Icing on the Cake by RaeLynn Blue

worse.”
    “Shush, Carte. You’ll tell all the secrets,” Stephen said.
    “I’ll walk you out,” Carte replied.
    Once they cleared the doors to the office, Carte turned to him. “Tonks is really good at her job. They’ll find Brooke. We’ll get her.”
    Stephen nodded. “The keycard belonged to Patrick Pedmore.”
    “Ahh…but we deactivated it.” Carte scowled in puzzlement.
    “Yes, someone reactivated it.”
    That alone kept him up at night. Someone at C.A.K.E. plotted with Brooke and acted in concert with her.
    He’d always treated his employees like family, but now, he had to take a hard look at everyone.
    Everyone.
     

Chapter Fourteen
     
    “So, you want to come in or what?” Brice asked her, a big grin on his face. With his clothes wrinkled, and new growth sprouting all over the lower half of his face, he didn’t look anything like the polished professional salesman she’d met just a few months ago.
    A lot had changed since then.
    Parked outside his home, Aerial got out of the sports car. Dressed in jeans and a T-shirt that read, Mean People Suck , she took in the big townhouse with amazement. Finally. She’d get to see his home. Just like the car, Brice’s house spoke to his success as a salesman. Scanning the quiet, picturesque neighborhood, Aerial noted that Wendover Avenue seemed it was hundreds of miles away, not merely five. Located in High Point, on the edge of Greensboro, the neighborhood looked immaculate from the outside. Well-manicured plots of grass, flowers in full bloom bobbing in the breezes, and stainless steel and metallic ornate fixings on the doors and windows. It didn’t seem to fit the Brice Middleton she had come to know. The guy who ate potato chips by the bag—a family-size bag. Or the man who liked to juggle apples. Or the man who kept a comic book collection in his desk at work.
    “I’m coming.” She walked up the brick pathway that led from the driveway to the flat porch. No, this home spoke of a family man. She expected a man, a wife and two little kids to coming bopping out and announce that Brice didn’t live here, but in fact, was pranking her.
    Her sneakered feet moved forward as if on their own accord. Surreal, she couldn’t believe he’d brought her here, to his home. He stood between the screen and the front doors watching her in that careful, deliberate manner of his. Wearing a fitted, navy blue A&T T-shirt and jeans, he looked very casual and comfortable and yummy.
    Last night, he’d spent the evening at her apartment, but today he demanded he go home—and that she come too. This morning, after a lazy breakfast of cereal and soy milk, he dressed quickly. He’d flown out to San Diego on business for the last month, but he’d managed to make the three hour time differential between the East coast and the West work for them. They had managed to stay in touch.
    As he often did when he came home from traveling, he’d driven directly from PTI Airport to her apartment. Exhausted, jet lagged, he would simply strip down to nudity, pull her close, and fall asleep. If he had to work the next day, he would shower at her place and use the clean clothes he had in his suitcase.
    Later, in the evenings, as soon as her shift ended at the café, Aerial would leap into his silver sports car purring at the curb and drive off with him. After a movie, pizza and a few beers, she and Brice got to know each other all over again.
    Set to repeat. It happened like this for weeks. She didn’t like him traveling so much, but it was his career and he loved it.
    Last night had been heaven, and this morning, he woke up, smiling at her with something she didn’t know if she would ever be able to see in his eyes—trust. Now, standing outside his townhouse, she realized how serious Brice had become about them.
    “You coming?” He smiled.
    She hurried and joined him. He ushered her into the hardwood floored space. Locking the door behind him, Brice swept his hand outward.