Page 30 of The Rancher's Rejected Bride
"Yes, ma'am."
Oh well.
Maybe she had just been imagining things.
The weather was pleasantly cool and cloudy when Bee arrived at a clubhouse in San Antonio, with her bodyguard tailing behind her. As always, the sight of Drake Morrison's dark good looks had most of the women around them sighing and literally batting their eyelashes at him, but Bee's bodyguard didn't even spare them a glance.
It was probably why, Bee thought ruefully, a few women also took the time to shoot envious glares at her back. If looks could kill, she would have long been dead. Several times over even, since people's interest in Drake had been quite intense, from the very first time his photo had gone viral and joined the select ranks ofThe World's Sexiest Bodyguards.
There was only one other person around when Bee entered the boardroom, and Drake came to stand behind her as she took her usual seat.
Today would be her last time to attend meetings like this, Bee couldn't help thinking. In two days, she would be moving out of the ranch and into an apartment near the city headquarters of Nicholas' company. It wasn't complete freedom, but at least she no longer had to see him every day.
So just hang in there for two days more, Bee told herself.Two days and all this would be over.
Drake bent down, a curious look on his strikingly attractive face as he asked, "What about two days?"
"Oh, um, it's nothing," Bee said quickly with a shake of her head even as she was privately aghast that she had unintentionally blurted her thought out loud.
She placed a hand over her growing belly, the gesture unconsciously protective. This whole business of leaving Nicholas and starting over was stressing her more than what was safe for the baby. Maybe...maybe she should simply jump right in and leave?
It was just two days, anyway. Surely, in the larger scheme of things, it wouldn't really matter that she hadn't been able to fully comply with the month-long rest that the doctor had ordered?
"You're quite the character, Mrs. Sutherland." The words, spoken out of the blue in a soft, malicious drawl, startled Bee into lifting her head and meeting the rather catty gaze of the elegant-looking redhead seated across her.
Chloe, Bee belatedly recalled. The woman was a four-time divorcée, and if rumors were to be believed, the redhead would soon be on her fifth wedding, this time to a Bolivian tycoon whose source of income was dubious to say the least.
"When I learned what kind of woman our dear Nicholas had married—-"
Bee couldn't help gritting her teeth at the way the woman spoke his name in a caress.
"I was quite surprised. And your involvement in that ghastly trial in Georgia—-" Chloe gave an affected shudder. "Did you really have to poke that man's eyes out?"
Bee couldn't even find it in herself to feel offended, astonished as she was that there really were women like Chloe in real life. "Iwas about to get raped," she said finally, "so I had to do what I could."
"But that was just so disgusting..."
"Yes, it was. Wasn't it?" Bee had a hard time keeping her face straight as she realized just how genuinely revolved the other woman was.
"My friends and I were talking about it over lunch," Chloe was sharing, "and after considering all the very visible factors—-" The other woman glanced tellingly at Drake for some reason. "That was when we realized why Nicholas would choose someone like you. Becausethat'syour appeal, isn't it?"
Bee was utterly confused. "Sorry?" And what did her bodyguard have to do with her marriage to Nicholas?
Chloe tittered. "Oh, come on, darling. Don't start playing coy now. We both know you understand me perfectly fine. Nicholas' just so conservative and decent on the outside, it was only natural he'd need someone like you to balance things out." Chloe wrinkled her nose. "Honestly, if I had realized this sooner, I wouldn't have hesitated to play the freak for Nicholas. I've always thought he was the most exciting one among the SAFEs."
The media-coined acronym stood for San Antonio's Finest Eligibles, of which Nicholas, along with Devon, Sean, and Logan, was a member of. Bee had only learned about the name weeks ago, and realizing what it meant had only served to further convince her that she really wasn't meant to be a wife to someone like Nicholas.
And apparently, Chloe and no doubt most of Nicholas' peers, too, thought the same.
"I'm just curious..."
Bee suppressed a sigh, realizing the other woman still wasn't done.
"Ishemeant to make your husband jealous?"
She saw Chloe direct another oddly telling glance at her bodyguard and couldn't help frowning. "Excuse me?"
"Oh, please. It's not like the whole world don't know about you two."
