Page 82 of Enchanting the CEO

She whipped her head up immediately. "No, no." She put her hands on my shoulders. "Please promise me you won't do that. You’re her boss. She’s right about that."

"All right. I don't want to get between you and your sister. But I think I know what Celia is afraid of. She knows about my reputation. I never kept that a secret. Mostly because I figured if people knew, the word would spread, and it would be to my benefit."

She started to laugh. "Wait, you actually had a strategy around this?"

I cleared my throat. "It wasn't intentional at first, and that's all I'm going to say about it."

"Noooo, I want to know."

"Why? It's not an interesting subject, and it's not who I am right now."

"We're always a product of who we were and how we've evolved. So, spill the beans. If anything, it's a nice piece of gossip, and I'm all for that."

I groaned. "Fine."

"But while we do, I want an orange juice."

“So demanding,” I teased, taking her hand and pulling her to the kitchen. "Once, I made some sort of joke with my bartenders. Then at the end of that evening, a woman approached me and basically told me she'd heard that I wasn't looking for anything serious and neither was she. Now I feel like a jackass."

"Aha," she said. "I can see how that could be useful, yes."

"Are you disgusted?" I peeled oranges, putting them in the juicer.

"No."

"Why not?"

"I don't think we have to be ashamed of anything we did if we didn't hurt anyone. That's my outlook in life."

"It's a very healthy one," I replied. Once the juice was ready, I handed her the glass.

"Aren't you going to have one?"

"No, it's just for you."

"Thank you." Her entire face lit up.

From this small gesture? I needed to find out more things she liked. If she rewarded me with that smile, nothing was going to be too hard or too complicated. I suspected that not many men had given her a reason to smile, and I wanted to change that.

I heard a beeping sound in the living room.

"That's my phone," I said. I'd left it somewhere on the couch. I didn't even remember putting it there.

Diane came behind me, and we both sat down as I grabbed my phone.

"I have a missed call from Maddox," I said.

She put the half-empty glass of orange juice on the coffee table and slid closer. "Want to return it?"

"Not right now. I need to apologize for the awkward way I behaved." I leaned on the backrest, dropping my head on it.

Diane kissed the front of my neck, making me laugh.

"How do you feel about having met Helen today?" she asked.

"There was a time when I thought I could never possibly do it. Now that I did meet her... it wasn’t too bad."

"I think that's true for most things in life," Diane said, "although this is an exceptionally delicate situation."

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