Month: December 2025

Chapter Eleven Joaquin hadn’t done anything so menial in years, but it was worth it for the bright smile it put on Siobhan’s face. It felt good to do something concrete for her, especially when she kept yawning so hard. “Go to bed,” he urged. “I’ll join you when I’m done.” “I love how you assume

Chapter Ten “What? I can’t move in with you!” “Why not?” Joaquin asked the question, but then held up a finger as he brought his phone to his ear. She stewed while he spoke to his driver. “He’s happy to collect overtime.” He ended the call. “He’ll meet us downstairs in a few minutes.” “What on

Chapter Nine Her voice was quiet, the words simple, but they hit Joaquin with the force of a hurricane wind, nearly knocking him from his chair. She was having the baby. They were having a baby. The world titled on its axis. He resisted the urge to grip the table as he felt himself falling into empty

Chapter Eight Siobhan had a restless night. She tossed and turned, reliving how Joaquin had been so antagonistic about Ramon. Jealous? That was what she’d thought when he’d declared so angrily, I care. He had startled her enough that she’d spilled her guts over how badly she’d misjudged Gilbert and his feelings toward her. Joaquin had seemed

Chapter Seven Siobhan ignored Joaquin’s order to rest and spent the weekend Christmas shopping. She even made a point of watching children who were blinking in wonderment at toys and pausing to listen to a choral group singing before a massive decorated tree, trying to remind herself why she used to love Christmas so much. It

Chapter Six Joaquin couldn’t afford a single misstep. Lorenzo had retreated to his town house after the board overthrew him, but he was back at the office in the morning with a phalanx of lawyers, trying to retake his mantle. Joaquin was no longer the teenaged boy with a black eye and nothing in his pockets,

Chapter Five She was famished, too, which left little fight in her. Siobhan brought him into the building, vibrating with awareness of him and nearly wilting with hunger when the food aromas filled the elevator. Inside her flat, he glanced around as he removed his coat and accepted the hanger she offered before she removed

Chapter Four “You don’t really intend to fire me,” Siobhan said as she entered a room that was full of heavy furniture and the embedded funk of cigarette smoke. “You can’t.” “I absolutely can,” he contradicted. “I don’t even need a reason beyond the fact I’m restructuring.” “But that’s not fair. No one needs to know

Chapter Three Two weeks later… Siobhan had barely learned how her new boss, Oladele, liked her coffee when she came in to find the woman already at her desk, still wearing a raincoat speckled with the drizzle of Madrid’s December morning. Among the handful of people who had also trickled in before nine, there was an

Chapter Two Joaquin Valezquez didn’t make a habit of picking up women. Which wasn’t to say it had never happened, but he was a busy man who couldn’t afford distractions, especially today. Thirty minutes ago, word of yet another one of his father’s financial overextensions had reached him. Joaquin had left his team finishing out his