In Her Wildest Dreams by Farrah Rochon Page B

get involved. That’s not included in Your Wildest Dreams’ list of services.”
    “Gavin, I’m meeting with the husband tomorrow. Am I really expected to sit across the table from him and not tell him that his wife just called to set up an experience? He’ll know that I knew about it.”
    “I guess this makes a case for the choose-from-the-menu approach The Hawthorn Group wants to take, doesn’t it?”
    Erica shook her head. “Not at all. In fact, I see the complete opposite. What if the husband really was out of town for Valentine’s Day and decided to set up an experience for his girlfriend the week after? And here, his wife spends several thousand dollars on an experience and schedules it for the same day?”
    “Then the husband gets what’s coming to him,” Gavin said.
    “And the wife gets hurt and humiliated.”
    “Hurt and humiliation is in store for her, no matter what,” he returned. “Remember, I know of what I speak.”
    Her chest tightened with sympathy.
    “Don’t look at me with pity, Erica,” Gavin warned. He took a sip of water. “I got enough of that from the people at my firm before I left.”
    She tilted her head to the side and studied him. “Is that why you really left?” she asked. “I know you said that you didn’t want to work for the company that bought you out, but your partner stayed on, didn’t he? Did your decision have more to do with not wanting to face the stares from the people at the company who knew what Whitney had done? It must have been so hard for you.”
    “My fiancée was sleeping with the man who forced me to give up the company I’d built. Of course it was hard to swallow.”
    “And the fact that she chose him of all people was like rubbing salt in the wound,” Erica concluded.
    “Whitney Parker never does anything half-assed,” Gavin said. “If she’s going to screw you over, better be prepared to get good and screwed.”
    “She didn’t deserve a minute of your time, Gavin, let alone years.”
    “Nearly four years, to be exact,” he said. “But I don’t want you to pity me. What happened with Whitney was only a part of why I left Technology Concepts.” He fiddled with the artificial sweetener packets on the table. “The stress of running the company was slowing killing me, Erica. Don’t get me wrong, I loved it. But I was thirty-three with hypertension and ulcers in my stomach. I knew the hostile takeover was coming and tried to fight it off for two years, but in the end, I figured it wasn’t worth it. I saw my dad die of a heart attack at fifty-nine. I didn’t want the same for me.”
    “And now you get to make chocolates for a living,” Erica said, trying to lighten the mood.  
    Gavin grinned, but his expression quickly sobered again and his gaze returned to the sweeteners he’d rearranged by color in the holder.
    “I did what I had to do, and in the end, it was the best thing for me.” He looked up at her. “You want to know what else was the best thing for me? Discovering Whitney’s treachery on my own. I’m not sure how I would have felt if someone had told me about it.”
    She knew what he was saying, but Erica wasn’t ready to concede her point. “But what if you hadn’t discovered it, and two years later, you were still with her while she was also with that other guy?”
    Gavin shrugged. “I don’t know how I’d feel,” he said. “But I still don’t think it’s your place to say anything to the wife. You could break up a marriage. That’s not what Your Wildest Dreams is all about.” He held his hands up. “I’m not telling you how to run your business. I just want you to be prepared for the fallout.”
    She reached over and captured his wrist, giving it an affectionate squeeze. “There you go taking care of me again,” she said.
    An incredibly wicked smile lit up his eyes. “And the night’s just getting started.”
     

 
     
     
     
    Chapter Nine
     
     
     
    “I had no idea the Your Wildest Dreams