Playboy's Secret Wife novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: What She Said

The ballroom came back up in a roar.

Phones lit.

Somebody started clapping, and somebody else told them to shut up.

On the stage, the man in the tan suit had already left the microphone.

He was walking very fast toward the service door, with his gold cross swinging.

Two of Eleanor's men were walking faster.

"Mrs. Hargrove," said the woman who'd seconded the motion on Wednesday.

She'd appeared at my elbow, holding a glass of champagne.

"I believe the board will not need to vote tonight."

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me," she said.

"I haven't laughed that hard since 1994."

"Number four. Sex is optional."

She walked away, shaking her head.

Chad had not moved.

He stood at the foot of the stage.

When he caught my eye, I smiled at him.

I didn't mean it kindly.

Lucas didn't say a word in the elevator.

Neither did I.

The Hargrove suite on the top floor had a terrace and a long white couch and a wall of dark glass.

I walked in, dropped my clutch on the table, and turned around.

"You didn't tell me."

"No."

"I asked you to tell me in the morning that I picked you."

"You did."

"And you left me a note that said you were kidding."

"That was the other part of the postscript," Lucas said.

He didn't flinch.

"You'd told me you were furious at the world."

"I was afraid that if I said it plainly, you'd feel trapped."

"I'd rather you left angry and free."

"I wanted you to remember it yourself, and if you couldn't, to hear it from a camera and not from me."

"A camera," I said.

"In front of four hundred people."

Keep reading free with an account. Start Playboy's Secret Wife from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.