Free Everything You Want: Everything For You Trilogy 2 by Orla Bailey Page A

exasperated tone, he disappears for a moment and returns with a fistful of Madame’s kitchen garden.
    “Enough?” he asks.
    “For an entire restaurant.” Casting half a bush aside, I run my fingers over a stalk letting the small fragrant leaves drop into the butter and shake the pan as they pop and spit.
    “Smells amazing.” He watches as I add the steaks.
    “Can I trust you to make some dressing for the salad? Mustard’s in the fridge.”
    “Are you kidding? I make a killer vinaigrette.”
    “Show off.”
    A slosh of white wine thrown over the quickly fried steaks is allowed to reduce then I’m ready to plate up. I’m salivating.
    He eats like he enjoys it and I’m happy. In truth I don’t even mind we’re not going dancing tonight. I want to be alone with him too. I was really just agitated earlier that there might have been a scene over Laurent.
    “Mmm. You really can cook, kitten.” He mops up the juices with some bread then helps me to load the dishwasher when we’re done.
    “So what do you want to do this evening?” I ask as we finish clearing up, even though the answer’s obvious.
    “I have to get on my laptop and catch up on a few things. Do you mind amusing yourself while I work?”
    I’m not good at hiding my disappointment. “Fine.”
    His hand reaches out to stroke my cheek affectionately. “Tabitha. I need to make sure some major contracts at my company are proceeding the way I want them to. Things don’t just happen without my approval. It’s not my way.”
    How true. He likes to remain firmly in command. Another trait of a good CEO and Jack has all but abandoned Zee-Com to come after me. Not that I asked him to.
    “How did you know I was here, Jack?”
    I get a smug look. “I’ll always know where to find you, Tabby.”
    Still not talking. He can be so infuriating.
    “You can work in Harry’s study, if you like.” I don’t know why I’m offering this. It’s his house now; he can work where he wants but he accepts with grace. “Thanks. I will. What will you do until I’m done?”
    “Paint my toenails.” I have little grace. I sound like a spoilt child.
    And his sense of duty makes me conscious I’ve ignored CaidCo for an entire week. Not enough to want to do anything about it though. I wish I could lock myself away at Lassec with Jack, forever.
    “Two hours tops,” he promises me.
    I leave him to work in peace and find things to amuse myself. I start by washing the grime off my feet and painting my toenails scarlet. The colour seems to haunt me. Really I’m distracting my mind waiting for Jack to come home from work to me. It feels brand new and comfortably domestic and I like the relative normality of it all.
    I slip on some pretty heeled shoes which make the sundress appear even shorter and sexier and make coffee for him to remind him his two hours are nearly up. I’m too impatient to wait any longer for him to emerge so I carry the tray through the house, popping it down on the table outside Harry’s study until I can open the door. Jack is speaking to someone inside. I presume he’s on Skype so I listen at the door for a suitable break in the conversation.
    When I hear her saccharine-coated voice I freeze and a surge of rage burns through me. Amanda Devereaux. Sounding more than friendly.
    “Jack, darling. Are you alright? You sound so tense. I should be there with you, darling. When you had to leave so suddenly I was frantic with worry.”
    “Everything’s fine, Amanda. Nothing I can’t handle.”
    He left me by myself to catch up with her? Anger overwhelms me. I’ve created some idealistic, cosy little scene of rural domesticity in my head but it isn’t real. Jack is back with Amanda already. He never really left her. He’s still using me.
    I hear her voice again. I swear she makes it sound deliberately breathless only when she speaks to Jack. It didn’t sound anything like that when she bit my head off in the bathroom at the ball or again at