CHAPTER 37

 

When Cate finally got home late on Sunday night, Kian and the children were already asleep. The brunch meeting with Rosa Fuentes had been a great success. They’d already come up with some really good ideas about how the two charities could work together. Their next goal was to lobby Congress to make sure that all pregnant women were screened for depression.

With Annie’s tragic tale still weighing heavily on her mind, Cate gave each of her sleeping children a big kiss and whispered how fiercely she loved them. As she bent down to give Sierra a kiss, she felt her daughter’s little fist wrap around her ponytail and give it a sharp tug.

“Ow” Cate yelped, rubbing her scalp. Sierra was getting too strong to be doing that.

When she looked down again, Sierra was wide awake and giggling. “What are you doing awake, baby girl?” Cate said softly, lifting her up. The warmth and weight of her daughter’s little body was so comforting. She brushed her lips over Sierra’s soft, inky-black hair.

Exhausted, she slumped down in the rocking chair, hoping that she could lull Sierra back to sleep. Unfortunately, her daughter had other ideas. She wriggled on Cate’s lap, kicking her little legs, eager to get down on the carpet so she could play. “It’s two am,” Cate said wearily.

After several minutes of fruitlessly trying to get Sierra to settle down, Cate gave up and took her to the play room. She put Sierra down on her brightly-coloured play mat, surrounded by all her toys. Cate’s aching muscles cried out as she dragged the sofa so that it blocked the door. While Sierra played happily with her toys, Cate curled up on the sofa, wrapped up in the fleece blanket that she’d brought from the nursery. She was so tired; on the flight home, she’d fantasised about climbing into their big, comfy bed and snuggling up to her hot, naked husband.

When Sierra was eventually ready to go back to sleep, Cate was too tired to even think about pushing the sofa back. “You’re going to have to sleep here tonight, baby girl.” She turned over, keeping Sierra between her and the back of the sofa and wrapped them both up in the fleece blanket.

Of course, Sierra fell asleep immediately. “Ugh,” Cate grumbled as her daughter snuggled under the blanket, exposing Cate’s back to the cold night air.

“Cate?” Kian tried the door to the playroom, “are you in there?”

“Wow,” Cate sat up. It felt like only five minutes had passed since she’d fallen asleep but it was already light outside.

Sierra whimpered, not happy at having been woken up so suddenly. “Now, you know how I feel,” Cate smiled, settling her daughter on her hip. “Just a second,” she called back to Kian.

She pushed the sofa just enough that she could get the play room door open. “Hey.”

As if the universe was determined to torment her, Kian was deliciously naked apart from a pair of black tracksuit bottoms which hung loosely on his hips. Cate forced herself not to look at that mouth-watering v-cut and the thick bulge of his early morning erection. She definitely didn’t want to think about how they could have been having sleepy morning sex right now if she’d actually slept in their bed last night instead of on the sofa in the play room with her daughter hogging the blanket.

A muscle ticked in his jaw and Cate realised with surprise that he was furious. “We need to talk,” he said tersely.

After she’d put Sierra back to bed, Cate found Kian in their bedroom. “What’s wrong?”

Kian handed Cate his phone. There was a paparazzi photo of what looked like her and Declan at Seattle airport… kissing. “Is this some kind of joke?” Cate stumbled.

“Trent sent me the link last night,” Kian turned his back on Cate, staring out of the window at Puget Sound. “He thought I should know that my wife’s cheating on me with her fucking dance partner.”

Cate felt as if she’d been drop-kicked in the chest. “You seriously believe that?”

She looked at Kian’s phone again, frantically wondering why when she’d never kissed Declan; there was a photo of her doing just that?

“Wait a second.” Cate sat down on the bed. Wow, she was seriously sleep-deprived. “You know that’s not me. It’s Ruby. I’ve only kissed one man in my entire life.”

Kian sighed, “of course I fucking know that it’s Ruby, angel.”

“I don’t get it. If you know that it’s not me kissing Declan in that photo, why are you so angry?”

Before he could answer, Cate’s phone rang. “Hello?”

“Stay the hell away from my husband, you fucking bitch.”

“Hadley?”

The phone line went dead.

Cate pushed past Kian and ran to the bathroom; she climbed into the bath and brought her knees up to her chest, making herself as small as possible.

“Talk to me.” When she opened her eyes, Kian had climbed into the bath with her.

“That was Hadley…” Cate could still feel each and every one of Hadley’s words like lashes of a whip against her bare skin. To be painted as the “other woman” in a marriage, a family was the cruellest insult. “She told me to stay away from her husband.”

“Enough,” Kian said, tugging Cate on to his lap. “I’m going to get my publicist to release a statement confirming that it isn’t you in that photo, it’s Ruby.”

“We can’t…” Cate started to protest. She was still reluctant to sacrifice her half-sister.

Kian shook his head, “we need to protect our family, angel. You, me and the children.”

While Kian went downstairs to make the call to his publicist, Cate rested her head against the cold lip of the bath. She reached for her phone and found the photo again, ignoring the lurid headlines about her which accompanied it. Declan was wearing the same clothes that he’d worn on Saturday night. She hadn’t invited him to dinner with Annie, George and their friends and family. Instead, he must have flown back to Seattle that night and Ruby had met him at the airport.

Cate was shocked by how cold-hearted her sister was. This wasn’t just a drunken mistake. Ruby was knowingly trying to break up a marriage.

Her phone rang again and Cate braced herself for more vitriol and abuse. It was Sheila, one of the producers of Stepping Out. Even just on the other end of the phone line, Cate could feel the icy chill of the woman’s voice. She’d always been kind to Cate in the past, they’d chatted in the studio canteen about their young children, but presumably now she’d seen the photo, she’d consigned Cate to the other side of the deep chasm with the rest of the grubby, little homewreckers.

“As I’m sure you know,” Cate could hear how much Sheila was struggling to remain professional. “Declan has been released from his contract with Stepping Out and has flown back to Ireland.”

“OK,” Cate felt a huge rush of relief that she wouldn’t have to see him again. She was a little sad that her time on Stepping Out had ended in such a tawdry way but she was pleased that Annie would win the bumper cheque for her charity.

“We’ve arranged a replacement partner for you and he’ll be at the gym where you usually train in Seattle at nine am this morning.”

“You want me to continue on the show?” Cate asked incredulously.

Sheila coughed, “next Saturday is the grand finale of Stepping Out.”

OK, so they didn’t exactly want her on the show, it would be just far too messy to get rid of her now given that they were almost at the grand finale. Stepping Out might feel like a very invasive therapy session but it was actually supposed to be a dance competition and handing the bumper cheque to Annie by default wouldn’t exactly make great TV. “OK,” Cate conceded, “I’ll be there.”

Her pride kicked in just before Sheila was about to hang up. “Wait,” Cate said. “It wasn’t me in that photo.” She wasn’t just being accused of breaking up Declan’s marriage; she was also accused of cheating on Kian. Kian and the children were absolutely everything to Cate.

“You don’t have to defend yourself to me.”

“I know,” Cate clenched her fists. But she wanted to. “It was my half-sister, Ruby. Unfortunately, we look very much alike. My husband and I will be releasing a statement later this morning; I’ll ask the publicist to forward you a copy.”

Cate quickly hung up. She didn’t expect Sheila to believe her – even she had to admit that it sounded very much like the “dog ate my homework”.

“It’s done,” Kian walked into the bathroom. “Do you want to take a look before it’s released to the media?”

Cate shook her head. “I’ve got to go to the gym. One of the producers just called – Declan has flown back to Ireland but they’ve arranged a replacement partner for me.”

Kian turned to walk away. “Wait,” Cate called, scrambling out of the bath. “You know that I would never cheat on you, don’t you?”

Kian brushed his knuckles down her soft cheek, “you’re mine, angel. You always have been and you always will be. I didn’t think for even the slightest second that it was you in that photo.”

Cate reached up and pushed her fingers through his black hair. He hadn’t tied it back yet and that combined with the blue-black stubble marking his jawline made him look wild and untamed. She felt an insidious curl of heat low in her pelvis. She brought his head down to hers and kissed him. His intimate taste was familiar and yet intoxicatingly addictive. It revved her up from zero to ninety in the briefest of seconds. As he powered her back against the bathroom wall, surrounding her with his rough masculinity, Cate wanted to laugh at anybody who thought that she would seriously risk losing kisses as heady as these for a meaningless fling with Declan. Kian’s mouth claimed hers and she felt his fierce possession right down to her toes, which curled against the warm tiles.