Dress under her arm and shoes dangling from her fingers, Belle still managed to put an affronted feminine hand to her hip.
“You’re very bossy, do you know that?” she asked him.
“I have one hundred and eleven thousand, nine hundred and fifty-three employees. I have to be bossy,” he answered.
Belle’s mouth dropped open in astonishment at that impossible to believe fact.
Belle had only three and they were always driving her straight up the wall (or, at least, Belinda, her young, starry-eyed shop assistant did).
Therefore she asked on a whisper, “Really?”
He grinned but didn’t respond to her question. Instead, he ordered, “Go get your things.”
She turned to the door because standing in his shirt across the room and not in his arms in his bed, she was losing the courage to banter with Jack, and she muttered, “I’m not taking Baron.”
She heard him chuckle before he let out a sharp, short whistle, giving in and calling his dog.
She opened the door, stepped into the hall and started to close it behind her but threw him a grin of gratitude.
Baron was at the side of the bed, tail wagging, getting a head rub from Jack but Jack’s eyes were on her.
He smiled back.
Her belly did a flip, she licked her lips and closed the door.
Then she hurried down the hall.
As she did this, even though it was daylight, she thanked her lucky stars.
Belle had many lucky stars and she thanked them often.
She had a loving family even if she didn’t see her Dad very much and her Mom and Gram were a little nuts. She’d had an interesting childhood, seen many places, met nice people. She had a small cadre of good friends she cared about deeply. She owned her own business and did something she loved. She had a gorgeous cottage that was cosy, inviting, safe and very close to the sea, the sea being something that always made her feel happy and at peace.
Only once in her life had her stars turned. That was when she met, fell in love with and married Calvin.
But now, somehow she knew, with Jack those stars shone brighter than ever before. She also knew in her heart even after only one night that what she and Jack had was good, it was natural and it was right.
It could even be destiny or, at least, that was what her Mom would call it.
And she was ready to throw caution to the wind in order to have it, to hold it and keep it forever.
She was so caught in these happy thoughts she almost missed the murmuring voices as she made to turn from the wing Jack’s room was in to the one where hers was located.
She stopped just in time, took several steps back, away from the voices, hiding herself, and she plastered her back against the wall.
“… seen Belle?” Belle heard the final words of the question uttered quietly by Joy.
“No,” Yasmin answered. “She disappeared shortly after Jack.”
Belle bit her lip with concern that they were talking about her and she was eavesdropping which was beyond rude as Joy mumbled, “Oh dear.”
“Oh dear is right. Miles is livid. He was looking for her all night,” Yasmin went on.
Belle’s stomach pitched and she wondered if she could get back to Jack’s room without them noticing but before she could make a decision, Joy started talking.
“I know. He must have asked me if I’d seen her a dozen times,” Joy told Yasmin.
Belle wasn’t surprised about that (though she was worried).
“He asked me too,” Yasmin replied.
Belle wasn’t surprised about that either.
“Do you think she just went to her room? She looked very uncomfortable. I don’t think she’s a party person,” Joy commented wisely.
“She didn’t go to her room,” Yasmin answered and Belle held her breath in an effort not to gasp.
“How do you know?” Joy asked the question in Belle’s head.
“Because Miles told me some of the staff saw her and Jack walking through the kitchens and out the backdoor,” Yasmin answered and in an effort not to suffocate herself, Belle forced her breath out silently and took another short, silent (yet fearful), intake of lifesaving oxygen.
Miles knew she was with Jack.
So did Yasmin.
And now Joy.
This was not good.
“Oh dear,” Joy repeated but this time she sounded worried.
“When I see Jack, I’m going to wring his neck. He should know better,” Yasmin declared fiercely and Belle thought this was odd. So odd she forgot about how rude it was to eavesdrop and she leaned closer to the corner.
“You’re right, darling, he should,” Joy muttered.
“It’s worse than you think,” Yasmin said in a soft voice and Belle inched even closer to the corner so she could hear better.
“I don’t think I want to know,” Joy replied and she sounded like she didn’t want to know. In fact, she sounded like she really didn’t want to know.
Even so, Yasmin told her and what she said made the floor lurch crazily under Belle’s bare feet.
“Miles told me Jack told him to back off from Belle,” Yasmin confided and Belle felt her eyes widen in surprise, wondering why Jack would do such a thing.
“I’m not sure that’s a bad thing,” Joy remarked and Belle wondered anew why Miles’s mother would agree.
“No, except Miles told me that Jack said this because he told Miles he wanted a crack at her,” Yasmin returned.
Belle’s hand went to the wall as her weight pressed into it because her knees had buckled.
A crack at her?
What did that mean?
She didn’t have to wait long to find out.
“Jack wouldn’t say that,” Joy defended.
“Normally, I wouldn’t think so either but you didn’t see Jack when he first met her. As they were being introduced, right in front of Miles, he made a play for her,” Yasmin said.
“He didn’t,” Joy whispered in horror.
“He did,” Yasmin returned. “He knew who she was the minute he saw her. The gorgeous, enigmatic Tiny Dynamo, the ultimate challenge for the Bennett Brothers. And he knew why Miles brought her here, to throw down the gauntlet, to shove her in Jack’s face. And Jack took up the challenge immediately. I saw it with my own eyes. Miles told me Jack threw down when they were talking about her. Miles informed me Jack even said, ‘You’re on’.”
Belle’s heart started racing so fast she felt her pulse beating in her neck and her wrists and she thought surely the two women could hear it.
But she was too astounded to care.