Page 17 of Broken Boss

I clamp my mouth shut, annoyed, and try to enjoy the golden light of late afternoon. The trees in the park are starting to change colors now, yellow tinged with orange and reds bleeding through.

With a sigh, I sink farther against the bench. Grant has always given expert advice and can read me like a book—part of why he was an excellent lawyer. If anyone can help me dig myself out of this Autumn-centered hole, it’s him.

“Okay. There is someone.”

Grant chuckles. “A girl?”

Not sure why it’s a question, I shoot him a look. “A woman. Trust me, I don’t think many men could handle her.”

I’m starting to wonder if I can. It’s not just her curves and that sneaky lingerie, but this undercurrent she has—she’s a survivor.

“I’m assuming she’s evading you?”

It’s his polite way of asking if we’ve slept together.

“No, actually.”

Dark scenes from the car flash through my mind. Autumn’s breasts surging out of her bra. Her warm thighs straddling my hips. The endless curves that tempt me like an addiction.

Grant is looking at me dead-on now, a frown creasing his brow. His eyes narrow. He knows as well as anyone that I don’t date the same woman twice, and I definitely don’t sleep with them twice.

Then his expression softens. But it does nothing to ease the stiffness in my spine.

“Hmm. It’s about time.”

I don’t like the smug way he says it, and I scowl at him. “And just what does that mean?”

“It means that you were only going to make it so far before you fell hard for someone, Chris. Looks like she’s giving you a run for your money.”

Shifting uncomfortably on the bench, I try to deny it. “I’m not—I haven’t—fallen for her, Grant. I just can’t focus with her around.”

Surprise and concern flash in his eyes. “She’s not an employee, is she, Chris?”

There’s a clear tone of disapproval in his voice. He knows I spend ninety percent of my time at work, so there aren’t many other options for where Autumn and I met.

I feel like a little kid caught misbehaving; a dog with its tail tucked between its legs. I can’t lie to him. Never have, don’t want to try, probably never will.

“She is. But no one knows, and no one is going to find out.”

Because I’m not even sure it’ll continue…after the cool way she rebuffed me in the office, I don’t think she’d have any problem saying no again. It was her who decided to take things further; she’s in complete control. Is that what has me so attached to her? The feeling of being totally at mercy to someone else’s desires?

“It rarely works out like that,” Grant murmurs dryly.

I think back to his own love story with Lenore, a cleaning woman from the firm he worked at before mine. Though he left the company of his own accord, everyone there knew Grant stayed late every day for Lenore. I’ve never been clear on whether or not anything actually happened between them. She eventually left the country to return to her ailing mother, but I have no idea if that was the catalyst that drove Grant to Sharpe Law.

“Maybe this is a good thing.”

“I’m sorry—a good thing?” The concern on his face has cleared, and now he’s the one brooding.

“I saw your brother last week, he came to install the bookcases I commissioned. He mentioned you haven’t been around lately.”

Nate. Always tattling on me, even now, when we’re both adults.

“I have two brothers now, you know. I have to split time between them. Just saw Jenson and Mel last week.”

Breathing in the chill fall air, I shoot him a sidelong glance to see if he believes me. Not that it’s a lie—I did go see Jenson and Mel. But my mind definitely hasn’t been on family lately, which only makes the thorn of guilt dig down deeper.

“Nathan is a perfect example,” Grant continues as if I didn’t say anything. “Remember how he was consumed with work? How little time he made for anything else, including Eva?”

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