A Clandestine Corporate Affair(50)
“And it seems to me that it’s about a year and a half past due.”
“I just don’t want us to rush into anything. I want you to be sure.”
“I am sure.” It was the most sure he had been about anything in a very long time. Ana grounded him. He would be a fool to let her go again.
She smiled. “Okay then. Let’s look for a house.”
“I’ll call an agent after the first of the year.” They would have to work out the logistics of actually viewing the properties, since they couldn’t be seen together house hunting, but they would figure something out.
She leaned back against his chest and sighed. “I’m exhausted.”
“Why don’t you go crawl into bed. I’ll get the lights and check on Max.”
She yawned and shoved herself up from the couch. “I’ll see you in there.”
As she shuffled off, yawning and rubbing her eyes, Nathan shut off the lights and unplugged the Christmas tree. On his way to bed he slipped into Max’s room. He was asleep on his stomach, and as usual he’d kicked the covers off.
Nathan tucked the blanket up around his shoulders, then he pressed a kiss to his fingers and touched them to Max’s cheek. When the three of them were living together, he could do this all the time, since odds were pretty good that he wouldn’t be home every night in time to tuck Max into bed. A lot of women would have a problem with their husbands or significant others working such insane hours, but Ana grew up around the oil business, so it was second nature to her. Even back when they were dating the first time she’d never made an issue out of his work schedule.
Nathan closed Max’s door behind him and walked to the bedroom, pulling his shirt over his head, wondering if Ana was too tired to make love. He got his answer when he stepped into the room and heard her slow, even breaths from under the covers.
She was out cold.
He put on his pajamas and crawled into bed, curling up behind her. She murmured something incoherent and cuddled against him. And as the digits on the clock neared midnight, he couldn’t imagine a better way to end his Christmas than lying in bed, holding the woman he loved.
So why did he have a nagging voice in his head saying that things were so good, so perfect, something was bound to go wrong?
Fourteen
“Are you sure that you and Nathan are okay?” Beth whispered, taking Ana’s empty champagne glass and handing her a fresh one. “You’ve barely even looked at each other all night.”
“That’s the point,” Ana said, sipping the champagne, knowing that if she was going to make it to midnight she was going to have to pace herself. She and Nathan had already arranged to meet upstairs in the guest bedroom right before the clock struck twelve so they could share a New Year kiss. And maybe share a little more than that. From the minute she poured herself into the crimson party dress, he’d been gunning to get her back out of it again. And though he looked utterly delicious in his tux, she much preferred what he was hiding underneath it.
Since Christmas Eve, Nathan had spent every night at her place. Every day he brought more of his things, and he’d arranged for the service that picked up and delivered his dry cleaning to start coming to her condo instead of his apartment.
If someone had told her a month ago that she and Nathan and Max would be more or less living together now, she would have called them crazy.
Beth handed the empty glass to a passing waiter and asked Ana, “So you two are bitter rivals tonight?”
“No.” She glanced over at Nathan, who was standing across the room with a group of elegantly dressed couples. He seemed to sense her watching and glanced her way. Other than the slight tilt of his lips, he did nothing to acknowledge her. “Just indifferent,” she told Beth. “Sometimes acting as though you hate someone is even more suspicious than not acknowledging them at all.”
“Ma’am?” One of the servers approached Beth. “We’re running short on cocktail napkins.”
“There’s another box in the pantry,” Beth told her, and she stared at Beth blankly. Beth sighed and said, “I’ll show you.”
They walked off in the direction of the kitchen, and Ana crossed the great room to the Christmas tree beside the stone fireplace. It put hers to shame. It was so tall it nearly kissed the peak of the vaulted ceiling. There was another equally grand tree in the foyer at the base of the staircase. Beth always went all out on the holidays, enlisting a professional to decorate the estate inside and out. In fact there were so many white lights adorning the house and the trees and shrubbery throughout the grounds, Ana was sure that it was visible from space.