Read Online Sleeping With The Enemy (A Stranger's Touch) by Mary Eason - Free Book Online

chair. His heart beat a frantic rhythm against his chest. He was so afraid he’d just lost the only thing to mean anything to him in too many years. There was only one person to blame. Himself.
    The intercom buzzer sounded. A signal from Sabrina, politely reminding him of his next meeting.
    Alex picked up the receiver, angry with himself at his stupidity in leaving those clippings lying around the house in the first place. He should have destroyed them long ago. She’d never believe him now. He couldn’t blame her. But the person who’d saved those things had been a different man.
    “Not now, okay, Sabrina? I won’t be taking any meetings until further notice.”
    Sabrina paused at his unusual behavior. “Of course, Mr. Bradshaw. Would you like me to reschedule the rest of your day for you, or—”
    “Do whatever you like.” Alex thought about all the things his assistant was reading into his statement and tried again. “Yes, please, cancel everything for the rest of the day.” With any luck, he’d catch Kate before she got too far, and then he’d explain everything.
    Why hadn’t he called Robert this morning, the way he’d planned? Instead, he’d put it off, dreading the expected confrontation. Now it was too late.
    “Um, yes, sir…but—”
    Alex didn’t let her finish. “Whatever it is, ask me later, Sabrina. Right now, I don’t want to be disturbed.” He hung up the phone and covered his face with hands that shook.
    Dear God, how had he let things come to this? He couldn’t lose her like this.
    Kate was the real deal. Honest and gentle. There was nothing fake about her. She would have told him the truth from the very beginning.
    So why hadn’t he destroyed those blasted clippings when he realized he’d never go through with this thing? Or, after the night he’d made love to her? He’d known then she was different.
    After his disastrous marriage to Marissa, Alex vowed never to put himself through so much pain again. But he hadn’t even hesitated when he put the ring on Kate’s finger and practically begged her to marry him.
     
    Now, all of his carefully laid plans had blown up in his face, all because he didn’t know how to be honest with her about the past.
    “Something’s come up. I’ll be out of the office for the rest of the week. You can reach me on my cell phone if you need anything,” he told his assistant on his way out of the office. Sabrina was too much of a professional to show any reaction to these words. But he suspected that he and Kate would be the talk of the break room by tomorrow morning.
    Alex tried countless times to reach Kate’s cell phone, but she wasn’t taking his calls.
    He drove through the light afternoon traffic to his house. The moment he walked inside and heard the overpowering silence of the place, he knew Kate wasn’t there.
    In the bedroom they’d shared their first night together in, she was everywhere in his thoughts and in his heart, but nowhere to be found.
    Her rings, the square diamond engagement ring and platinum band lay on the unmade bed where she tossed them.
    He’d only known Kate a few days. He didn’t even know her friends yet. There was no one for him to call to tell him where she might have gone, except for her cousin and her father. He couldn’t go to Brandy yet.
    Alex drove to Kate’s apartment, still trying to reach her on the phone. She’d told him where she kept the spare key. She wasn’t there either.
    There was only one place left for him to look.
    He hadn’t spoken to Robert Edwards since the night of the accident ten years earlier. He’d been angry with himself for choosing that particular night to ask Marissa for a divorce.
    Kate’s old SUV was nowhere in sight as he parked the vehicle next to the beat-up pickup truck belonging to his father-in-law.
    Alex knocked noisily without an answer before trying the door. It was unlocked. He called out several times before the older man answered.
    “Upstairs—the first