Page 42 of Hidden Heart

“No, not her work. She’s probably at home tonight. I was about to head over there. I’ll ask her to call you.” He walked to the closet to get his coat and was out the door before the line disconnected.

“Mr. Bradford!” The doorman stopped him in the lobby.

“Yes?”

“I wanted to apologize. I tried to flag your lady friend down, to keep her from going up while you were out, but she rushed right past me. I didn’t catch her in time. When she came back down, she looked…well, she looked as crushed as I’ve ever seen a woman.” He wrung his gloved hands.

“What are you talking about? What lady friend?” Royce demanded, getting impatient.

“Jessica. While you were out getting dinner the other night. She flew in here.”

Understanding hit Royce, knocking the wind from his chest. Jessica had gone up to the apartment and been greeted by Melody. He imagined what Melody had said to her. The mat— Jessica would have noticed her mat missing.

He wanted to ring Melody’s neck. But first, he needed to talk to Jessica.

He took off toward her apartment at a dead run.

Chapter 17

Work had been exhausting. The meeting with the plaintiffs had taken all afternoon and her stomach turned at every moment. She’d listened while Jeremy spun his web of half-truths and spewed out flat apologies. In the end, all the papers had been signed. Some of their money would be returned, most of it wouldn’t. None of it seemed legal, but when you played with words, as attorneys often did, everything was legal, as wrong as it was.

Royce never left her mind. Always reminding her the pain in her chest resulted from her stupidity. Because she’d let him in and allowed herself to feel.

She’d made it clear from the start—they were casual. No feelings. No expectation of love. She hadn’t listened to her own rules, and now she paid the price.

Not wanting to spend another night trying to keep her thoughts at bay, she’d asked Alex over to share a bottle of wine. His knowing look upon arriving made her heart ache even more. She hadn’t told him anything about her relationship with Royce, but the easy way he took the bottle of wine and poured the glasses told her he knew everything he needed to know.

“Are you going to tell me what happened, or should I wait for another glass before I pry?” He refilled her wine. Alex sat in the armchair, his suit jacket draped over the arm and his tie loose at his neck.

“I am forever the fool.” She shrugged. “I just—well, Royce isn’t the one. I’m an idiot and should have stuck with my original plan. Fuck buddies and nothing more.” A drop of wine slid down her chin as she took a large gulp.

A blond eyebrow shot up at her remark. “Fuck buddies? I don’t think I’ve ever heard you use that phrase before. He messed up that bad, eh?”

“No, he didn’t. We never said we were exclusive. I told him I wasn’t looking for love—”

“You told him you didn’t want love?” Alex sounded appalled at the idea. He had grown up with parents who were utterly in love with each other. Of course he didn’t agree with her thoughts on matters of the heart. “What do you mean you didn’t talk about being exclusive? Is he seeing someone else?” Steel worked its way into his tone. His back stiffened as well as his jaw.

“Alex, don’t do anything. I know you work with him. Just leave it be. We never talked about it. It’s fine,” she lied. Remembering the blonde standing in the doorway of Royce’s apartment, her shoes lined up at the door where her mat should have been, tore her heart to pieces.

Jessica signaled for another refill as a loud thumping interrupted her thoughts. She handed Alex her wine glass and went to the door. She hadn’t heard the buzzer from downstairs.

Her breath caught in her throat when she looked through the peephole and saw an angry Royce standing in the hallway. His eyebrows were scrunched together, his eyes dark, and he appeared out of breath. He raised his fist to bang on her door again.

She pulled it open, and he stumbled to keep from falling on his face.

“Jessica.”

“Royce.” She forced levity into her voice.

“You haven’t been answering your phone,” he accused, entering her apartment. With apprehension, she watched him take in her home.

She hadn’t wanted him in the apartment at first because she didn’t want that intimacy. Then it became more about not wanting him to see her collection.

The front wall could be described more accurately as the front windows. Six large windows looked out onto the street with a bench acting as storage seated beneath them. The wall holding up the front door housed a small flat screen television pointed at a secondhand love seat. The third wall, also housing the entryway to the dining and kitchen area could not be seen, nor the fourth wall. Books lined them from the floor to nearly touching the ceiling.

Royce stared openmouthed at the bookshelves until his eyes landed on Alex who had stood and squared his shoulders defensively. The two men glared at each other.

Jessica broke the silence. “I had it on vibrate today. That meeting closing out the 401k client was this afternoon,” she half lied, pushing the door closed.

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