Chapter 1
I’d been Chris Blackwood’s secretary for three years when he got engaged.
His fiancée demanded he fire all his female personal staff. My name was on the list.
As compensation, he offered me a blind date. With his brother.
“He’s richer than me, great in bed,” he’d said with a wink. “Just one catch–he has a kid. You don’t mind, do you?”
I didn’t mind.
After all, that child was mine.
20.07
Adrian Blackwood and I had a history.
Chris didn’t know. If he did, he wouldn’t be so carelessly dangling this in front of me after working me like a dog for three years.
I was twenty–two when I was with Adrian. Fresh out of college, clumsy and naive.
I mistook him, the heir to a corporate empire doing a field inspection, for another down–on–their–luck applicant who’d just bombed a job interview
He looked the part. His bespoke suit was rumpled and streaked with dust. He was sitting on a curb, eating from a sad–looking takeout container, a thick stack of documents beside him. He looked completely defeated.
I’d just been rejected for a position myself, and I was feeling emotional. I bought two hefty roast beef sandwiches, extra meat, and
gave one to him.
“Here,” I said. “Yours is all lettuce and dry meat. You need something that’ll stick to your ribs.”
I sat a few feet away, feeling a wave of pity for him, and for myself. I imagined how miserable my life would be if I couldn’t find a job. Would I end up sitting on a street corner, relying on the kindness of strangers for a meal?
I was so lost in my own self–pity that I missed the series of expressions that crossed Adrian’s face: shock, disbelief, and finally, a
flicker of amusement.
Over that one meal, we exchanged a few stories. And our names.
It was the beginning of a beautiful mistake.
I assumed his background was as ordinary as mine, and Adrian, for his own reasons, was more than happy to play the part of a
regular guy.
I started running into him everywhere. Each time, it felt like a coincidence. By the time he asked me out, I was convinced it was
fate.
