She woke to find his huge arm draped protectively around her. Early-morning sunlight was beaming into the room through the windows, so she knew she had slept the entire night.

Without thinking, she bolted upright. When Simon had offered to let her stay the night she had assumed she’d sleep on the couch or in one of the vacant apartments in the building. But here she was, in his bedroom. In his bed.

When he stirred beside her she grimaced. She hadn’t wanted to wake him. Especially since today was a Saturday.

His bright blue eyes snapped open, the pupils dilating when his gaze fell on her. “Where do you think you’re going?” he asked gruffly.

“Home,” she said softly. She’d texted her parents late last night to let them know not to wait up for her. Now, it was time to relieve them of looking after Finn.

“You weren’t trying to sneak out on me, were you?” he asked.

“No,” she said with a shake of her head. “I just didn’t want to wake you. Last night must have been, uh... tiring for you.”

He laughed, sat up, and stretched. “You could say that.” His hand traveled to her back and he started to caress her skin. “You don’t have to go, Heather,” he said before he kissed her shoulder affectionately.

“I have to go home to Finn,” she said softly. “Weekends are when I get to spend time with him. I promised him we’d go out for ice cream this weekend.”

Simon nodded. “I understand. It’s just...” His voice trailed off and he frowned.

“You don’t want to go back to the way things were,” she finished for him. “You don’t want to go back to us pretending that there isn’t something between us.”

“Exactly.” He paused. “You’re not leaving to avoid talking this out, are you?”

She sighed. “Last night was wonderful. But also terrible, when you consider that the photo of us might get out.”

“Right.” Simon took her hand in his. “Which means there’s so much we need to talk about.”

“I don’t know where things will stand eventually, but I promise we’ll talk about this,” she assured him. “I’m not going to hold back anything or keep pretending.”

“That’s good to hear,” he said with a squeeze of her hand. “By the way, I don’t want you to think I resent you spending time with your son. It’s great that you spend so much time with Finn. He comes first in your life and I totally respect that.”

The fact that he respected her relationship with Finn meant the world to her. Her ex seemed to resent it, though he never lifted a finger to help with Finn. Now that Gary was doing everything to take Finn from her despite all his absences, she was grateful to have Simon’s support. “Thank you,” she said softly. “I’m just going to go to the bathroom to freshen up.”

“We could pick up some breakfast on the way to your place,” he offered.

She raised an eyebrow as she suddenly remembered that Simon had driven her over here. He was her only ride. “Sounds... great. We could pick up some breakfast for Finn as well.” She bit her lip. “I hope there aren’t any reporters on the way.”

“How about you call your parents to check how things are at your place?” he suggested. “I’ll check my messages to see if Linda got in touch with us.”

She nodded and started to climb out of the bed.

Simon turned from her and grabbed his cell phone from the nightstand, studying it. It was obvious he was trying to give her some privacy, because right now she was stark naked. Though she had also been totally naked last night and that had driven him into a passionate frenzy. Ears burning with slight embarrassment, she grabbed her underwear from the floor.

“I left my dress downstairs by the pool,” she said.

“You can wear one of my shirts or something,” he said. “I doubt you’d want to put on a fancy dress at this hour.”

“That sounds good,” she said, hoping he didn’t hear how shaky her voice sounded at the prospect of doing something as intimate as wearing his clothes.

He got out of bed, all six foot something of him totally naked, with muscles rippling as he sauntered over to the closet on the far end of the room. Simon reached for a crisp white button-down shirt and a pair of shorts before crossing back over to her.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to fit into your shorts,” she said with a faint smile before taking the shirt from him.

Minutes later she stepped back out of the bathroom, his shirt swallowing her up. Simon was so tall that his shirt hung down past her knees. She owned dresses shorter than this thing. But the fabric felt good against her skin and had the same masculine scent that he did.

She found him in the kitchen, making coffee.

“I got your dress and put it in my car,” he informed her.

“Thank you.”

His blue eyes swept over her appreciatively. “You look pretty good in my clothes.”

Her cheeks flushed. “Thanks.”

“We’ll have some coffee before we hit the road and I’ll stop by a donut shop or something on the way,” he said.

“Do you have a baseball cap or something?” she asked.

He stared at her in confusion. “Huh?”

She lowered her eyes. “Well, the entire city knows what you look like and what you’ve been up to. Now that the media has been trailing you, there’s bound to be renewed interest in you. If someone recognizes you, it could attract some unwanted attention.”

“You’re right.” He sighed. “I probably have a cap in my room, and I’ll put on a pair of sunglasses for good measure.”

After they both had a quick cup of coffee, Simon found a baseball cap and a pair of sunglasses. He put them on and she followed him downstairs to the building’s underground parking lot. They got into his electric car and he maneuvered out of the parking lot.

On the way, he stopped at a coffee shop to pick up breakfast while she waited anxiously in the car. After last night, the last thing either of them needed was more attention. But they couldn’t solve the problem by hiding from the world. As long as the media was interested in the story, people were going to gossip.

Luckily, Simon returned to the car without incident and drove off.

“How much do I owe you for breakfast?” she asked, peering into the paper bag he’d handed to her.

“Not a cent,” he said firmly. “I might be a cheapskate when it comes to my own life, but what kind of man would I be if I took money from a lady?”

She smiled and didn’t bother arguing with him. It was pointless to debate him on this. He’d never relent or accept her money.

By the time he pulled in to her driveway, it was late morning.

“I’m going to have to make a run for it, so nobody sees me dressed like this,” she said. “Maybe I should have put my dress back on.”

He pulled off his jacket and handed it to her. “Will that help?”

“Yes,” she said, touched by his attention and concern for her.

“I could walk you to your front door,” he offered.

She shook her head. “Finn wakes up early on weekends. If he comes to the front door—”

“I get it.” He smiled. “Finn is one lucky kid to have a mom like you. I hope the judge presiding over your case knows that.”

She smiled and unbuckled her seatbelt to put his jacket on. Then, she grabbed her things and got out of the car.

“We’re going to have a long talk about all of this,” he said as she closed the passenger door behind her.

“We’ll talk,” she assured him. “I promise.”

“I’ll hold you to that, Heather.”

She knew he would.

~~*~~

SIMON HAD BEEN THE CEO of Dover Inc. ever since he first invested in the company in college. It was more than work to him. Dover was his whole life. His childhood dreams fulfilled.

However, the position he’d held on to for all these years was now in jeopardy. He didn’t know how long Linda could keep the board in the dark about the reunion. Everything was liable to come to a head in a matter of days, and they were still no closer to getting that damning photo back.

All weekend he’d kept his head down and been in touch with Linda. The photo of him kissing Heather hadn’t gotten out, but there were enough murmurings and innuendos about the reunion on social media.

He walked into his office, prepared to call Linda and check on her progress for stopping the release of the photo.

Everett Eastman, Dover’s most senior board member, was standing at the window, staring at the view.

Simon frowned and shut the door. It was unusual for Everett to show up unannounced like this. “Everett? What are you doing here?”

“When it rains it pours.” Everett turned to face him, his hands shoved into his pockets. As always the Brit was immaculately dressed, his graying hair slicked back. “I just got the sales numbers for the new product launch.”

“How bad is it?”

“Sales are slower than projected,” Everett replied. “Things aren’t dire, but it’s bad enough for the investors to take notice and panic.”

“They’re always panicking,” Simon muttered, though he hated getting bad news like this. He’d spent years perfecting Dover’s new products. Poured his heart and soul into all of it.

“That’s not the only problem,” Everett said.

A knife twisted in his gut. The chattering about the reunion on social media hadn’t necessarily been bad enough to get Everett’s attention, but there was something in his tone that set Simon on edge. Set him on edge enough to start being more concerned for Heather than for himself.

“I got a disturbing report from our financial investigator, Josh Bradley,” Everett continued. “I know he’s been working privately with you, and he disclosed that to me a few days ago when I first hired him. It’s only ethical that I reveal to you that Dover has hired him to keep our financial house in order. Especially in light of your previous assistant’s shady dealings and the new products not doing as well as we’d hoped.”

It didn’t surprise Simon that Dover was now one of Josh’s clients. Josh was the best at what he did, and it was only natural for him to have Dover itself as a client.

“So, what’s the problem?” he asked warily. If Everett was trying to bait him, it wasn’t going to work. He’d keep his cards as close to the vest as possible. Simon wasn’t about to tell Everett that Josh suspected that Heather had been responsible for the entire scandal getting out to the press.

Everett gave him a hard stare, a cold expression on his face. “Something very strange came to my attention. Our rivals, VLA Technologies, just announced that they’re unveiling their new generation of products ahead of schedule.”

“What? They’re not supposed to release their new generation for another nine months. That’s why we decided to bring the products to market so early. With VLA taking their time we’d have months to get traction and outperform them.”

“Well, they’re releasing the products three months from now,” Everett muttered darkly. “Somehow they managed to rush the design, and we’re not going to get a minute of breathing room with this. Not now that this mess with your new assistant has set us back when it comes to public trust.”

Simon cursed under his breath. “There’s no way they could have decided to do things ahead of schedule unless they had insider knowledge.”

“They had to have known that our rollout would be a disaster,” Everett said. “Which means they planned this entire scandal to use against us.”

“Everett, that’s crazy.” He held up his hands, suddenly connecting the dots. Connecting them and not wanting to.

“The financial investigator doesn’t think it’s so crazy,” Everett barked. “According to him, the only way VLA could have done things ahead of schedule was if they could either see into the future or planned this outcome months in advance.”

“You think—”

“I think your assistant was sent here to seduce you and then use it against you,” Everett cut him off.

“You think Heather is a corporate spy?”

“What other explanation is there?” Everett narrowed his eyes. “She used to work at VLA. They could have easily sent here to seduce you or spy on you.”

“Do you know how many Dover employees are former VLA employees? You’re going to have to accuse half the company if being a former VLA employee is a criterion for corporate espionage.”

“She fits the criteria,” Everett said icily. “Heather Hall fits all the criteria that the financial investigator laid out for a likely suspect. She’s a former VLA employee. She’s a new employee here at Dover, so the timing of her arrival coincides with VLA’s changed timeline. She went to high school with you, which would make her the perfect candidate for something like this. Based on your past, Heather wouldn’t have to build any kind of trust with you. VLA hit the jackpot with her.”

“No.” His stomach knotted up the moment he uttered the word. Because deep down he no longer believed that Heather was incapable of something this shady and underhanded. After all, she’d started their working relationship on a complete lie. A lie he had been so quick to forgive because of their history together.

“Think very long and hard about this, Simon. You cannot afford to make a mistake this big. You can’t afford to trust anybody now,” Everett said. “You’ve always prided yourself on being a solitary man who didn’t let people in. You’re like me. You know that it’s best to keep people at a distance, so that they don’t have a hold over you. That way you’ll never be vulnerable. Yet, the one person in the world you’re vulnerable to just happens to start working here when everything is thrown upside down? Come on.”

Everett was right. He was vulnerable to Heather. She was the only person he’d ever really trusted. Because she was the one person who had never wanted anything from him.

But what if that had all been an act? Could she have been playing him? What if he’d been wrong about her all these years?