Page 84 of My Forbidden Boss

I nod. Smooth the robe over my thighs. Remember my place. “Of course.”

I’m grateful Mom shows up then, fresh and showered, pushing her walking frame ahead of her while she limps behind it. “Good morning.” She smiles brightly at David, as though he’s a superhero. To her, he is. To me, he’s my downfall. “That room is so comfortable. Thank you for helping us.”

The smile he gives her is a hundred watts. Her face lights up and she chuckles.

Mom never chuckles.

David helps her to the sofa next to me. “Excuse me. I’ll ask Margaret to come and take your breakfast order.”

Mom turns a quizzical expression at me. “Margaret?”

I shrug. “David’s chef.”

“Just for while you’re here,” David says.

“We don’t need a chef. I can cook for us,” I say. I don’t want to owe him any more than I do.

David turns his gaze to me, a smoldering, depthless black. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

He leaves me with Mom and Tristan. David’s friend makes a considering sound that grinds my teeth. I take in his All-American boyish charm in. His beach-y blonde curls hide his sharp eyes, but I see the intelligence in them. He weighs me up and I wonder how much he’ll find me lacking.

“I can see it,” he says.

My poverty? My lack? My nerves? “Can you be more specific?” I ask.

Tristan laughs, the sound like sunshine. “Why you have my best friend tied up in knots, but don’t tell him I said that. He’s trying very hard to be on his best behavior and make a good impression.”

David’s already made a good impression. My soul is scarred with an indelible mark. Forever changed. Never to heal from this wound.

David comes back into the living room with a middle-aged woman dressed in black and white check pants and a neatly buttoned chef’s jacket. He introduces her as Margaret. She smiles and asks what we’d like for breakfast.

“Thank you, but I don’t eat much,” Mom says.

Margaret turns to me with expectation on her face. “Just coffee, please.” My nerves play havoc with my stomach and I know I won’t be able to eat.

David murmurs something to Margaret and she retreats. “Do you mind if we breakfast here, since we’re all settled?” David sits in his armchair. I’m pinned insect style with his gaze as he steeples his fingers. “Now. Where were we?”

“We ask Adeline to contact Bourke and tell him David is on-side with the land managers of the developments for Keystone and spreading rumors to devalue the sites because he knows Max’s contractors are walking,” Tristan says.

“Of course, this information is confidential,” David says. “And part truth. It will shock Bourke because he’s kept that close to his chest.”

“You let Bourke know David is interested in making an offer on the developments while they still hold some value,” Tristan says.

“At a rate that will save him from ruin, but far from what he’d expect to receive if his business wasn’t more stable than a stack of cards,” David says. His fingers spread on the armrests as he prepares for war.

“So, you’re going to save my father?” I can see half the plan. I need to know that David isn’t buying Mom’s back-dated child support at his own cost.

Because if he is, I’m walking now.

David’s gaze lands on my bouncing leg. I will it to still, wishing I’d worn armor and not a thin cotton robe.

“Not at all. Bourke is, above anything else, a businessman. He’ll sell because he’ll know if he doesn’t sell his development to me, he’ll end up with nothing. If his contractors walk, he’ll be bankrupt. He’ll sell to me because he’ll think he’s shafting me, when in fact the developments will make Blue Sky a tidy profit for a reduced price,” David says. “I won’t have to find contractors, because they’re already there and working. I only have to pay them, which I can, and at an increased rate to keep them on-side.”

It’s a clever underhanded plan, but no more underhanded than what Max has blackmailed me to do. I have zero qualms about doing this to my father. I’ll be glad to get rid of him forever.

I do have second thoughts about how long this plan will take to put into place. “When can we start?”

“Eager to take revenge on your father?” Tristan says.

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