CHAPTER FORTY EIGHT – THE PRICE OF FATHERHOOD

The penthouse lay shrouded in silence, the night cloaking it in velvet darkness. Kayla shifted restlessly amid the tangled sheets, her mind an incessant whirlwind of thoughts and worries that refused to grant her any respite. Beside her, Lance slumbered fitfully, his brow furrowed and his powerful frame tense and coiled even in repose. Studying the harsh lines of fatigue etched into the ruggedly handsome angles of his face, Kayla felt her heart constrict with a troubled ache. It had been like this for weeks now - the relentless demands of business and fatherhood combining in a perfect storm that had gradually worn Lance's reserves of energy and patience down to a mere sliver. He was operating on fumes, stretched thinner than string with each passing day, yet still he soldiered on with characteristic stoicism. But Kayla knew him too well, perhaps better than anyone. She could read the signs like a neon sign - the explosive flashes of temper, the distracted air of preoccupation that