Page 59 of The Acquisition

She softened at my words, and hope swelled up inside me. This trip was exactly what we needed to explore what was going on between us without the watchful eye of our family making us have to hide.

She took my hand and ran her thumb over my ring like I had. "I like the idea of being your wife in public, but what if the photographers get wind of us?"

I scrubbed my hand across my face. I hadn't dealt with the paparazzi in about a year. It wasn't like I'd forgotten about their annoying presence in my life. They'd been the bane of my existence since I was in my late teens. Every relationship I'd had since I was eighteen and freshly graduated from high school was splashed across all the society pages.

At the time I thought the press I got would lead Jenny back to me. I was young and dumb. Now I could see all I managed to do was show Jenny I'd moved on. Guilt gnawed at my gut. I wondered if my notoriety made her think I had moved on. Was that why she never told Evie about me?

Changing the past was impossible. What I couldn't do was compound the problem by showing off my relationship with Jana for Evie to learn about. We had to be the ones to tell her ourselves.

I slipped my ring off my finger and threaded the necklace through it. "You're right. We can't risk Evie finding out like this. But I'm not going to pretend there's nothing between us. Hell, even Evie suspects that much."

* * *

"Our assembly line is fully automated," Hans pointed out as he showed us the production floor.

Jana's eyes opened wide as she took in all the machinery. "Wow, this must save the company millions in payroll costs. Not to mention the lack of quality control concerns with the elimination of human error."

Hans turned his body toward hers. "Are you interested in technology?"

She seemed to vibrate with excitement. "Yes, I double majored at Stanford in Communications and Computer Science."

He smiled at her, and I wanted to hit him in the face. I had to remind myself that we were in the middle of a lucrative deal that would fall apart if I assaulted the CEO.

"What a treasure you are. Overqualified for an assistant, no?" he asked.

She laughed, and I gritted my teeth. "I'm not his assistant."

"Would you like to see the control room?"

"I would love to," she gushed.

"Let me give you a tour then," he offered, placing his hand on her lower back to lead her toward the heart of the production floor.

I practically stomped after them. This is why I didn't want to hide our relationship. A beautiful, intelligent woman was too enticing to a man used to vapid socialites only interested in their social standing.

Hans sat on the edge of the desk housing a bank of computers. His body was turned toward Jana, and she had all his attention.

"Have you had the chance to see much of Berlin?" he asked.

Her eyes flicked up to mine as if to urge me to keep my shit together. "We only arrived this morning."

"I would love to show you around while you're here," he offered.

"I'll be showing her around myself," I snapped.

He took a business card from his coat pocket. "Let me know if you want some fun off the clock."

I grabbed the card before he could hand it to her. "Maybe we should get back to discussing business."

He nodded. "Would you like to go over the prospectus?" Hans finally spoke to me.

Jana touched my arm to get my attention. "Do you mind if I step out of that particular meeting? I'm exhausted."

With her tired blue eyes looking up at me, I forgot about everything else. "I can take you back to the hotel," I said, pushing a lock of hair behind her ear.

"No, can you just have the car come for me? I'm going to take advantage of you being busy to take a nap."

I took my phone from my coat pocket and texted the driver assigned to us while we were in Berlin. I slipped my hand behind her back and led her toward the lobby to wait for the car.

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