Page 52 of Tempting Her Forbidden Boss

‘It’s a play premiere, right?’ She checked on the plan as she changed.

He nodded.

She smoothed down her black dress. She was going to have to go shopping soon—another outing in this number and she’d be letting Alex down.

His phone rang again.

‘You better be sure to switch that off in the theatre.’

‘Vibrate,’ he muttered, looking at the screen and turning away to take the call.

Dani finished combing her hair and leant closer to the mirror to carefully slide in the hairclip and then do her lippy.

‘Dani.’

She looked up to see his reflection, struck by the new note in his voice. The tux was gorgeous. But his face was ashen.

‘Alex?’ She spun to face him.

‘I have to tell you something.’

Whatever it was, it wasn’t going to be good. He looked worse than when he’d told her about Patrick. Only this wasn’t about him, this was about her. She knew because of the way he was looking at her—as if he didn’t want to.

‘You’ve found him.’

‘Yes.’

She almost couldn’t bear to ask. He was looking so solemn. Why? What was wrong? What had happened?

‘Why are you looking so serious?’ She couldn’t do anything more than whisper.

‘Because it’s not what you wanted, Dani.’

She couldn’t breathe. ‘He doesn’t want to meet me?’

‘No.’ Alex pushed out a long breath. ‘He’s dead, Dani.’

‘What?’ She couldn’t move. ‘He’s what?’

‘His name was Jack Parker. He got adopted into a really nice family. Did fine at school. He was going into the family business—working with his father.’

‘What happened?’ She needed to know: how, when—dead? Had he really saiddead?

‘A car accident. It wasn’t his fault—he was in the wrong place, at the wrong time.’

‘He was killed.’ She was staring, unblinking, but didn’t know what she was seeing.

‘He was in a coma for a couple of days and then he died. It was five years ago.’

Dani’s heart just stopped. All of her stopped.Five years ago?He’d died before their mother. He’d died before Dani had even known about him.

‘Dani?’

She forced herself to swallow. It seemed like a huge action, her whole body involved in the effort. She blinked. Alex was right in front of her, his hand outstretched as if he was about to take her arm. She turned away and forced in a long, controlled breath. ‘That’s great he found a family.’

‘Yeah, they seem really nice,’ Alex said quietly. ‘They offered to meet with you, if you’d like. They have photos they’d share, would talk to you about him.’

Dani bent her head. ‘I don’t think that would be a good idea.’

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