Page 6 of Loving the CEO

“Are you going on a honeymoon?”

She shook her head. "No. God, no. I need to focus on work right away. I put it on the back burner this past month or so, and stuff is piling up. Walter wants to go at a later date anyway. At least we agreed on that."

Her phone rang, startling her. She took it out of her back pocket and groaned.

"It's the wedding planner," she said. "She needs me back in the ballroom." She put her half-drunk cappuccino on the table. "Thanks for the coffee, Leo. Just having you here to talk to has made me feel so much better."

"Sure. I'll see you around. And don't stress too much."

"I'm trying not to, but I can't make any promises." She turned around, and her shoulders hunched forward again.

I didn't like this one bit.

Chapter Two

Tory

God, it was good to see Leo. I almost didn't want to leave him, but I had to. Duty called. My wedding planner, Nancy, discovered that some of the name cards were missing, and I wanted to check out for myself what was going on.

I found her in the ballroom, going through a huge box.

"Found them. Sorry I alarmed you." Nancy didn't work very well under pressure, which made me wonder how she got into wedding planning in the first place. But then again, I wasn't one to judge. I had the propensity to get in over my head as well.

"So, that's all sorted out?"

She nodded. "So sorry I disturbed you."

I bit the inside of my cheek, then said, "Please let me know when you solve a crisis so I don't run around the hotel for something that's already been taken care of."

"Oh, yeah, you're right. Sure, I'll do that. It just slipped my mind."

I realized about a month ago that Nancy wasn't the wedding planner I was hoping she'd be. I wanted someone who was more in control, but it was too late to get someone else. And I seriously doubted that another wedding planner would have solved my problems with Walter anyway.

After leaving the ballroom, I rubbed my shoulders and turned my head from the left to the right. I had a lot of tension gathered in my body.Since I still had some time until the rehearsal dinner started, I decided to go back to my room to rest a bit.

Even though we lived together in a very cute house in the Marigny, we decided to stay here in separate rooms tonight. It was more practical, and it gave us the chance to dress without seeing each other before the wedding tomorrow. God forbid there’d be a cause for bad luck. My nerves were doing me in well enough already. Then Walter and I would spend our wedding night together in their bridal suite.Hopefully. The last time we'd been “together” was four months ago. I was certain that had contributed to the stress between us—lack of sex could do that. But honest to goodness, I wasn't in the mood for any fun in bed when he snapped at me all the time.

Mom insisted that it was normal for tensions to run high when we had so much pressure on us, but that didn't feel right to me. We were planning our wedding, for goodness' sake. It was a happy occasion. What would happen when we had kids? For some reason, I couldn’t even imagine that at all. I was exhausted at the mere idea.

I was tempted to hunt Leo down again. Just thinking about hearing more stories of the Whitleys filled me with joy unlike anything I'd felt in months. How weird was that? But no, I really wanted to talk to Walter before dinner, so I headed right to his room on the floor directly above mine.

As I walked, I thought once again how gorgeous this hotel was. I was so happy we'd picked this one. The rooms were large and decorated with a lot of thought. Most people were arriving tomorrow; it was onlyclose friends who came today. I was beyond happy that Leo was here early and for the rehearsal dinner as well.

Walter's room was at the back of the corridor. Pulling out his key card—we each had access to the other's room in case we needed to get something—I opened the door quietly, as I didn't want to wake him up in case he was sleeping. But when I heard his voice, I took in a deep breath. My stomach clenched, and my chest constricted.

Calm down, Tory. You won’t fight this time.

Stepping inside, I planned to wave to make my presence known, then wait for him to finish his conversation. But his words stopped me in my tracks.

“Look, there’s no way for me to get away before dinner. Everything is planned to the minute.”

I bit the inside of my cheek. Did he want to hang out with his friends before rehearsal dinner? I wouldn’t mind.

“I mean, maybe you could come to the hotel, but she insisted on having a key card to my room, so that’s not safe.”

My feet felt cold all of a sudden.

“You know what? I’ve got another proposition. After the rehearsal dinner circus, she’ll insist on going to bed early for her beauty sleep. And I’ll sneak out and come to your place, and we can have fun for a few hours. Hell, I can even sleep there. It’s a win-win, since after a few rounds in bed with you, I’ll be more likely to be the smiling groom everyone expects tomorrow."

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