“BY THE WAY, congratulations on you

“BY THE WAY, congratulations on your engagement.”
My gaze shifted from the project engineer’s face on my monitor to the photo of Eva blowing kisses. “Thank you.”
I would much rather look at my wife. For an instant, I pictured Eva as she’d been the night before, those plush lips wrapped around my cock. I had given her carte blanche with my body and all she’d wanted was to suck me off. Again and again. And again. Christ. I had been thinking about the night we’d had all day long.
“I’ll keep you posted on the impact of the storm,” he said, bringing my attention back to work. “I appreciate you calling personally to check on us. The weather conditions may set us back a week or two, depending, but we’ll open on time.”
“We have a cushion. Take care of yourself and your crew first.”
“Will do. Thanks.”
I closed the chat window and checked my schedule, needing to know exactly how much time I had to prepare for my next meeting with the lead R and D team at PosIT.
Scott’s voice projected from my phone’s speaker. “Christopher Vidal Sr. is on line one. It’s his third call today. I’ve already told him you’ll get back to him when you can, but he’s insistent. How do you want me to handle?”
Calls from my stepfather never boded well, which meant delaying them ate into the time I had to fix whatever problem he needed to impose on me. “I’ll take it.”
I hit the speaker button. “Chris, what can I do for you?”
“Gideon. Listen, I’m sorry to disturb you, but you and I need to talk. Would it be possible for us to meet today?”
Prodded by the urgency in his voice, I picked up the receiver and took him off speaker. “My office or yours?”
“No, your penthouse.”
I sat back, surprised. “I won’t be home until close to nine.”
“That’s fine.”
“Is everyone all right?”
“Yes, everyone’s fine. Don’t worry about that.”
“It’s Vidal, then. We’ll take care of it.”
“God.” He laughed harshly. “You’re a good man, Gideon. One of the best I know. I should’ve told you that more often.”
My gaze narrowed at the edge in his tone. “I’ve got a few minutes now. Just lay it out.”
“No, not now. I’ll see you at nine.”
He hung up. I sat for a long minute with the receiver in my hand. There was a knot in my gut, one that was cold and sharp.
I returned the receiver to its cradle and my attention to work, pulling up schematics and reviewing the packet Scott had placed on my desk earlier. Still, my mind raced.
I couldn’t control what happened with my family, had never had any power there. I could only clean up the messes Christopher made and try to keep Vidal from going under. I drew the line, however, at using the footage of Eva. Nothing Chris could say would change that.
Time was racing toward the PosIT meeting when the message app popped up on my monitor and Eva’s avatar appeared.
I can still taste you. Yummy. ☺
A dry laugh escaped me. The knot I’d been ignoring eased, then disappeared. She was my clean slate. My fresh start.
Soothed, I replied. The pleasure was mine.
“I’VE got a lead.”
My head turned to find Raúl entering my office.
He came to my desk with brisk strides. “I’m still running through the guest list for that event you attended a couple weeks ago. I’ve also been running twice-daily searches for photos. Got an alert on this one today. I secured a copy and made some zoom views.”
I glanced at the photos he slid across my desk. Picking them up, I examined them more closely, one by one. There was a redhead in the background. In each successive picture, she was brought closer to the fore. “Emerald green dress, long red hair. This is the woman Eva saw.”
It was also Anne Lucas. Something about the way she was standing, with her face averted, spurred a familiar sickness in my gut.
I looked up at Raúl. “She wasn’t on the guest list?”
“Not officially, but she was on the red carpet, so I’m thinking she had to have been someone’s plus-one. I don’t know who her escort was yet, but I’m on it.”
Restless, I stood, shoving my chair back. “She went after Eva. You need to keep her away from my wife.”
“Angus and I are developing new protocols for event security.”
Turning, I retrieved my jacket from its hook. “You’ll tell me if you need more men.”
“I’ll let you know.” He scooped up the photos and started toward me. “She’s at her office today,” he said, accurately gauging my intention. “Was still there when I headed up to see you.”
“Good. Let’s go.”