“Lauren is a beautiful woman,” he had stated calmly, aware that Elle’s agitation had been slowly mounting. “And despite how much you dislike her personality, I don’t think you can deny that fact.”

Elle had given a careless shrug. “I guess she’s pretty enough, even if she doesn’t bother with her appearance. I suppose she’s the sort of woman you used to date, hmm? Did she look like Lauren?”

Ben’s blood had turned ice cold at that moment, and he’d been terrified that he had betrayed himself with that stupid, offhand remark about Lauren’s beauty. But before he could dream up a reply, he’d been saved by providence – or rather, Elle’s cell phone. And since it had been an incoming call from her father – an occasion that always warranted dropping everything – she had dashed off to talk to him.

He’d given himself a mental kick in the ass after that near miss. It was glaringly apparent that Elle was jealous of Lauren, which shouldn’t have been all that surprising. Since they had become a couple, Elle’s jealousy and insecurity had come rushing to the surface. Despite her own quiet beauty, sophistication, and poise, she wasn’t all that experienced with men or dating or relationships, and thus her tendency to cling and almost smother him a little too often was somewhat understandable. But at times her jealousy could get tiresome and annoying, and Ben had nearly lost his patience with her on a few occasions. He’d assured her time and again that he wasn’t interested in other women, that he’d only smiled at the waitress to thank her and hadn’t been flirting, and that things were good between them.

But he also knew it bothered Elle that he had yet to say the three words she longed to hear – “I love you”. She had said those same words to him soon after they’d slept together for the first time, but had assured him she didn’t expect him to feel the same way. At least not right away.

But as the weeks and months had passed, and he still hadn’t uttered the magic words, Elle’s insecurities had mounted, and it seemed at times that she was unreasonably jealous of nearly every woman he came in contact with, no matter how innocent the association was. So it was little wonder that she was consumed with jealousy over someone like Lauren – a gorgeous, sexy, and sassy woman who was both strong and confident, and didn’t know the meaning of the word insecure.

It would be a disaster if Elle was ever to discover that Lauren was the woman he’d been so deeply in love with. He’d actually thought several times about telling Elle, about finding some way to break the news to her. But then she would glare darkly at a waitress or sales clerk or even a stranger passing by on the street because she was convinced they were smiling at Ben and flirting with him. And then he would have to spend long minutes soothing her, assuring her, until she seemed convinced. Until the next time it happened.

So in the end he’d decided to keep the details of his past relationship with Lauren a carefully guarded secret, knowing how hurt and upset Elle would be to learn the truth. Especially since he didn’t think he could tell her an outright lie by saying he no longer loved Lauren.

Chapter Eleven

April

“I still say you should have let me put some makeup on those bruises. Nobody would even notice that way.”

Chris glared at her through an eye that was half swollen shut, before retorting through puffy lips, “I don’t think a professional makeup artist could cover up these bruises.”

Lauren brightened as a new thought arose. “What about a ski mask? One of those things people wear to cover up from the cold or sometimes the sun – a baklava.”

“That’s a pastry made with filo dough,” corrected Karl, wincing as his cracked ribs sent pain coursing through his upper body. “You’re thinking of a balaclava. And that isn’t a half-bad idea, Chris.”

Chris shook his head. “Except that it’s seventy degrees outside. Plus, I have no idea where we could buy something like that within the next five minutes. No, there’s no hope for it. We’re just going to have to fess up to the boss.”

Lauren’s expression darkened considerably. “Yeah, especially since the town crier is bound to spill the beans the second he walks into the room. I still say you guys should have let me push him around a little, made sure he kept his big mouth shut for once.”

Karl gave her a pat on the head, then grimaced as even that brief movement made his ribs hurt again. “I think we’ve all had enough brawling for awhile. And George won’t need to tattle to Ben about what happened, since it’s pretty damned obvious from looking at the three of us. Even you didn’t come out of it unscathed.”

Lauren scowled as they reached the conference room. “The only reason I have this bruise is because I head-butted that fat bastard a little too hard. I should have just jabbed him in the throat instead, works much better.”

Chris gave a little groan. “What we should have done was go to a different bar. That’s where all of our troubles began.”

“You mean where your troubles began, Christina,” corrected Lauren. “Karl and I only got roped into the fray to save your sorry ass. Now, play it cool and keep your head down, and maybe Ben will be too preoccupied to even notice.”

But Lauren was overly optimistic, because the very first thing their boss said as they entered the conference room was, “What the fuck happened to you all? And I want Karl to tell me. I doubt I’d believe any wild story Lauren would concoct. And Chris – well, judging from the size of that fat lip you’re sporting, I’m guessing that talking isn’t all that easy right now.”

The three of them glanced at each other hesitantly, until Ben practically barked, “Sit. Now. And explain, please – Karl.”

Lauren plunked herself down on one of the chairs, making sure it was the farthest away from where Ben was sitting and glaring darkly at each of them in turn. “I’m, uh, surprised you haven’t already heard the story from George,” she mumbled.

Ben’s eyes narrowed almost dangerously as he gave Lauren a look that sent a rare chill up her spine. “George is running late this morning, though he should be arriving any minute. The message I received said that he was under the weather. But after seeing the three of you, I’m guessing that was just an excuse. How bad does he look?”

“Oh, he looks fine,” Lauren assured him quickly. “George doesn’t have a scratch on him. He really is sick. Something he ate in Croatia, and then our flight home was pretty turbulent so he spent most of the time upchucking in the bathroom. He wasn’t even involved when we - ”

Ben held up a hand to indicate she needed to stop talking. “I believe I said that I wanted Karl to tell me what happened. So unless you want to get into more trouble than you already are, I strongly suggest you keep quiet for once.”

Lauren glowered at him before crossing her arms across her chest mutinously, but grudgingly did as she was told.

Karl took a deep breath, a not so easy accomplishment given his sore ribs. “It’s not as bad as it looks, Ben,” he began in a calm voice, his Southern drawl lazy and more pronounced than usual. “And before you ask, nobody in the place knew we were there on assignment, or that we work for the magazine. Not to mention we hightailed it out of there before the local authorities arrived.”

Ben shook his head, looking perplexed. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Are you trying to tell me you all got roughed up during the assignment? Because so far as I know, your assignment in Croatia was a story about ocean kayaking and white water rafting. So unless you all capsized into some rocks, I’m going to assume the bruises and sore ribs were acquired in some other way.”

Karl glanced at Chris and Lauren before giving an apologetic shrug. “Uh, you would assume correctly. The assignment went off without a hitch. Or a bruise. Those were courtesy of a little altercation we had in one of Dubrovnik’s pubs. And not one of their finer establishments, I might add.”