The Heiress's Pregnancy Surprise (Heirs to an Empire 2)

Ah well, no need to be disappointed; she was going to be busy day and night during the trip and a distraction was not what she needed. Still, he’d smiled at her once, and it might be nice if she were able to make him do that again before they headed back home.

She admired his ability to sleep. She’d never been able to sleep while flying; she was a nervous flier though she hid it well, as frequent travel was a thing with her family. The single glass of wine calmed her nerves a little, and she chose to work so she could focus on something other than the fact they were thirty-odd-thousand feet in the air.

Charlotte looked over at Jacob again. He certainly looked capable enough. She’d had qualms about him going everywhere with her, including parties and galas. She didn’t want people to know she had a bodyguard, and it occurred to her, as she looked at his relaxed face, that he could certainly pass as her date.

She tapped her fingers on the keyboard. Did she want that, though? It would invite a level of speculation, and the family had already found itself in the tabloids recently. She could just see the headline now. “Who is Charlotte’s mystery man?” And then some salacious speculation with no basis at all in fact.

Annoyed, she opened an email from a saved folder and frowned.

New York is the city that never sleeps. You shouldn’t either. #sleepwithoneeyeopen

The messages frustrated her. So far Aurora’s IT department hadn’t been able to trace the source, and Charlotte was sure it wasn’t anything too serious. She’d grown up in the spotlight, and knew that hate mail came with the territory from time to time. This was the third message she’d received in the last two months, but nothing had happened. Nothing personal. She’d been outvoted on the protection front, though, with her sister, Bella, being the only one to think she should be able to decide for herself. The trip was only a little over a week. She could deal.

So she closed the email and opened her calendar for the week. This was the perfect quiet time to make any adjustments to her itinerary that needed to be made. And when they landed, they would make their way to Aurora Inc.’s apartment, where she would finally sleep and wake up ready to take on New York.

* * *

Jacob wondered how Charlotte could still look so fresh and bright after being up for the whole flight. He’d slept over an hour on the plane, and when he woke she was still typing away on her laptop. Now they were in a cab heading to the Aurora Inc. apartment.

“Do you ever sleep?” he asked, looking over at her.

“Oh, of course.” She smiled at him. “I just don’t sleep on planes. Once we get settled, I plan to sink into my bed and sleep all morning.” She lifted an eyebrow. “You should, too. You only slept an hour.”

“I’m used to going without sleep,” he replied, looking away and out the window. The city was bright even though the sky was dark.

“And I’m not?” Charlotte laughed a little. “Clearly you’ve not seen me the night before a major PR push. Coffee and chocolate are my fuel and I go, go, go.”

He could just imagine. She seemed full of...youthful energy. His youthful energy was long gone. Maybe it had just disappeared bit by bit, along with his innocence and optimism. All his life he’d made a living counting on humanity being horrible.

Energy, innocence, optimism...he knew exactly where he’d lost them. He was just fooling himself to think they’d been chipped away in increments. He’d left them in South America. And with one woman, in particular.

He shouldn’t resent Charlotte’s charmed life. Of course, he would never want her to experience or see what he had. And while her concerns might seem trivial to him, he shouldn’t judge. After all, he’d spent half his life working to keep the dark underbelly of society at bay precisely so no one had to ever see the things he’d seen.

Her life was very different, and he didn’t fit there. But his job required him to be a chameleon. He’d grown up in scruffy jeans and T-shirts, worn trainers and caps. This week he’d don designer suits and look absolutely like he belonged.

The cab pulled up outside a gray stone building. Charlotte handed over a credit card while Jacob got out and scanned the area, shivering against the February cold. It had a bite to it that seemed to go right through his wool coat and into his skin, and a few snowflakes flitted in the air. The cabbie popped the trunk and Jacob lifted it to retrieve their bags. He had one small rolling case and a garment bag. Charlotte, on the other hand, had her carry-on bag and laptop, and then two large suitcases. She was definitely not a “pack light” kind of woman, but then, she was a Pemberton. Her job required she never be photographed in the same dress twice.

The doorman opened the door and they stepped into the warm lobby. Jacob made his living guarding VIPs, so the opulence wasn’t a surprise. It was the kind of space that had nothing to prove; it was expensive but not ostentatious, a quiet sort of wealth in glass, brass and marble. The elevator was huge and nearly silent as they made their way up to the apartment.

He wheeled his suitcase and one of hers into the foyer of the apartment and paused. “Welcome home?” he asked, looking over at her.

“I guess.” She sighed. “Would it strike you as strange that I wish this place was smaller and more...cozy?”

It did, but he understood. The foyer was bigger than his living room at home,

and that was saying something. They walked through into the main area. It was done in mostly white, with accents in pale green and tan. It was...perfect. Show-home perfect. A vase of white lilies sat on a glass table and the perfumed scent filled the air. The windows provided a dim view of Central Park; he turned his head to the left and thought he could make out the Met, though the snow was coming down harder than it had been only minutes before.

A deep sigh came from behind him, and he turned to find Charlotte standing in the middle of the floor, looking a bit lost.

“Are you all right?”

She nodded, gave a small smile. “Yes. But now that I’m here, I’ve run out of steam. I think I need to sleep.”

“Let me check the other rooms first,” Jacob said, slightly annoyed when Charlotte laughed.

“Seriously? I promise no one has been in the apartment and we’re perfectly safe. My mother hired you as a precaution. I’m really not in any danger.”

“I still have a job to do. Stay put.”