Page 1 of Their Stolen Kisses
Chapter 1
Cameron
Incredible. It was incredible how one, single, neatly folded document could reverse my perfectly normal day at work into a nightmare I thought I’d left in the past.
There, on the desk in front of me were some expense reports. Next to those, a pile of resumes. Lastly, by itself on the right side - just within reach if I could trust myself to touch it without tearing it to shreds - was the letter informing me that my ex-wife had filed for full custody of our son.
She had left us. A year and a half ago, Jo had told me in front of our son that she was leaving me for another man. A man she’d been seeing for months. A man she had cheated on me seemingly unashamed.
Oh, and he just happened to be one of my greatest business rivals. I’d spent many depressed, sleepless nights wondering bitterly if she chose him intentionally just to spite me.
If that hadn’t been to spite me, the pale blue envelope with its inescapably official seal on my desk certainly was. Jo didn’t have to send this to my office. She’d walked through our… my front door enough times to remember the address. At home, I could have sat down with a glass of wine and taken my time to absorb what she had to know would be heartbreaking news for me.
Bitch.
My heart throbbed. Even after an entire year and a half, it still hurt me to think that about her, even if it was true. I’d loved her so much… to have a child with her was all I’d ever wanted.
I got that. Apparently, I should have wanted more. Then, maybe she would have stayed with me. Stayed with her husband and her son.
This past year, I’d spent so much time trying to recover from our divorce. I loved Noah and he meant the world to me, but… I got lonely. My bed felt cold at night without someone I loved to warm it, and my heart felt cold during the day. And a man had needs...
I wished I could see my own face reflected in my computer screen so I could glare at myself. How Jo would laugh if she knew I had settled for arranged escorts in her absence, knew that I’d traded loving, passionate sex with her for an occasional few hours of wild sex games in the penthouse of a company-owned hotel.
My phone buzzed, jolting me out of a guilty remembrance of my latest romp in the hotel. Ashamed, almost as though I’d been caught doing something wrong, I turned the phone toward me to see the screen. I hardly even saw the notification because the picture behind it caught my eye.
This was my favorite photo of Noah. To anyone who didn’t know my 3-year-old son, the ear-to-ear grin on his face as he held up a basketball signed by his favorite player on the Chicago Bulls team wouldn’t look unusual at all. Any kid would be happy to have a signature from his hero, wouldn’t he?
But I knew. I knew that Noah was actually extremely shy and that Bulls game was one of the only times I could think of that a stranger had made him smile like that.
I couldn’t lose Noah. He was all I had left.
I surged to my feet, unable to sit still. My body and mind required some kind of action from me, even if that was just to pace back and forth across my spacious office, periodically glancing daggers at the envelope on my desk.
I would need an attorney; that was the first thing to take care of. The case would be heard where Jo lived - San Francisco - so I would need one based in San Francisco. When it came to the law, I hated relying on web searches and online reviews...I should definitely check with Chloe before I do anything myself.My highly qualified executive assistant always seemed to know someone everywhere, and it wasn’t far-fetched to hope she could point me to a good attorney.
Next, I’d need a nanny. My current nanny was fine. Amy did her job well and Noah liked her best of anyone I had hired before. Unfortunately - and she had made this clear before her employment - she couldn’t stay nights. I hadn’t asked why, and at the time it had seemed like a non-issue.
You would think, as Chief Executive Officer of Pinnacle Real Estate, I’d have a little more foresight. Guess not. Now, I’d have to find a second nanny to stay nights, which meant Noah would have to get accustomed to another stranger.
Need to talk to you when you get back.Quickly, I typed the short and cryptic message to my executive assistant, ensuring she would come straight to my office when she returned from handling company business.
A series of spaced-out knocks at my door and frustrating encounters with employees who couldn’t understand why I didn’t want to deal with them right now took up the next hour. Then, one final knock reverberated through the room, and when the knob turned without a welcoming signal from me, I knew who it was.
“Handled,” Chloe announced to answer my unspoken question, shutting the door behind her and sitting herself down in the revolving chair in front of my desk without asking. She tucked a single strand of out-of-place hair behind her ear. Personally, I believed her hair was whitening - but she insisted it was still pale blonde, as always.
Don’t push it. You’re not too far behind her,I reminded myself. Technically, since I was thirty-two and she was sixty-something, I was quite at bit further behind her. These days, especially since… well, since Jo, I felt older than I was or looked. If I said anything like that to Chloe, she’d tell me not to get my handsome face in a twist and to enjoy being a young good looking guy.
The thought almost made me smile. Almost. “Excellent. Thank you,” I said, and I meant it, despite my dark mindset.
“So, what did you need to talk to me about? I have some work to catch up on.” Despite the words, she crossed her legs comfortably in her skirt and leaned back.
“Two questions, but first I need to give you a little explanation. You remember Jo? Yes, I know she’s hard to forget. She filed for full custody of Noah.”
Chloe could have said, “Well… that sucks, I’m sorry,” or anything of the sort, but she just sat and listened, waiting for me to finish. That was part of what made her so good at her job and such an asset to this company.
“I need a nanny - someone trustworthy, good… make that great with kids, drives, and can stay multiple nights in a row. I’m not sure how long this court business will take or how often I’ll have to go to San Francisco.”
“Of course. And you’ll be needing an attorney too, won’t you? Unless you already have someone lined up.”
