The man in the doorway wore a bright red, aggressively trendy suit, hair styled within an inch of its life, holding a card for some upscale restaurant.
Tyler leaned against the doorframe, all casual confidence.
“Director Hart, I figured you were too worn out from the trip yesterday to bother with dinner.
Came to make it up to you today.
Lunch, my treat.”
Ivy’s brow furrowed.
“I appreciate it, but I’m not feeling well enough to go out.
No need to trouble yourself we’ll head to the factory this afternoon, and then”
“No trouble at all, I’ll just explain it in here.” Tyler pushed his way into the room uninvited, a hand landing on her waist, his tone dropping into something suggestive.
“That face might be bandaged up, Director Hart, but the rest of you is still plenty hot.
Nathaniel’s got terrible taste, letting himself get distracted when he’s got someone like you at home.
Must get lonely.”
Ivy was stunned that he’d try something this blatant with a client standing in the room, and fury snapped through her fast she grabbed the card straight out of his hand.
Tyler beamed.
“So Director Hart’s agreed to dinner after all”
He didn’t finish the sentence.
Something cold pressed against his throat.
Ivy held the edge of the card flat against his neck, pushed the door open with her free hand, and studied him with a look that could cut glass.
“Did Desmond put you up to this?”
Tyler startled at how fast she’d turned the tables, glanced down the empty hallway, and tried to recover.
“Desmond who?
No idea what you’re talking about.
Attraction happens between people.
It’s natural.
If you’re not interested, fine, but what’s with the knife?”
“Miss Hart, are you trying to kill me?” He hadn’t taken this woman seriously for a second.
She looked like a stiff breeze could knock her over.
He reached to grab her wrist and shove back, and felt the sting immediately.
She’s actually drawing blood.
This woman is not bluffing.
“Try that again,” Ivy said, cold.
“Does Desmond even cover you for accidents like this?”
Tyler’s expression cycled through several emotions before he finally caved.
“I really don’t know anyone named Desmond.
I just thought you were attractive, and a director on top of it.
I’ve been with plenty of women, but never a powerful one.
Just wanted to know what it’d feel like to sleep with someone’s boss…”
Every word out of this man’s mouth is somehow worse than the last.
The sheer stupidity of it made Ivy’s stomach turn, nausea rolling through her hard enough to make her sway on her feet.
Tyler caught the opening instantly, wrenched the card from her grip, and shoved her against the wall.
“Don’t play innocent with me.
Once we’re done here, the factory’s little problem disappears.
Simple as that.”
He reached to shut the door behind them.
A cramp shot through Ivy’s stomach, sharp enough to double her over.
Too afraid to fight back outright, she screamed toward the hallway instead.
“Help!”
So the substandard materials really were the factory’s fault.
This is him making sure I never mention it.
I should have called Hazel the second he showed up.
Careless.
Completely careless.
“Don’t bother.
Your assistant’s already been sent off somewhere else.
It’s just us on this floor.” Tyler, smug, started tugging at her clothes, and something in Ivy went ice cold.
He planned this.
There’s no way out but through.
Baby, hold on.
Just a little longer.
Please.
Right as the door was about to click shut, right as Ivy braced to fight him with everything she had left, a hand shoved through the gap and forced the door back open.
“Nathaniel?” Hope broke across Ivy’s face, her voice cracking on his name.
She had never in her life been this relieved to see him.
The second Nathaniel registered what he was looking at Ivy pinned against the wall, clothes torn, terror written across her face, something violent surged behind his eyes.
He didn’t say a word.
He just drove his foot into Tyler’s chest and put him on the floor.
“You have a death wish.”
“What the hell, you kick me?
I run this whole town” Tyler didn’t get to finish.
A fist connected with his jaw and knocked a front tooth loose.
Blood filled his mouth.
Whatever bravado Tyler had left evaporated the instant he registered the look on Nathaniel’s face.
He scrambled backward, silent, and bolted.
Nathaniel raised a foot like he meant to chase him down.
“Ugh” Ivy couldn’t hold herself upright any longer and slid to the floor, arms wrapped around her stomach, face bloodless.
The gauze on her cheek had soaked through with fresh blood from the struggle.
“Ivy!” Nathaniel dropped to a crouch beside her instantly, jaw tight with fury and fear in equal measure, the words coming out before he could stop them.
“Aren’t you supposed to be untouchable?
How does someone like him get the better of you?
Are you going to keep playing tough after this?”
For half a second, Ivy had felt something close to gratitude that he’d shown up at all, that he’d saved her and the baby without hesitation.
Then he opened his mouth, and whatever gratitude she’d felt curdled instantly into humiliation.
Every word died in her throat, and her expression went flat and cold.
“Thank you for your help, President Wolfe.” She gestured toward the door.
“I need to rest now.
Please go.”
Nathaniel had flown back overnight, jet-lagged and running on no sleep, and walked straight into a scene that had nearly ended in something unforgivable.
He was already running on fumes of worry and fury before she’d even opened her mouth.
Watching her turn her back on him after everything, his face went dark with anger.
He slammed the door shut and caught her wrist.
“Bad timing, apparently.
Dressed like that, opening the door for a man did I interrupt something?”
“Do you hear yourself right now?” Ivy was in a plain, high-necked nightgown.
There was no version of this outfit that read as an invitation.
Looking into his furious eyes, unease crept up her spine, the memory of the night at the estate resurfacing uninvited, the night he’d stopped listening to reason entirely.
She needed him gone.
Fast.
Her body couldn’t survive a repeat of that tonight.
“Nathaniel, weren’t you supposed to be on vacation with your girlfriend?
Just this morning”
“You didn’t come back for me.
You’re just this worked up because you can’t stand the idea of letting go of your stand-in.” She tried the door again.
“It’s over between us.
What I do is none of your business anymore.
Stop acting jealous.”
Something in that landed exactly where it hurt.
His grip on her wrist tightened.
“Jealous of you?
Don’t flatter yourself.”
He glared at her, then pulled the photos up on his phone and shoved the screen in her face.
“I came back because you’re still tangled up with Desmond.
I’ve warned you already we are not divorced yet.
If you cheat on me, there will be consequences.”
Ivy hissed through the pain.
“Nathaniel, you’re hurting me.
Let go!”
He released her wrist on reflex, guilt flickering through the anger.
“You brought this on yourself.”
Catching sight of fresh blood soaking through the gauze on her cheek, he stubbornly steered her onto the sofa despite her protests and called down to the front desk for a first-aid kit.
Seeing he had no intention of leaving, Ivy forced herself to look through the photos properly, hoping to defuse this at the root.
“This is absurd.
Even less convincing than the hospital photo Desmond used last time, and you’re actually falling for it?” Her anger sharpened with every second.
“I genuinely thought you were smarter than this.”
Something in Nathaniel’s expression eased slightly at that some part of him quietly pleaded she still credited him with better judgment than this.
“These photos went straight to my mother’s inbox.
You think I’m supposed to just ignore that?” His voice hardened again.
“You knew exactly what Desmond was capable of, and you still stayed at the same hotel, laughing it up with him?”
Ivy’s eyes burned, fury and hurt tangled together.
“Nathaniel, is that really all I am to you?
Three years, three years of doing everything asked of me, never once stepping out of line publicly or privately.
And somehow I’m still the woman you paint as chasing after every man in sight?”