"This is a business trip, Rowan. I live here. With you. I'm going away on business. I'll be returning to live here. With you. What possible objection can you have to Ms. Knight being on hand while I'm doing business?"
"Didn't Ms. Knight suggest this Waverley House to you?"
"Yes, she did." No hesitation. No flicker of guilt. "One of her former employers used it. She thought I would benefit from it."
"Not to mention herself." The words steamed out. While she was absentmindedly spinning the straw in her cup of juice.
Lucas put on his stony face, the one that stopped an excess of rowdy nonsense from his sons. "That's an unbecoming remark, Rowan. Ms. Knight will be working as hard, if not harder than I will on this trip, keeping on top of the paperwork."
"I'd like to be with you on this trip, Lucas. It's not too late to arrange, is it? Even if I have to take a different flight."
"Why on earth—" He grimaced and rolled his head as though she had come up with the ultimate absurdity. "If you'd like a trip to Europe, Rowan, I'll give you one. Properly planned and organized so you can tour with pleasure and comfort, seeing and doing all you want to see and do. It needs thought and-"
"I want to be with you on this trip. Just to be with you," she insisted.
Lucas heaved an impatient sigh. He held her gaze with intimidating steadiness as he spoke, measuring his words slowly to make sure they sank in. "I'll be working day in, day out. It's totally impractical, your accompanying me. I won't have time to entertain you."
"That's fine, I can make do. I already have plans with your mother and mine's to look after the kids while we are away."
"….." he walked out on her, heading, no doubt, for his private den where he played endlessly on his computers or fiddled with his sound system to find some extra tonal quality. Rachel looked at the door, for a moment before she stood up cleaned the dishes. She might as well have turned in early and so by the time Lucas had gotten to bed, Rachel was already asleep.
The next day, Rachel had her daughter Audrey was in her highchair, making a chewy mess of a biscuit in between sips of milk. Oliver , the irrepressible little hellion of the family, was sitting on the table, a mixing bowl between his thighs as his fingers made short work of licking out what was left of the chocolate icing that had been made for a fresh batch of brownies.
Her other son Aiden was taken to school by Lucas.
Looking at the kitchen window, she saw Harry, had taken over from the previous cleaner a month ago, and he was a sight to behold. He had a glorious mane of sun-bleached blond locks that rippled to his shoulder-blades in careless disarray and a body that bulged with gym muscles, all of them on stunning display.
'Such a yummy thing' Rachel thought sadly, if only she wasn't married, she would have eaten him up right away. She was even more tempted to screw with morals and just take the young hot and single man for herself. Lucas wasn't given her away, and even if he was, it was always a one-sided taking.
"Chockie, chockie, me!" her daughter suddenly cried grabbing her attention. When she turned around her son was eating some cookies out of the jar and his sister was jealous.
"Pass the tray over, Oliver," Rachel ordered.
"She'll only make a mess of one," he grumbled, grudgingly doing as he was told.
"I'll help her eat it," Rachel said, choosing one of the thinner slices.
"It'll make you sick again," he warned.
"I haven't been sick."
"Yes, you have. Daddy said so."
"When did Daddy say so?"
"This morning. I heard him tell Aiden"
"Then you must have heard him wrong, Oliver" Rachel's gripped her hands on her kitchen sink, but also remembered not to put to much force.
"Did not."
"That's not saying I'm sick." Rachel whispered and pushed her hair back.
A little Later just some time before lunch Rachel had called in their nanny to watch the children. She was going to head into Lucas office. Ms. Knight was at her desk in the outer office looking very classic for a mistress trope character. Rachel gave her a slight smile and was about to walk into Lucas office when Ms. Knight stood up and opened the doors for her.
When she walked in the women closed the doors, Her abrupt entrance startled Lucas. His feet fell off the desk, his chair jerked forward and he spilled onto his legs, towering quickly to his full height. His face ran through a gamut of expressions—shock, disbelief, guilt, anger, bitterness, irony—swiftly settling into a watchful wariness with a strong undercurrent of tension.
"Surprised, I wanted to eat Lunch with you" Rachel held up the box with a soft smile.
He did not return her smile. He looked as though he didn't know what to do with her smile or the lunch or her unexpected presence in his office.
"I wanted to surprise you"
"You certainly did that," he said, waiting on his side of the desk, not coming to meet her.
"You make it sound like, my actions of love and affection are something else."
"Is it?"
"What else could It be."
"A game some people, play"
"….." Rachel said nothing as she set the lunch down on his desk. She went up on tiptoe to kiss him, his body was stiff, unyielding, his eyes cold and hard.
"Let's have lunch together, make love in the afternoon,' she murmured, trying to soften him. 'I could book a room for us—"
"Oh, for pity's sake, stop it!" he growled, his eyes blazing a savage rejection as he snatched her arms away from his neck and held them forcibly at her sides. "Nobody changes their nature overnight. I'm not a fool, Rowen. Don't make me lose what respect I have for you."
"Respect?" she echoed blankly, her heart hammering. 'Can I commit matricide, right now?'
He winced and released her, stepping back so quickly there was no stopping him from wheeling away from her. He paced around the desk, putting space between them before he spoke to her again, his hand slicing the air in deep agitation.
He was about to say 'sorry' when Rachel walked out without a look back. She completely went back home. In frustration Rachel had driven to an isolated place in the woods. The place she went was filled with holes and vis able damage. That she had clearly been making to vent over the years she has been married to Lucas.
"Waverly house" Rachel whispered to herself, she won't give up until then. She quickly hopped back in her car and drove back to her home where her kids where her daughter was the only one left inside the home. Oliver is in Pre-School, so she was alone with her daughter after she dismissed the Nanny.
'Today was MS. Knight Birthday, she hoped Lucas would have at least have the sense to not go to lunch with her and today is also the day they first met, an anniversary lunch was all that she wanted. That's why she brought it in lunch.
And then the day after tomorrow is the anniversary they got married. Meaning when they arrive in London where Waverly house is it would be the anniversary they got married.