Page 64 of Peyton's Price

“Oh.” Liam settled against the bench.

“You almost look disappointed,” Matthias said, voicing the obvious.

“I’m not,” he said unconvincingly. “It’s too soon for family planning.”

“It sure is.” Peyton giggled nervously.

“That’s fine. For now.” Liam leaned forward. The look that followed sent her temperature shooting up several degrees.

“But I want you to know this. Now that I’m in…I’mallin. Eventually, Iwillput a baby in you.”

Chapter 28

As much as Peyton cherished Liam’s declaration and his determined stance on their future, in the coming days, she wished he’d kept his mouth shut.

For years, she’d dreamed about marrying Liam and having a family with him. At thirteen, she’d gone so far as to name their three imaginary children—Olivia, Ella, and little Liam Junior. However, ever since Liam mentioned babies, Matthias had subtly withdrawn.

He acted as if nothing were wrong, joining in enthusiastically when she requested they resume their sex life, but, in the morning, he was gone, spending most of the day in his office.

Liam didn’t seem overly concerned. Apparently, Matthias spent a lot of time working during their earlier affair. He hadn’t minded because it gave Liam the excuse to resume his own work. He set up camp in one of theOrmen Lange’smany utilitarian conference rooms so he could work remotely.

Left to her own devices, Peyton bought a new computer at their next port. She resumed tinkering on some of the personal coding projects she’d put on hold when she’d gone to work in Silicon Valley.

On impulse, Peyton also signed up to take part in a bug hunt—one of several programs that gave coders behind the scenes access to various websites and programs. The objective was to let white-hat hackers find bugs and vulnerabilities in the software. The programs grew bigger every year. Some coders did it for the prestige and satisfaction of solving a problem that others didn’t know existed, but for many—including her—the interest was a touch more mercenary. She was in it for the bug bounties, which was cash awarded for successfully finding a substantial flaw in the code.

Liam or Matthias would have been happy to give her money. In fact, Matthias had set up a bank account for her, but she hadn’t touched it. Accepting their gifts was one thing. Most were clothes or items of jewelry they wanted her to wear. It gave them pleasure, so she went along with it. But she didn’t like the idea of being completely dependent on them. Plus, she enjoyed coding. Tracking down bugs was satisfying.

Peyton also threw herself into another project—cracking Priya. Peyton was determined to make friends with her. She wanted to make nice with the other staff as well, but Priya was her white whale. When the elegant Indian woman began to agree to have lunch on a semi-regular basis, Peyton was thrilled. She was even more excited when Priya began to confide in her. However, Priya’s first major slip about her boss threw Peyton for a loop.

“He’s a what?”

“Matthias is a widower.”

The delicious puttanesca pasta they were eating was forgotten.

“I had no idea,” Peyton said. She wasn’t sure how old he was—mid-thirties at the most. He didn’t seem old enough to be widowed.

“He must have been married very young,” Peyton said after a long pause.

There were no signs of Matthias’ marriage on the Ormen Lange. In her time on the boat, she hadn’t seen any portraits or pictures of him with a woman. In fact, he’d didn’t display any photographs of himself at all. The only portraits were oils or photographs of older relatives.

“It’s not a secret, at least not among the staff. It was before my time—before he decided to live on the yacht year-round. It was a terrible accident. She was expecting at the time.”

Peyton gasped “His wife waspregnantwhen she died?”

Priya began to look uncomfortable. She pushed away the glass of white wine Peyton had talked her into drinking.

“Yes. It was incredibly sad. Mr. Raske is very protective of his privacy when it comes to the public, but since you’re here now on what appears to be a long-term basis, with Mr. Tyler, no less…Mr. Raske was very attached to him at one point. Well, to be honest, I thought you knew.”

“He hasn’t mentioned it, but don’t concern yourself. The one thing I’ve learned about Matthias is he likes to live in the moment.”

While Matthias answered almost any question he was asked, he didn’t volunteer much about himself. When a past adventure was mentioned, or a place he visited was discussed, it was usually Liam who brought up the subject. Matthias didn’t appear to enjoy trips down memory lane.

She could only imagine how he felt about losing his wife. His pregnant wife.Christ. No wonder he’d reacted so badly when Liam brought up babies. Matthias and his wife had been on the verge of starting a family when he’d tragically lost her. He must have been devastated.

Priya’s face was tight with guilt, so Peyton took pity on her and decided to change the subject. “Can I ask you something. Is it weird, having Liam and me…err…around? At the same time?”

Priya smiled. “The staff knows better than to question our employer’s choices. All I will say is we are enjoying your stay. Mr. Tyler’s as well. Most of our employer’s guests aren’t appreciative of our efforts. Most never bother to learn our names.”

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