Page 39 of Claimed By the Boss

His rendezvous with his lover, Jade.

Desperation roils within me, and my hold on him tightens. “But what about our plans for pizza and ordering groceries?”

“Why don’t you take it easy and try to get more sleep.” He leans forward to kiss my temple. “If I’m not back before you get up, order what you like with the cash and credit card I left on the kitchen island.”

As he stands, anxious panic brings me half out of bed. “Wait!”

Nolan turns back. “Is there something wrong?”

The need to beg him to stay burns through me, but if not now, he’ll just go to Jade another time.

I swallow down my desire to keep him here and pull the blanket over my bare body. “The front door. How do I unlock it? Or am I supposed to accept deliveries through the window?”

“That would certainly get people gossiping. I’ll leave the password on the island, too.” He urges me to lie back down. “Try to get some more sleep. You look like you didn’t get a wink.”

“Yes, master.” I tug the covers over my head. “Have fun at your meeting.”

His hand touches the soft down over my head in a last caress, and then the bedroom door clicks shut behind him.

A few seconds later, the front door opens and closes. I push the blanket down and grab my clothing bag. In the bathroom, I take a long shower, pressing a washcloth to my eyes to ease the burn of too much crying.

It was hard to stifle my tears and pretend to sleep when Nolan returned to bed. I kept expecting him to notice something was wrong, but he never did. It helped that he had no reason to suspect I was awake.

Once I dress, I head downstairs, where I find the laptop in the office. I load up a grocery cart online but force myself to wait a full hour before I place the order for delivery.

Nolan will get an alert for the purchase, and I don’t want him to know I didn’t even try to go back to sleep. With the arrival window set for two hours out, I spend the time applying for jobs not connected to Rockford Holdings.

No matter how things turn out, I still need an income, but a connection to Nolan’s family no longer sounds like such a good idea.

My stomach twists, and I press a hand over it. What am I going to do? There’s no way I can stay by Nolan’s side when he and Jade are in love. I’m just the inconvenient accident in the way of them being together.

Tears threaten, but I swallow them down. No more crying. I always knew this could be temporary, so why is it so shocking to be proven right?

The ringing doorbell comes as a welcome break from the threatening spiral, and I race from the office to open the front door.

The delivery person is already sliding back into their car, so I snatch the paper sack off the stoop.

Instead of heading to the kitchen, I walk straight to the powder room next to the garage and shut myself inside.

My hands tremble as I upend the bag over the sink, and boxes of pregnancy tests spill out. Cold sweat breaks out down my back, and my chest tightens, making it hard to breathe. I grip the sides of the counter and lean forward, gasping in air.

The doctor will be here tomorrow to do the test, but I can’t wait that long. I need to consider my options without Nolan here, distracting me with everything I want that isn’t mine. When he’s near, I can’t think clearly. If he looked at me with those green eyes and told me I’d only ever be a side piece, I don’t think I’d be strong enough to say no.

Even now, I consider just waiting. If I pretend I never overheard him and Jade together, then this bubble might never burst, and I can continue letting Nolan take me to bed, to make me his.

It would be easy to keep living in this fairy tale until Nolan tells me it’s over and deal with picking up the pieces then.

With a deep breath, I lift my head to meet my red-rimmed eyes in the mirror and see a man already heartbroken.

No, I can’t pretend. It was fine when it would only hurt me, but now that my eyes have been opened, I can’t go back to the lies.

Hands shaking, I grab the first box and rip it open.

Cool air stings my cheeks as I step off the bus and heft my bag of clothes onto my shoulder.

The fifty dollars that Nolan left burns a guilty hole in my pocket, but he intended for it to buy me food, and that’s still the plan. It just won’t be going toward expensive delivery pizza as intended.

If I budget, it will cover groceries for the next month, providing I can dodge Gino for that long.

---