Page 290 of By His Vow

She hasn’t put her cell on since leaving the country, probably because she thinks I’ll track her through it. Which of course, I would. But that’s not the only way to find someone, especially when they don’t have the first clue about how to hide.

“I can’t,” I mutter, irritated that I need to go through this again.

“Yeah, so you keep saying, but I still don’t fucking get it. You love her, she loves you. Just go and fucking prove it. You’re being a pussy, if you ask me.”

“I’m being a fucking grown-up. Chasing her isn’t—” I cut myself off, fed up with repeating myself. “Haven’t you got any fucking work to do?”

Rolling his eyes at me again in a way that only a spoiled middle child can, he pushes to his feet and marches toward the door.

“We’ve got a conference call in an hour. Can I suggest you remember how to smile, please?”

The sight of his abandoned takeout coffee cup still sitting on my desk catches my eye and before I know what I’m doing, I’m launching it across the room at him. The lid comes off mid-flight and the remnants cover his light grey suit and white shirt.

“You fucking asshole,” he seethes.

“Fuck off and do some work,” I say before turning my back on him and focusing on my computer again.

I guess misery does love company, and all that.

73

KINGSTON

Isit staring at the images on the screen before me, but I don’t see any of them.

I know Dad is there, and Kian, but I don’t dare look directly at them. They’ll see everything I don’t want them to. It’s too late for Kian—he saw it all this morning. He can still probably smell the scent of coffee to remind him that he needs to keep his mouth shut in the future.

But I can’t let Dad see. I can’t allow him to know that I’m crumbling because of a woman.

Their voices float around me, a blur of different accents from both across the states and the world. But I don’t know what they’re talking about. I managed to focus for about twenty minutes, but it’s been the better part of an hour since then and they’re still making plans and looking toward the future.

It’s a weird dynamic, being a part of one company that’s desperately trying to survive while another flourishes.

We’ve got resorts in all stages of building and renovations across the globe, and we’re making new acquisitions all the time. It’s certainly a change of pace being back here after focusing my efforts on Warner Group.

All I can hope is that in the not-too-distant future, Warner Group conference calls sound a little more like this one. Or at least what I assume this once sounds like, seeing as I’ve fully checked out.

We’re not always going to be making hard decisions and laying people off. Get over this hump and I’ve got every confidence that we’ll be growing faster than we can cope with, expanding our team and hopefully our profits right alongside it.

My vision is clear, so is Miles’s, but while we might have a lot of work ahead of us to achieve our goals, there is one very obvious thing missing. Or should I say one person?

I shake my head, trying to clear images of her sitting in an office on the top floor of the Warner Group in her sexy pencil skirts and teasing blouses.

Fuck. We could have some fun up there with the windows darkened and?—

“Kingston. Have we lost you?” Dad says, his voice as hard and as unforgiving as it always is in meetings.

Dragging myself from the haze of my imagination, I make the fatal mistake of looking at him.

His head might only be an inch or so big on my screen, but it’s enough to see the shock on his face when he finally gets a proper look at me.

Fuck.

All the air comes rushing out of my lungs and I deflate in my seat.

I feel like a little boy who’s just been caught snooping around in his office when I’ve been clearly told to stay the fuck away and to mind my own business.

“Sorry, what were you saying?” I ask, praying my voice sounds less broken than I feel.