Page 27 of Beautiful Betrayal

“I am. You?”

“Not tonight. I’m headed to a baseball game with my new foreman, Cameron, and then we’re going to the casino in Connecticut.”

“The casino? You don’t like to gamble.”

“That’s what they make penny slots for,” he says. “And I need a break. I’m burning it at both ends. What about you? The new job burning you out?”

“No,” I say. “I love it. It’s—interesting.” As is the boss, who I keep thinking about way too much, but thankfully haven’t seen again since our bar meet-up.

“We need to meet up for dinner. I know the job is new, but come to Brooklyn, honey. I need to hug my daughter. How about next weekend?”

“I’d like that. We’ll make it work.”

We chat a minute more, then disconnect and I’m bothered by the call. My father gambling? That makes no sense, but that home builders show he went to a few months back did earn him lots of new woodworking business. Maybe his money situation has eased up. I need to talk to him next weekend, but it must have if he’s taking time off.

Relieved by this idea, I grab my briefcase and head for my door. I’m about to exit when Grayson steps in front of me and I do what I did once before. I smash right into him. I gasp and he catches my waist. “I do like the way you keep running into me,” he says, those green eyes piercing mine. “You haven’t called.”

I should step back. I should push away from him. “No, and I won’t.” I inhale and try to step back.

He holds onto me. “Do you want me to let you go?”

“That’s a trick question,” I answer honestly.

“Explain, Mia.”

“If you weren’t my boss—”

“I’m not your boss, Mia. I’m just a man who can’t stop thinking about you. Have dinner with me.”

“I can’t.”

“You want to.”

“Yes,” I agree.

“Then you can,” he counters.

“I can’t get by the fact that you’re Grayson Bennett.”

“To most people, that’s not a problem.”

“I’m not most people,” I say. “I told you that.”

He stares at me several beats and then his hand falls away. “I’ll see you soon, Mia.” He backs out of the office and disappears.

I sink against my wall just inside the doorway and try to catch my breath, but my God, my entire body is on fire. He’s just so damn—perfect. The way he looks. The way he smells. The way he feels. Those green eyes. I breathe out and force myself to move.

I exit my office and scan for Grayson but he’s nowhere around, and a punch of disappointment grinds through me. He’s my boss, no matter how he tries to frame it otherwise. I can’t go out with him. I can’t even sleep with him. It sucks. I hurry forward and enter the elevator, my body humming a tune that Grayson wrote. I need a workout. A long, hard workout. And chocolate. It’s not Grayson Bennett, but it will do. My weekend plans set, I exit the building and start walking. I’ve made it one block, with one to go to reach the subway, when a black Porsche pulls up next to me.

The window rolls down. “Get in,” a male voice calls out and I suck in air when I realize it’s Grayson. It’s a moment of decision. I know this. I should say no. I try.

I walk to the window and lean in. “I’m not getting in.”

“No one else knows what happens between us unless we make that decision together. It’s just you and me tonight, Mia.”

Just me and him. I don’t know why those words, all of them spoken together, hit all the right notes, but they do. “I don’t want to regret this,” I say, in a last bid for resistance.

“And if you walk away, will you regret that? Because I can tell you, I will.”

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