Caroline sucked in a sharp breath. “The cops arrested Damien for killing his wife! Oh. My. God.” The computer went unbalanced on her legs and toppled to the floor with a horrible crash. “I never thought, I mean I never, oh shit, oh shit, what are we going to do?”

“He must not have done it.” Jamie swallowed hard, shock sending a shiver through her. “Otherwise, he’d be in jail, right?” She gripped a throw pillow. “Right?”

Allison reached for the laptop. “That’s a damn good question. One we should answer. Then we need to see if Mandy knows Damien’s fascinating marital history.”

Somehow Jamie didn’t think that would lead to the enrichment that Beckwith had assured Mandy was right around the corner.

Chapter 23

“There’s something I meant to tell you about this morning,” Damien said, straightening the silverware on his napkin. “But you were in such a hurry to get to the office I barely got a word in before you shoved me out the door.”

He grinned at Mandy sitting across the table from him, thinking how ironic it was that she had been the one eager to rush off to work and he’d been thinking that just once in a while it would be nice to spend the day lounging in bed.

“Well, really, no one was expecting you to be there today, since you cancelled all your appointments, but if I didn’t show up, it would look really bad. Like I don’t go to work when my boss is out of town.”

Mandy had a tight black top on with a black-and-white floral skirt, though he couldn’t see the knee-length skirt under the table. But he had a great view of the top and her healthy cleavage spilling from the open neck. She had put on a necklace, a little oval encrusted with diamonds, and it dipped enticingly toward her breasts. When she sat back, her belly rounded under the stretchy shirt, and he thought she was the hottest, sexiest woman in existence.

“For all they know, you could have taken a personal day.” He knew she was right, but it had been difficult to walk away from her to head home and change his clothes. Then when he’d gotten to the office, she had hidden from him. It had been a long, torturous day where he had walked around with the knowledge that he loved Mandy and she loved him. It had seemed like something so momentous should call for at least one day off, and he’d paced around the eighteenth floor restlessly, until Rob had told him he was scaring the employees and could he just stay in his office if he was going to pace and scowl?

He was starting to think that Mandy had set up a cubicle in the woman’s rest room, because he hadn’t seen her all day. And now he was starved for her.