Naughty Before Christmas (Decadent Delight Series #3) (12 page)

He reached
room 308, glanced down at the text Arianna had sent him to confirm the room number, knocked, and immediately knocked again. In a matter of seconds, the door swung open and there she was, looking breathtakingly beautiful as ever.

Berlin’s
eyes widened and her pouty lips parted. “Reggie… how did you find me?” Shock had her voice rising.

Reggie tried to mask his disappointment.
After two days, he hoped his wife had missed him. That would have made the situation a lot easier to resolve, then he could have dragged her into his arms and put the hotel room to good use until morning.

“It doesn’t matter
how I found you,” he said and grinned. “What matters is I came to take my wife home.”

She stared at him a moment, then blinked and shook her head
stubbornly. “I’m not going home.”

H
is smile dimmed a bit. “Why the hell not?” he barked.

“You know why
,” she countered.

Noticing
the way her chest was heaving, he softened his voice. He hadn’t come over to upset her. “Boo… listen. It’s not what you think.”

H
er brow rose. “I know what I saw,” she cried accusingly.

Reggie shook his head.
“No, you saw a misunderstanding. Lyric’s an interior designer I had hired to help me get the house ready. She was showing me an idea she had for the office when she threw herself at me.”

His reply was met by ridiculous laughter. “Threw herself! How can that woman thro
w herself at you?”

“Easily,” he replied with a sheepish grin.
“That chick’s stronger than she looks.” He hoped humor would soften the mood but instead her face hardened again.

“
I know what I saw.” Her nostrils flared.

“Berlin, babe. Can I come in so we can talk?”
Reggie glanced briefly over his shoulder as a large man moved down the hall followed by two hyperactive kids. “Boo?” he asked.

Berlin
drew a deep calming breath before she opened the door wide and stepped aside.

Reggie
entered and spotted Arianna sitting at the table. As soon as their eyes met, she sprung from the chair. “I better go pick my son up from daycare before they call social services on me.” She gave a soft laugh and reached for her purse on the table before continuing. “I’ll call you later.” She squeezed Berlin’s shoulder then turned toward the door and gave Reggie a stern look before departing.

He shut the door behind her then turned and faced Berlin who had taken a seat on the couch.
“Boo, you need to be at home. Not hiding out in some hotel.”

Her eyes snapped to his.
“Hiding? Who’s hiding? I just don’t want to be around you right now.”

He blew out a long breath. “Baby, I understand you
’re upset with me and you have every reason to be, but you have to believe me when I say there’s nothing going on between me and Lyric.”

As she
stared at him, he saw her eyes soften. She wanted to believe him.
So what was stopping her?

“I saw the two of you together at
El Patron
.”

Damn
. He should have known. When she mentioned being at the baby store up the street he should have suspected she had seen him or rather she had seen the two of them climbing out of his vehicle. Lyric had asked him to take her to drop her car off at the shop for an oil change while they had lunch and discussed business.
Stupid. Stupid
. He should have just been honest with Berlin in the first place.

His dark eyes bored intently into hers.
“We were discussing the interior design for the house.”

Berlin
tensed. “You told me you were meeting a client about a sunroom.”

Double damn
. He hesitated then replied, “My bad. I wanted to keep it a surprise.”

“Why
would you want to keep it a surprise? That’s not
my
house,” she croaked.

He
gazed at her, opting for complete honesty, but his pride wouldn’t let him. He wanted her to trust him and his word even if he wasn’t able to justify his actions just yet. “Yo, I promised you I was gonna get that house ready and I was tryna not to let you down.” He shuffled his feet. “That’s all.”

Berlin cut her eyes at him
and mumbled, “Whatever.”

Taking a s
tep closer, he ventured carefully. “Are you saying you don’t trust me?”

“No… I’m not saying that.
” She paused and her eyes shifted to the door. “I-I don’t know what to believe.”

Watching the play of emotion across her face, Reggie shook his head.
“I’m not losing my wife.”

Her head whipped around
and he saw the tears well in her eyes. “Then you should have thought about that before you decided to kiss someone else!” she cried, eyes flashing with outrage as she rose from the couch.

“
The only woman I want to kiss is you.”

Reggie
immediately closed the distance and dragged Berlin into his arms and kissed her with all his bent up frustration as his tongue stroked and teased her mouth, hoping to coax her into submission. Instead, she dragged her lips from his and stepped away, drawing a deep breath to calm her jittery nerves. “Reggie, please go. I need time to think.”

“Think at home. You’re leaving.”

“I—”

He cut her off
, “You’re pregnant. I’m taking you home.” Berlin was preparing to protest when Reggie added, “I’ll stay here for a few days, but trust me. When I get back from Columbia, I’m coming home to my wife and
our
bed.”

On Tuesday, Berlin drove to the clinic. Reggie was still in Columbia, Missouri looking at a mansion renovation for an athletic director, which meant she had at least another day before his return home.
Lord knows she needed it.
She also needed the time to finish up a few year-end reports before the clinic closed the following afternoon for the holiday.

Using her key,
Berlin stepped inside the building. The reception desk was empty but the florist had been by and several poinsettias were on the counters. They would use them to decorate the banquet tables for their holiday party later today.

Berlin
moved down the long hall past a large Christmas tree covered with bulbs, lights, candy canes, and homemade angels made by some of the children. As she moved toward her office, she reached up, slipped the scarf from around her neck then tugged the leather gloves from her hands, and stuffed them inside the wool coat pocket. She reached her office door that had been beautifully decorated with Christmas cards. Usually the sight caused her to smile but not this time. She sighed. The holiday just wasn’t going to be the same.

Once in
her office, Berlin shrugged out of her coat, and spent the entire morning trying to keep as busy as she could. The more she worked, the less she thought about her cheating husband.

Arianna had already started her Christmas vacation and
Berlin was grateful she wasn’t going to be in the office, asking questions. She just wasn’t up to listening to her best friend telling her what she needed to do to save her marriage. Although as much as it pained her to admit it, the possibility of her marriage being over scared her. However, she wasn’t sure if she’d ever be able to trust Reggie again. She had loved him with everything she had, and truly believed nothing or no one could have ever come between them. But she had been so wrong. It had all been a lie. Just the thought of Reggie with another woman caused her stomach to churn with despair.

Hearing voices in the hallway, Berlin
pushed her marital problems aside and focused on the yearly expense spreadsheet. Two hours later, she still hadn’t managed to get the damn thing to balance. Numbers were her specialty. If anyone could find a problem with the budget, it was her. With determination, she spent the next several hours refiguring the columns, and it was almost lunch time by the time she had identified the problem.

There
was an extra hundred grand still in their expense account.

Money had been set aside for equipment th
e director had later decided not to purchase. Berlin gasped in excitement. She had found a way to stop the clinic from laying off the two nurses.

“Some good ha
s come out of the day,” she murmured with her first real smile. Reaching for her phone, Berlin dialed an extension and left a message for Dr. Clarke to contact her when he arrived at the clinic.

She was getting ready to break for lunch
when the front desk buzzed her desk. “Berlin, someone is here to see you.”

“
Sure, send them back,” she said and knew it wasn’t her husband because Penny, who had a slight crush on Reggie, wouldn’t have been able to stop giggling.

She was
saving the spreadsheet when she heard a soft knock at her door. As soon as Berlin looked up and spotted the chocolate beauty, her mouth tightened.

“
What the hell do you want?”

Lyric
cleared her throat. “Please, hear me out.”

Their eyes met and held.

With forced composure, Berlin leaned back in the chair, folded her arms across her wool blend sweater and replied, “You got five minutes.”

Lyric
stepped further into the room while Berlin’s eyes perused the red sweater dress that accented every perfect curve on her shapely body. As much as she hated to admit it, Lyric was beautiful with dark mocha skin, large brown eyes, a small nose, and high cheekbones.

Tensely,
Berlin waited for the woman to speak.

After what felt like an eternity, Lyric stepped forward, allowing
the leather handbag to slip off her shoulder and said meekly, “I’m sorry for the other day.”

“
Sorry for what happened or sorry you got caught?” she countered cynically.

A guilty expression crossed her face.
“Actually both. I was wrong. I shouldn’t have kissed Reginald.”

Her heart soared.
Lyric kissed him
,
not the other way around
. “You’re right. You shouldn’t have.” Berlin swiveled around on her chair and then pointed to her left hand. “This ring on my finger means he
belongs
to me.”

Lyric
’s gaze flickered to the diamond wedding ring. “You’re right and I-I… I guess I was jealous.” She paused for a moment. “Reginald is handsome and so nice. I just got out of a bad break-up with a married man, and I really thought Reggie might have been feeling the same vibe. Instead, he was just being nice,” she said quietly keeping her wounded gaze trained on the floor.

“
That’s because my husband tries to make everyone feel comfortable.” Berlin spat out the words.

“
And I mistook that as something else.” Lyric released another shaky breath. “I’m sorry. Really I am.” She looked confused and troubled, and Berlin almost felt sorry for her. Instead, she gazed up at her not sure what to say.

“
You’re a lovely woman. I’m sure you won’t have a problem finding a man of your own.”

Lyric
looked stunned although her chin had tilted a notch. “Ummm, thank you.” There was another prolonged silence before she summoned a shaky smile. “I feel really stupid for what I did but I had to come down here and tell you your husband had nothing to do with what happened. I kissed him.”

Berlin sat forward in her chair, eyeing her intently
. “I appreciate you being woman enough to come here and tell me that, but listen and listen good. I better not
ever
see you near my
husband
again. Do I make myself clear?”

“
You won’t… I promise,” Lyric said, meeting her hard stare. “The two of you are having a baby and the last thing I want to do is break up a happy home. It’s obvious your husband really loves you.”

“
Yes, he does,” Berlin began. “Now get out of my office.”

Lyric flinched,
but nodded. “Well, again, I’m sorry.” She had already turned to exit the room when Berlin spoke again.

“
How did you find out where I worked?”

Looking
over her shoulder, Lyric shrugged and said, “I went back to the house to apologize and Trey told me how to find you.”

Good ole Trey
.

Long after she was gone,
Berlin gazed out the window of her office. Snow was falling again but she was too emotional to appreciate it.

Reggie had been telling the truth.

Panic tightened at her chest and her hands were shaking. She should have trusted him. Closing her eyes, she replayed the scene again but this time she saw the stunned look on her husband’s face and the pain in his eyes while he pleaded with her to believe him. She had refused to listen to what he had to say, only to discover how wrong she had been. Shaking her head, Berlin didn’t even want to think what might have happened if Lyric hadn’t been woman enough to come forward and admit her guilt. There was no telling how long the tension and feelings of betrayal would have gone on.