Free Eden by Jamie McGuire

agreement signed and send them on their way.” I stood,
irritated he had wasted my time.
    “ I plan on it. The trouble
is, this deal has the potential to take Titan in a different
direction than what your father had envisioned.”
    “ Jack envisioned making
money. Do the deal.”
    Grant’s shoulders fell, and his eyes
lowered to his desk, despondent.
    “ Wait a minute…,” I said,
pointing my finger at him. Grant immediately tensed. He was caught.
“You didn’t want to talk about the meeting at all! You wanted me to
take care of Sasha for you!”
    Grant reached out to me.
“You don’t understand! She reorganizes my desk every morning! She makes lists for
my to-do lists!”
    “ You’re not married to the
woman. I can’t believe you pulled me away from my first night back
from my honeymoon for this.”
    His eyebrows shot up. “How was it, by
the way? Must have been somewhere tropical. You managed a decent
tan. I never thought you would run off and get married. Jack
wouldn’t have approved.”
    “ You can’t elope when
you’ve been engaged as long as we have. It was more last-minute
planning. I’ll call you tomorrow between classes for
updates.”
    “ Yes, ma’am,” Grant said,
staring at the information packets on his desk. Sasha had
undoubtedly worked on them throughout the week. They were
color-coded and alphabetized. “She…uh…thought it would personalize
the packets to put their names on them. In calligraphy.”
    “ She’s a
calligrapher?”
    Grant slumped in his chair. “She
thought we should hire one for the task.”
    My face flushed. Grant was now
allowing Sasha to misuse company funds for one of her ridiculous
whims. “I’ll have a talk with Sasha tomorrow. Beth has mentioned
that the filing room needs some attention.”
    “ Break it to her
gently.”
    I rolled my eyes. “Weenie.”
    My office looked exactly as I’d left
it. Beth had de-cluttered a bit during the week, but other than
that, it was untouched. I sat in my father’s chair and let out a
cleansing breath. Taking over the company wasn’t supposed to happen
until after graduation, and I wondered how I would juggle my last
year at Brown with my pregnancy and the pressure of running Titan.
I would be a mother before I’d be a college graduate. Everything
was happening so fast.
    A familiar pair of hands gently
touched the bare skin between my shirt and neck. Jared’s thumb
massaged into my tense muscles. My head automatically bowed, and I
sighed. Without a word, he kneeled behind me and let his lips trail
from my shoulder to my neck. I tilted my head, making the passage
easier for him.
    “ You never come in here,”
I said, smiling. “I must be really tense.”
    His hand made its way down my
shoulder, arm, and then traveled slowly down my side, resting on my
stomach. His fingers pressed into my skin, palming my belly like a
basketball. His firm grip took me off guard, and I felt my eyebrows
move in, curious what he was up to. His lips weren’t as soft as
they usually were; instead they felt dry and scratchy.
    “ A little lip balm goes a
long way, love,” I whispered.
    “ Is this unpleasant for
you?” A voice rasped.
    I looked down. The hand cupping my
stomach had pasty, abnormally long fingers. The nails were filthy,
and came to a point at the ends.
    When I turned, a pale face and black
eyes were just inches from my face. The creature grinned, revealing
two rows of unnatural, razor-sharp teeth.
    I sat up straight and blinked my eyes.
The office was dark and quiet, except for the sound of my heart
thumping in my ears. My breath was quick and shallow. The
frightening man was no longer behind me, but a dark figure sat in
the green chair on the other side of my desk. I gasped.
    Jared reached out. “It’s okay. It’s
okay, it’s just me.”
    “ Oh,” I said, touching my
fingertips to my chest.
    “ You’re
shaking.”
    “ Bad dream. I must have
dozed off.”
    “ It’s been a long week,”
Jared said, forcing a