Manolos In Manhattan. Katie Oliver

been in the apartment, they’d left without taking anything or causing any harm.

      Still, she decided uneasily as she got out of bed, it wouldn’t hurt to throw the deadbolt on the front door until Rhys got home and check the apartment again, just to be sure. She’d left a lamp on in the living room and on the hallway table, unwilling to face a dark, shadowy room while she was alone.

      Her mobile phone rang, and she started. She glanced at the screen. Rhys. “Are you on your way home?” she asked shakily.

      “Yes. I got us takeaway from Madame Wu’s.” He paused. “What’s wrong? You sound upset. Has something happened?”

      “Everything’s fine,” she said. “I’m reading one of those English murder mysteries and scaring myself a bit, that’s all.”

      “Darling, why do you do that?” he scolded her. “Never mind, I’m nearly there. I’ll see you in about ten minutes.”

      “I can’t wait.” Feeling immediately better, Natalie returned to the bedroom and drew on a robe, and went in the kitchen to wait for Rhys.

      As she polished off a second spring roll twenty minutes later, Nat licked her fingers. “This is really scrummy.”

      Takeway containers and packets of plum sauce and Chinese mustard littered the kitchen table as she and Rhys dined on sticky chicken and dan dan noodles.

      Rhys dipped a spoon in his sweet and sour soup. “We have Chaz to thank. He’s the one who told me about Madame Wu’s.”

      “Of course.” Nat resisted rolling her eyes – only just – as she reached for a fortune cookie.

      “He knows all of the best places to go. He even typed up a list for me.”

      “How thoughtful.” She unwrapped her fortune cookie and read aloud, “‘You will meet a tall, dark stranger.’” She tossed it aside. “How original.”

      “No, darling, sorry to say there’s no tall, dark stranger in your future,” Rhys said. “Unless,” he added with a gleam in his eye, “we count your intruder the other night.”

      She regarded him indignantly. “I’m glad you find it so amusing, Rhys. I did see someone in the apartment. And anything might have happened if I hadn’t screamed.”

      “Yes. I might’ve gotten a decent night’s sleep.”

      She didn’t dignify that with a response.

      Rhys sighed. “I’ll see what I can do. Perhaps I can have additional security measures put in place. Chaz can look into it.”

      Chaz again, Nat thought irritably. “Whatever would you do without him?”

      “I honestly don’t know,” he said, completely missing her sarcasm as he leaned back in his chair. “We’ve been so busy, and there’s still so much to do – I’d never have accomplished half of what I have if it weren’t for Chaz. He’s incredibly organized. I’m really very lucky to have him on board.”

      Natalie dug out the last of her sticky chicken from the carton with her chopsticks and plopped it on her plate.

      I used to dress fashionably, she thought morosely. I used to have Rhys’s eye, and his undivided attention. Now all he can talk about is his personal assistant, and I’m just a...an afterthought. A fat afterthought.

      “Natalie,” Rhys said gently as he took the chopsticks from her hand and laid them aside, “what’s wrong? You look like your last credit card was just turned down.”

      “Yes, well, you’d know about that, wouldn’t you?” she retorted.

      He blinked. “What?”

      She stood and carried her plate to the sink and set it down with a clatter. “You hate to see me spend money. You’re always on at me about exercising restraint and thinking before I buy. It gets tiresome. I want to buy things for the baby, and I’ll need new clothes soon. I can barely fit in the old ones.”

      “Then of course you should buy whatever you need. But you already have enough baby clothes to stock Piccolini—”

      “Most of those were presents,” she said defensively. “And you have to admit, their ‘I Heart NY’ T-shirts and jim-jams are beyond adorable.”

      “The problem is, Natalie, you think everything is ‘beyond adorable.’ And then you buy it.”

      “It’s our first baby, Rhys! A baby requires a lot of...things. And I did offer to work with you,” she added, “to help out and earn a bit of extra money. I haven’t very much to do these days. But you s-said you don’t need my h-help.”

      Then she erupted into tears.

      Rhys stood and pulled her to her feet and into his arms. “My darling Nat,” he said into her hair, “you’re being ridiculous. I need you...and I always will. You’re my wife, my everything. And you’re having our child. So there’s no need for you to work at Dashwood and James, or anywhere. Unless you want to, of course.”

      “It isn’t about having a job, Rhys. I just want to feel...needed. I feel like an afterthought where you’re concerned, like I have no place in your life.”

      He took his finger and tilted her tear-blotched face up to his. “You have the first place in my life,” he told her, his words at once gruff and firm. “And you always will.”

      She sniffled and blinked her tear-matted lashes. “Really?”

      “Really.” He kissed her and draped his arm around her shoulders. “Now that’s settled, I’m knackered. Let’s go to bed.”