Page 47 of Sutton and the CEO's Baby

The sound of the blender brought Brian down the stairs. I immediately noticed the way that he was looking at Maggie. It wasn’t the same brotherly way he looked at me or Candice. I was torn between thinking that he might like her or that he might be distrustful of her.

Knowing Brian, it was most likely a combination of the two.

“Is there to be a party?” he asked in that gravel tone that reminded me so much of Mark.

Candice smiled up at him., “You want in?”

Brian smirked a little as he sat down at the bar next to Maggie. “Hell yeah I do. And none of that shit Sutton is drinking. Give me the good stuff.”

Several blends later, my guests were flying high and feeling fine. I smiled at their antics when Candice decided that balancing things on their faces was a good idea. And then Brian insisted on balancing Candice and picked her up clean off the floor, hoisting her over his head.

We all laughed until I nearly peed myself. It was nice to laugh; it had been a while. Maggie seemed to blend in perfectly with the dynamics of the group. She too decided she was going to balance Candice above her head. The only issue with this is that Candice probably outweighed Maggie by fifteen pounds. There wasn’t much to my cousin.

No matter how hard she tried, Maggie couldn’t lift Candice off the ground.

I heard the garage door go up and raced to the door. The moment that Mark opened it, I flung myself in his arms. It didn’t make sense, but all of the emotion and turmoil came bubbling up, and soon I was sobbing and he was carrying me through the kitchen. We went past our drunken guests that looked surprisingly sober at that moment, up the stairs, and into our room.

“It’s okay,” he murmured to me as he settled into the chaise lounger with me in his lap.

He rubbed my back and held me close. It was what I’d needed all day long, and he was there. I told him about Maggie and her father Justin. I told him about Max and how I should have visited him more and how guilty I felt.

I felt so fucking guilty about everything but it seemed that every word, every breath that I released when speaking with Mark, let a little more slip away.

He continued to hold me when I told him about Brian and how strange he had been with Maggie at first. I told him about Natalie and how she really worked for Brian and they thought Knox might be a dirty cop. When I finally had purged it all, he held me.

“I love you, Sutton. Nothing bad is going to touch you or our baby. I promise you that.”

I leaned into him and felt the exhaustion of the day start to kick in. The next thing I knew, Mark was carrying me over to our bed and helping me out of my clothes. He pulled me against his broad chest and finally I slept.

CHAPTER 18

Mark

“Absolutely not!” I felt outrage laced with fear creep up the back of my neck. “I refuse to let Sutton be bait for a madman.”

We were sitting in a conference room down at the police station. There was Candice on the other side of Sutton, Maggie, Brian, Natalie, Knox, and then myself.

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