Secret Fantasy (NYT Bestselling Author) by Carly Phillips

Author:Carly Phillips [Phillips, Carly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781488098413
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2018-02-28T18:30:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

JULIETTE WAS the last person Doug needed or wanted to see. He turned and hit the water again, determined to work himself until he no longer responded to her fresh beauty or honest eyes. Until his body was too tired to react to hers and his mind could focus on pushing her for answers. Something he’d yet to try.

So far, each time she peeled off a layer of Juliette Stanton, giving him deeper access to her thoughts, feelings and past, he’d let her set the pace. Never pushing. Never prodding. Never probing further than the limits she set, not even when she’d called her ex-fiancé by name. Some reporter, he thought with disgust, and turned at the edge of the pool, beginning yet another lap.

He thought of this morning’s call to the hospital and his mother’s groggy reply. After the last test on his dad, they’d found clogged arteries that needed bypassing or else he might not survive another attack. They’d performed emergency surgery last night. Unable to reach Doug in his room and he suspected unwilling to try too hard and interrupt his so-called assignment, his mother had endured the hours of his father’s surgery and the long wait alone. He should have been there.

And maybe he would have been if he’d been doing his job as a reporter and not falling harder for Juliette Stanton—the woman who held the answers that would free him up from this assignment and let him go home where he was needed.

He surfaced, coming up for much-needed air, to find her kneeling at the edge of the pool. “Exercise doesn’t accomplish much if you pass out.”

He slicked his wet hair off his face. “I needed to burn off some energy.”

“Looked more like you were working yourself to death. What’s wrong?” She settled herself on the concrete edge, oblivious to getting her dress wet, and propped her chin in her hands, waiting for an answer.

“Bad news at home.”

“Your parents?”

He let out a groan. He had no reason to lie. “My father. He had a heart attack a little while back and they had to operate last night.”

“Oh, Doug. I’m sorry.” She placed her warm, dry hand over his wet one. “Is there anything I can do?”

He doubted she’d appreciate hearing that information was the one thing he needed. He shook his head. “But thanks for asking.”

“Do you need to leave?” The concern in her voice was mixed with a disappointment he couldn’t mistake and the anger and frustration he’d mentally aimed her way all morning evaporated.

“Not right now.” The surgery had gone well and again his father was resting comfortably. In fact, the procedure might well have added years to his life. “Things are actually looking up.”

“I’m glad. I know how much you love them.” Relief etched her features. “Of course I’d miss you if you had to go.”

With her honest, heartfelt admission, the vise clamping his heart all morning eased as well. He couldn’t blame her for the predicament he was in anymore than he wanted to.

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