Page 16 of Baby Bombshell for the Boss

“I think the opportunity I was offered was the professional one, not the chance to sleep with a CEO,” Ivy murmured.

She had been distracted, scrolling through articles about him on the internet, and now she pulled up one that looked like it might be a tabloid. It had a picture of someone who was probably Elliot — she couldn’t be completely sure because he had his hand up, clearly not wanting his picture taken. The dark hair matched, though, and the headline seemed certain of what it was offering — BILLIONAIRE CEO ELLIOT LIVINGSTON SEEN LEAVING PENTHOUSE OF SUPERMODEL GINA BELFAST.

Ivy frowned. “Have you seen any of these articles about him, Janelle?”

“Oh, I haven’t stopped looking at the pictures.” Janelle giggled. “He’s certainly hotter than anyone you dated in college, isn’t he?”

He was, but that wasn’t what Ivy was getting at. “I’m not talking about the pictures,” she said. “Have you actually read the articles?”

“No, what would I want to do that for?”

“I’m sending you a link.” She copied the link from the Gina Belfast article and sent it to her sister.

There was a quiet moment on the line while Janelle read. “Damn,” she said. “That’s a nice pull. Gina Belfast?”

“Do you know who that is?”

“She’s only the hottest supermodel in print right now,” Janelle said. “Have you seen the Peachy ads?”

Peachy was a brand of luxury underwear so expensive that Ivy had never been able to justify purchasing any. “Of course I’ve seen those ads,” she said. “You can’t watch a video online without one of them popping up.”

“Yeah, well, that’s her,” Janelle said.

Ivy groaned inwardly. She wasn’t exactly insecure about her body, but she was realistic, and she knew she was nowhere near as flawless as the body she’d seen in those ads. It had never bothered her because she hadn’t thought of that person as a real woman — certainly not someone she might ever share a lover with. But now, apparently, their paths had crossed. Elliot must be comparing the way the two of them had looked naked.

She closed the article and returned to her search window.

The article right below the Gina Belfast one was just as bad. BILLIONAIRE PLAYBOY ADDS ANOTHER NOTCH TO HIS BELT.

Ivy didn’t even bother clicking that one open. She had no desire to find out how many women Elliot had slept with and how out of her league all of them were. The word playboy was enough to tell her all she needed to know. It was a good thing, she decided, that she’d already made the choice not to pursue an ongoing relationship with this guy — he clearly wasn’t the relationship-having type.

She sighed. “Did you look at any of the rest of these articles, Janelle? It looks like he’s a total player.”

“Yeah, I’m seeing it,” Janelle said. “Honestly, I would be too if I were him. He can probably get with anyone he wants!”

“Well, that makes me feel just great,” Ivy groaned.

“Oh, don’t take it too seriously. He could have anyone, but he chose you!”

“He didn’t choose me!” Ivy protested. “He ran into me on the street. It’s like picking up money you found on the ground. Why would you go to work to earn money if it was just sitting there waiting for you to take it?”

“This is not a very flattering analogy, you know,” Janelle said.

“That’s my point. I shouldn’t feel flattered by the fact that he chose me, because he didn’t. It’s not like I was standing on the sidewalk next to a supermodel and he picked me over her. I was the person right in front of him, and he thought he’d try to sleep with me. I didn’t exactly make him work for it.”

“Do you wish you had?”

“No,” Ivy admitted. “I had a good time. I don’t have any regrets. But that doesn’t mean it would be good for me to do it again. Knowing the kind of guy he is — even if he weren’t hiring me to work for him, I would think the most sensible thing to do would be to stay out of his bed from now on. I mean, what do I want, to have my picture snapped by some sleazy journalist trying to make a quick buck? Publishing me under a headline describing me as his latest conquest? No thank you.”

“You said he seemed like a nice guy,” Janelle pointed out.

“Yeah, he did. I mean, no doubt that’s how he gets all these women to sleep with him! But I’m not falling for it anymore. It was great of him to get me the job, but that’s as far as things are ever going to go between the two of us from now on.”

“Well, if you say so,” Janelle said. “Personally, I think this is exactly the kind of exotic experience you should be embracing now that you live in the big city — but I guess it’s up to you. So you’ll be designing his office space?”

“That’s right,” Ivy said, grateful for the change of subject. “And it’s going to be amazing, Janelle. You should see the place.”

“Take pictures for me.”

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