Authors: Tessa Dayne
“You heard me! Darren is here. I ran into him and let me tell you it wasn’t a very pleasant experience.”
“Did he hurt you?” Jonas asked, turning her to face him, his hands on her shoulders. When she didn’t answer, he shook her a little, snapping her back to the present. “Did he hurt you?” he asked again.
“No. But he said he was going to prove that I was lying about the baby.”
“Darcy, what is he doing here?” Jonas asked, his blue eyes hard as ice.
“I don’t know. I didn’t invite him. I swear I didn’t. I would never do that to Paige.”
“There has to be an explanation, Darcy. Did you make out the invitations yourself?”
Darcy groaned. She hadn’t had the time. She had given the list to her assistant; last year’s list. “I gave my assistant last year’s list. He would have been on it. I didn’t have time to edit it. Oh my God, I am so sorry Paige.”
Paige pulled away from Jonas. “I know you didn’t mean any harm, Darcy, but I can’t stay here with him here. I just can’t.”
“I’ll make him leave. He wasn’t supposed to be invited anyway,” Darcy said, making to leave the bedroom.
“Darcy, no, he will just make a scene. I can’t handle that.”
“What do you want me to do then, Paige?” Darcy asked, taking her hand.
Paige smiled weakly, and then turned to Jonas. “Let’s go home.”
“Oh honey….have you seen the roads?” Darcy asked, heading to the window. “It’s a mess out there. Stay here and I will send Darren home.”
“She’s right, Paige. We should stay put. It’s a long drive and the weather doesn’t look so great,” Jonas agreed, glancing out the window at the rapidly falling snowflakes.
Paige sank to the edge of the bed, placing her head in her hands. “Just get him out of here, Darcy. Please. I don’t want to run into him again.”
“Consider it done,” she said, a fierce scowl crossing her face. She left the room, softly closing the door behind her.
Jonas sat on the mattress beside Paige and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. When she leaned her head to his shoulder, he sighed, pressing his lips to her hair. “I’m sorry the evening has been ruined. Do you want me to get you anything?” he asked.
“Just hold me. That’s all I want you to do. Just hold me,” Paige said, turning into his embrace.
Jonas held her tight against his chest, stroking her hair. What a night, he thought. Who would have thought Darren was going to be such a thorn in their sides?
~*~
Chapter
Eight
~*~
Darcy hunted through the crowd for Darren, anxious to find him and get him out of there before he caused a scene. It was bad enough that he had been invited, but to have Paige run into him, too. She was beyond mortified.
“If it isn’t our venerable hostess. Shouldn’t you be off making sure the caterers are doing their job?”
Darcy turned around and found her quarry standing behind her, a champagne glass in hand, obviously drunk. “What are you doing here, Darren?”
“I was invited, Darcy darling. You know that. And if you didn’t realize it before, I am quite sure our sweet Paige ran to you the first chance she got. Didn’t she?”
“As a matter of fact, she came to get her fiancé. I just happened to be standing there. What the hell did you say to her, anyway?”
“Just the truth. Afraid she can’t face the truth these days,” he said, downing the rest of his champagne.
“I want you to leave, Darren,” Darcy said, taking the empty glass from his fingers. “Now.”
Darren glared at her for a split second, and then he shrugged. “Fine, Ms. Fancy Pants, I’m going, but you tell Paige that this isn’t over. I will get to the bottom of this, one way or another.”
“Get out,” Darcy hissed, pointing toward the door.
Darren turned and disappeared into the crowd. With a sigh, Darcy headed in the opposite direction. She had to tell Jonas of Darren’s threat. They had to protect Paige and the baby at all cost.
~*~
Darren glanced around and noticed that Darcy hadn’t seen him to the door. Grinning, he slipped into the kitchen. He would just hang around until he could confront Paige again. That baby was his, he was sure of it. He knew that she wasn’t the type of person to cheat on him. Not only that, but the timing was all wrong. They had spent a lot of time together back in September. She wouldn’t have had the time to slip away to meet anyone, let alone Jonas Barnett.
Frowning, Darren tried to recall exactly what the reporter had written. Paige’s baby was due in July. That would have put her conceiving back in September. They did spend a lot of time together then, didn’t they? He was a little foggy on the details, thanks to the champagne he had consumed and the fact that it was now three months later.
No, they hadn’t spent a lot of time together. He remembered now. That damned Kline account had taken up most of her time. They had truly only been together the evening before she went to the lake.
The lake. That was where they had their secret rendezvous. It was the only place that he had never been. And it was so far out of the way, that Paige could have snuck Barnett in and no one would’ve been the wiser.
“Damn!” he said aloud, startling the waiter that had come in for another tray of hors d’oeuvres. It was possible that Barnett fathered that baby.
Possible, but highly improbable. It wasn’t in her nature. Well, there was no time like the present to find out once and for all. She was here somewhere, and he was sure that Darcy had told her he had left. She wouldn’t be hiding now.
Taking a glass of
champagne from the counter, he downed it in one gulp, fortifying his resolve to confront Paige. Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he stumbled from the kitchen and back into the crowd.
~*~
Paige stared at the closed door, grateful that Darcy had taken care of Darren, making him leave. She was thankful that the confrontation with him had gone unnoticed to all the other guests. She wouldn’t be able to face them had they noticed it.
“Shall we return to the party?” Jonas asked, gesturing towards the door.
“You go ahead. I just need to gather my thoughts. I’ll be out soon,” Paige said, unclasping her fingers from his.
“You sure? I can wait for you?”
Paige smiled, tilting her head a little. “I’ll be fine. Go on…go find that artist friend you made. I am sure he would like to continue his conversation with you.”
“I don’t want to leave you,” he said.
“Go,” she urged. “I’m fine. Really.”
Jonas glanced at the door. He didn’t want to hover; he just wasn’t ready to leave her yet. “I’ll be close. If you need me…”
Paige laughed. “Go, Mother Hen. I am fine. I’m just going to relax a few minutes, and then I will join you. After all, I don’t want to miss the midnight bell. I want my kiss.”
“That won’t be all you get,” he reminded her, wiggling his eyebrows.
Paige laughed and watched as he left the room, the door closing quietly behind him. She could still hear his remarks from earlier tonight.
“I like those thoughts right where they are,” he said gruffly, capturing her fingers in his hand. “And when the clock strikes midnight, I am whisking you away from that party and playing out those thoughts,” he said.
“Is that a threat or a promise?” she asked.
“Take it however you want, Paige. But before the clock strikes the twelfth stroke, we will have a private party of our own.”
Even now, those words sent tingling all through her body. Smiling, she stood and smoothed the wrinkles from her dress. If Jonas had plans to take her to bed at the stroke of midnight, who was she to protest? Looking around Darcy’s bedroom, Paige spotted candles and decided to borrow them to make their rendezvous a little more romantic.
Paige crossed the room and grabbed three of the candles. Darcy wouldn’t mind, she thought. With a satisfied smile, she turned toward the door and let out a startled scream, dropping the candles to the floor.
“What are you doing here, Darren? You were told to leave.”
“We have unfinished business, Paige,” Darren said, moving further into the room.
Paige stared at him, her gaze moving around him to the door. He stood between her and the door. Movement from his position caused her to return her eyes to him.
“We have nothing between us, Darren. Nothing. Now get out of my way,” she said, her voice a lot calmer than she felt.
Darren placed his hands on her arms, squeezing slightly. “We are not finished. I want answers, Paige. And I want the truth!” he yelled, shaking her slightly.
“Let go of me!” she cried.
She had planned to tell him the truth, just not like this. He was drunk and on the verge of being violent.
“Damn it, Paige! I want answers! Is this baby mine?”
“Darren…please….you’re hurting me!” she whimpered, struggling to get free from his vice-like grip.
“The truth, Paige!”
“The truth is, I am with another man and you can’t stand it. Now get out of my way!” she yelled, breaking from his grip before pushing him.
Darren stumbled backwards, his arms flailing as he tried to regain his balance. Just as he fell to the floor, Paige rushed by him, grabbing a coat as she passed the chair. She was out the door, rushing through the crowd, before Darren regained his footing.
~*~
Jonas heard the commotion and turned his head toward it. When he saw Paige rushing through the crowd, a coat in tow, he panicked. He could tell, even this far away, that she was upset. He began pushing his way through the throng, desperate to get to her before she disappeared out into the hall.
“Paige!” he called, pushing at a man on his left, only to be hampered by a couple on his right. “Paige! Wait!”
Jonas closed in on Paige and was just about to reach her, when a hand grabbed his arm. He stared at the male fingers circling his arm, and then followed the arm up to the man’s face. Darren Armstrong.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Jonas asked, his eyes narrowing dangerously.
“Getting answers,” Darren said. “Maybe I will get an honest answer from you. God knows, Paige is lying to me.”
Anger boiled up in Jonas. He was normally a non-violent man, but Darren Armstrong was going too far. He didn’t want Paige and she had moved on.
“I don’t know what is going on in her head these days. She was never such a lying, deceitful bitch before.”
Darren never said another word. Jonas, his hand curled into a fist, turned on him, the punch catching Darren on the corner of the jaw, sending him reeling. A woman cried out as he went down at her feet, causing her to spill her champagne.
“Paige!” Jonas yelled, racing after her. He had lost precious time during the confrontation with Darren and she had disappeared into the hallway.