Page 42 of Playing Pretend

Henry chuckled, but was smart enough not to say anything more. He did, however, look at me with sympathy, and I wondered if I was doing a good enough job of hiding my anxiety.

He took Braelynn from my arms, and I said my goodbye before meeting Caleb in the atrium where he was talking to two mountainous men dressed in black suits. Ah, Terminator One and Terminator Two had arrived. They listened intently as Caleb gave them instructions, and only barely acknowledged him with a brisk nod. He slipped his jacket over his shoulders, and if I were a lesser woman I would have salivated right there on the spot. Fortunately, I’d learned to master complete Zen-like control over my salivary glands whenever I was in the same space as Caleb. He seemed to have a direct line to the little bastards.

“You ready?”

My eyes flickered, and I ignored the teasing smirk on Caleb’s face. He enjoyed rendering me speechless far too much, and sadly, it was happening far too often.

“Define ready,” I replied, unable to shake the unease that swept over my body. Now I knew I was doing a terrible job of hiding how I really felt about the evening ahead. I was scared, and the longer I tried to keep that from Caleb, the more obvious it became.

“You’ll be fine.” Caleb gave me what he probably thought was a reassuring smile, but in reality I felt anything but reassured. We hadn’t really spoken about what I would be laying on the line, and after tonight we had nothing to hide behind anymore. I had nothing to hide behind. The city, and probably most of the world, would know that I was the significant other in Caleb Callahan’s life, the woman they would assume was warming his bed, and helping him raise his daughter. That’s exactly what we wanted them to think, but we had no way of foreseeing their reaction, and that was what truly scared me. In all likelihood they would all jump to the same conclusion: I was sleeping with the boss in the hopes of a better job prospect, or the very least because he had more money than he knew what to do with.

Caleb walked towards me, closing the space between us in three long strides. With his thumb, he rubbed the frown lines between my brows, and tipped my chin so that I could see his eyes.

“Stop overthinking it, Kadence. Whatever happens after tonight we’ll deal with together.”

Ugh. Why was it so easy for him to see what I was thinking? What I was feeling?

“Mr. Callahan.”

Terminator One broke the moment between us before I could respond.

“Your car is downstairs.”

Without any hesitation at all, Caleb’s hand found mine and for once I allowed myself to be comforted by the sense of safety his touch made me feel. Right then I needed it more than I needed to protect myself from what this charade was eventually going to do to me. Fair enough, it was my choice, but when it came to Caleb I wasn’t sure there was ever really another choice.

We were contemplative on the elevator ride down to the basement. The press was camped outside the main entrance, so we made a surreptitious exit out the back, and slipped into the early Thursday evening traffic without much fuss. Terminator One sat in front, and when I looked behind us, I noticed another black Escalade tailing us.

“Just a precaution,” murmured Caleb, catching my confused expression.

I looked back outside, watching the city fly by in a multi-colored blur as the driver weaved his way towards Washington Street. Caleb had chosen a refurbished warehouse to host tonight’s event, and in collaboration with our event management staff, we’d managed to turn the space into a fully functional runway. Caleb had insisted I spend less time at the venue, purely to avoid a frenzy with the press, but I stuck to my guns and assisted Macy every step of the way.

With her growing baby bump, I was starting to do more and more of the legwork, and much to my surprise I found that I enjoyed being outside of the office more than being inside it. For once that had nothing to do with Jennifer and everything to do with discovering another facet of my job. It also kept my mind occupied, leaving little to no time to dwell on whether or not my family was going to come crawling out of the woodworks after the night was over. That sliver of fear had still nestled its way into my head, like an insidious parasite feeding off my self-doubt. There was no turning back now, not that I would do that to Caleb. I also had the strangest feeling that he would in fact protect me from whatever came next, and that alone was enough to stop me from pondering why he would put up with all the drama in the first place.

Our objective was to show the Board that Caleb had a stable home life, and could easily balance his responsibilities as C.E.O and father, but I was starting to have doubts about whether pretending to be in a relationship with me would make that happen.

Caleb touched my hand, noticing that I’d zoned out and I whipped my head in his direction.

“We’re here.”

I swallowed the tight ball of nerves lodged in my throat, and gave Caleb a rather pathetic attempt at a smile.

C’mon, I chided myself. You have more grit than this. Get your shit together.

“Okay,” I exhaled into the space of the car, willing all anxiety, and nerves and worry to pack their fucking bags and leave. Come what may, it was now or never, and I was either all the way in or not in at all. A little late to be making that call now, but there was something to be said for the sudden fortitude that arose when staring at your decision in the face.

The stillness in the car was broken when Caleb’s door swung open. Lights flashed, people yelled, and all the while Caleb looked unruffled. He reached for my hand, and helped me step down. If I thought it was loud when Caleb had stepped out, the noise grew by several decibels as soon as my foot hit the sidewalk.

Our names were being shouted, and it seemed that the attention was drawn away from everyone else in attendance. We were in the spotlight, all cameras and questions directed at us.

“Breathe.” Caleb’s lips brushed my ear, the small harmless gesture sending the press into pandemonium.

Show time, I thought. I recalled everything my mother had ever told me about standing next to a powerful man, even though I promised myself I would never be one of those women. It was that exact moment that I decided not to be. Standing next to Caleb didn’t have to mean that I was just another ‘society girl’ on the arm of a wealthy mogul. It meant whatever I wanted it to, and right then I wanted to be seen as Caleb’s ‘partner’, his consort.

With practiced grace, and demure flair, I lifted my chin, slid my hand into the crook of Caleb’s arm, and smiled like I had a secret. The press lapped it up like the mutts they were, taking their pictures and throwing their questions at us. Caleb did well not to respond, and much to my amazement, took my lead. He looked at my profile, and from the corner of my eye I could see his lips lifted into a smile. It was doting, filled with adoration that the fools in front of us bought into. I had no idea Caleb could act so well. We moved with ease, like we’d been together for years, instead of weeks, but then again we’d started moving in sync not long after I moved in with him.

I shifted, and Caleb’s right arm went around my waist. He placed his left hand at his side, and gave the camera’s one final grin before breaking just about every rule I’d set.

He dipped me with suave fluidity and when my mouth opened with a gasp his lips descended, capturing mine like they had every right to.