"Yeah," Kane agreed.
~~~~~~~
Jasmine settled herself on Kane's lap and laid her head on his shoulder, feeling exhausted yet hopeful that the situation was well on its way to being resolved.
That it was Minerva who was blackmailing them was now clear. The woman obviously thought she was responsible for the failure of her relationship with George and hated her guts for it. In any case, Minerva clearly didn't have any naked picture of her. That was a bluff.
She felt so sorry for George. Heaven knew what other falsehoods his ex-fiancée had been spreading about him to other people. She hoped he could get his finances sorted and get his life back on track. He'd made stupid decisions in his life and had done some idiotic things, but she could now see he wasn't a bad person.
"So what's the next step, Kane?" Joe asked as he sat back down on the couch after seeing George off.
"I'll speak with Ray Thackery and tell him about these new developments. I'm hopeful Ray will be able to influence Minerva's father to get his daughter to toe the line. No business owner in his right mind would want to antagonise the owner of Lifestyle by Design magazine. It also wouldn't hurt to point out that the people Minerva is hurting are the sister of Lifestyle's senior writer and the future brother-in-law of the owner himself."
"Okay, that sounds good. Hopefully that will finally put an end to this," Joe said.
"Are you still going ahead with the article about you?" Jasmine asked Kane.
"Yes. I'm still waiting for Hannah to let us know if she'd be happy to be interviewed for it or not. But regardless of her decision, we're going ahead with it."
"I'm glad we now know who the blackmailer is," she said as she burrowed her head in Kane's neck. She smiled as she felt his arms tighten around her in return.
"Yes," Kane agreed. "But I'm still mad at you for talking to George alone when you didn't know if he was dangerous or not. Don't do anything like that again."
She lifted her head to look at her overprotective boyfriend and grinned at his expression. He looked so cute when he pouted.
"I'm sorry." She tried to look contrite.
"No you're not," he muttered.
"Well, you have to admit, if it wasn't for the blackmail, you wouldn't have known how much I love you."
Kane's eyes glowed. "And you wouldn't have known how much I love you," he responded softly, placing a tender kiss on her forehead.
She sighed with contentment and leaned back into his embrace. If they didn't have an audience, they'd be tearing each other's clothes off by now. But her parents were watching them.
Her gaze flicked to her mum, who had a serene, happy smile on her face. Her parents had never seen her this lovey-dovey with a man before but considering the circumstances, she had no doubt they were very pleased. Her mother, especially, had been eager for her to find a man she could be serious with. Well, here he was, sitting in their lounge room and holding her close in front of them.
She heard Kane's tummy grumble softly and chuckled. Reluctantly, she disengaged herself from him and stood up. "Do you guys want to order home delivery or go out to dinner?"
"Go out to dinner," three voices said together.
"And have a drink or two," Joe added.
She sighed, knowing none of them would feel fully relieved until they had heard from Minerva herself that she would stop her ridiculous actions.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Jasmine sat patiently in one of the boardrooms of the offices of Krand Architects. She was glad she was alone for the time being, while she thumbed through the latest issue of Lifestyle by Design. Kane was taking an important phone call in his office and they were still waiting for Minerva's dad and Minerva herself to arrive.
She flicked the pages back to the four-page article she had already read numerous times, smiling again at the pictures of Kane, his co-directors and the properties for which he'd received nominations. Even the one photo of him and Hannah taken during the interview made her lips tug upwards.
Jessa had written a wonderful article on Kane. It highlighted his career achievements and his latest award nominations but it smartly incorporated details about his private life and the challenges he faced as a high-profile professional. His openness about his grief at Hannah's miscarriage and his honesty about his relationship with Hannah were raw, poignant and touching.
Hannah had agreed to participate in the interview. She had talked about Kane's generosity with his time and his understanding of her feelings while she was grieving. She'd even mentioned the new man in her life, who was her current source of support.
Jasmine hadn't been sure if Hannah had told the truth about having a new boyfriend but Kane had assured her she had. Apparently, the guy had accompanied Hannah to the interview. She felt relieved by that.