“How was your weekend?” Jaqui asked, poking her head in my office early Monday morning. “Any more dates with your handsome suitor?”I grinned. “I had a wonderful night with him Friday,” I told her, thinking of what we had done in this very room and grinning. “But then he had to work all weekend, so I didn’t get to see him much.”But, we did get to chat through text messages and phone calls. Those were still pretty amazing ways to get to hear from him.“That’s too bad,” Jaqui replied. “He’s easy on the eyes. I still haven’t figured out where I know him from, though. When do you see him again?”“I get to see him Tuesday. We have a fun date planned. I can’t wait. He’s going to work on my cooking skills.”“He is a brave man to put you in the kitchen.” She grinned as she leaned against the door frame.“Yeah, someone has to teach me eventually, right?” I said with a chuckle. “Hopefully I don’t burn down the place. Or poison him. At least the odds are good I’ll only do one or the other.”“Yo

I didn’t take a shower.Instead, I pulled up my phone contact information, wrote them all down on a piece of paper along with any other information that I thought was important in my phone. Then I checked my recording app. It hadn’t taken a thing. All that remained was two recordings of static. If I had given this to the authorities, they would have laughed me out of the room.I had been used. Hacked. Tricked.I thought about just throwing my phone in the garbage. I thought about smashing it with a brick or throwing it in the bathtub or possibly the garbage disposal. Although, I just bought a new garbage disposal and I didn’t want to wreck it.Besides, if I did that, my stepmother would have more power over me. She would ask for my new number so she could contact me. She would be able to find access to me. I shivered at the thought.Better I keep this phone with nothing important on it. It was better to know my weak points and defend them than just make more. So, I put a piece of tape

Henry was gone when I woke the next morning, but he’d made coffee and left a heart on a piece of paper underneath an empty cup. It was a good way to wake up and bode well for the rest of the day.At work, I did everything in my power not to read a single document. I knew it was futile, but it was the only thing I could do that didn’t give Audrey power over me.I scanned and probably misfiled half the documents, but I didn’t want to know what was on them. If I knew, then I would have to tell my stepmother. If I honestly had no idea, then I couldn’t tell her.It was a flimsy excuse, but at the moment it was all I had.Guilt about everything clung to me, smothering like smoke.“Hey you,” Jaqui said, stepping into my office.I dropped the stack of papers I was holding in surprise, sending a flurry of paperwork to the floor. I was sure she was there to arrest me. Or fire me. She had to suspect something. It didn’t help how jumpy I was around her lately.“What’s up?” I asked, my voice shaki

“Dessert?” Henry asked.“What? That wasn’t sweet enough for you?” I teased.He caught me in his arms, pulling me into him for yet another kiss. I sighed with contentment. I could never have too many kisses.“I have something for you,” he said. I felt his arms tense just slightly and he smiled even though the muscle in his jaw tightened. He was nervous about something.“Okay.” I smiled. “Can I put my clothes on or do you want me naked for it?”He looked down at my bare skin pressing into his. “Clothes. I may not make it if you don’t.”I grinned, feeling sexy as sin. Even though he’d just had me, he wanted me again. There was no sexier feeling than to know that once wasn’t enough.I went to my closet and pulled on a long, soft t-shirt and some comfy running shorts. It wasn’t supposed to be sexy, but comfortable.“That’s what you’re wearing?” Henry asked, standing there my main room in nothing but his boxer shorts and a smile.“Is there something wrong with it?” I asked, looking down and

I paid for the dress and then went to my apartment and looked at the research for Anastasia. It was more work than my stepmother had let on. The research I’d done for her last week was just the beginning. I was basically doing my senator’s aide job without the benefits of going to the office or getting paid.Before I started that, I looked online for a lawyer. I made an online appointment from my burner phone with a fake name. The earliest I could get was Monday afternoon. It felt like too little too late, but I needed to know what I could do to protect myself, even if it felt like there was nothing.I worked until I couldn’t see straight, set an alarm, then got up at the crack of dawn and went to the office. I put enough coffee in my system to get a bus full of people going.I had to do this so that I could go to the ball with Henry. That was my motivation. It wasn’t the pretty dress or the idea of dancing all night. It was that I would get to be with Henry. This mattered to him, so