she took her phone out and Googled her name.

A gasp escaped her a moment later.

Tons of gossip reports had been written about her in the past two weeks, and all of them were suggesting that her "closeness" to the bodyguard meant the two of them were having an affair right under Nicholas' nose.