Page 23 of My Forbidden Boss

I stay for a moment more, taking comfort on the cold porcelain, but I can’t put off getting coffee. They’ll be wondering where I’ve gotten to and I’m not going to let David down by using a kiss to my advantage. I wash my hands and make my way to the break room, start a fresh pot of coffee, pour two and put them on a tray with biscuits. I have serving experience after working at Bob’s Burgers, even though coffee and biscuits are a far cry from fries and shakes.

How will I ever go back to that after this?

I shove the thought aside with an extra forceful shove and go back into the office. Sophie smiles at me while I set the tray on David’s desk and hope like hell she never finds out what happened on this surface a few minutes ago.

“Will that be all?” I ask, cheeks heating when I catch David’s eyes, all simmering heat and promises.

He clears his throat, adjusts his tie, and I hide a smirk. “Sophie is going to send some documents about the Moss Creek property development tender I’m pitching for. Can you please make sure the documents are kept securely on my hard drive after she sends them through? I’ve given her your email address so you can communicate freely with her.”

I’m doused in ice. A shard slices me open and spills my intestines on the floor of David’s office. I keep my balance, breathing hard, hoping I stand still and don’t slip in them.

I stare at David, wondering if his kiss was a facade. Whether he saw right through me the moment I walked through the elevator doors and bumped into him. Whether he knows exactly what I’m here for because if he doesn’t, he’s handed me the information my father has blackmailed me to get.

Chapter 9

Adeline

“Moss Creek? That’s where I live.” I push the lead weight of the words between numb lips.

David is the first man to see me.

I didn’t expect him to see my lie.

Of course the employment agency would have contacted him to tell him about of their slip up. His HR manager at the very least would have told him to expect someone much different from the barely-out-of-high-school small-town girl who turned up in a storm of anxiety and inexperience.

Kissing the boss? Not a good idea. Should have known better. Should know better about a lot of things including ripping off the boss’ business. Total red flag.

I’m still reeling from his kiss. The kiss where I thought he liked me. The kiss we’d shared because he wanted to, not because he was digging a hole for me to fall down.

That kiss meant something.

The pooling heat between my thighs evaporates as though it had no right to exist. Smoke in the wind.

“You live in Moss Creek? What are the chances of that?” Sophie says, and I wonder if she is a part of this setup.

One big, devastating setup.

I look at David and ignore my pounding heart, stone-faced. Taking it like a practiced champ.

“Do you know this property tagged for development?” David asks and hands me a sheaf of papers. On the top page is a color photo of my housing commission apartment building in all its dilapidated glory.

I take the papers in numb fingers and stare at the graffiti, crumbling bricks and lost hope. I nod. “It’s near the freeway exit.”

The busy freeway that doesn’t know a quiet hour. Everyone’s happy to skirt Moss Creek because there’s no reason to stop there. The building is on the far outskirts of town so no one has to see us. Hidden in plain sight.

The payoff is the swath of land behind the building large enough to fit a boutique luxury housing estate and the reason for the tagged development. It’s a key location, close to mountains, schools and a river. Places a family can get to in their brand new SUVs. Picture perfect. The poor are the only smear on that perfect landscape.

“I’m amazed people live there,” Sophie says. “It can’t be safe.”

Rats have eaten half the wiring, the water is lukewarm and rust colored at best, but it’s all I’ve ever known. It’s not about what a home looks like on the outside. It’s the people who make it.

It’s about Mom doing her best to carve a life for the both of us despite her disability; if she hadn’t worked a double shift to pay the bills, if I hadn’t needed to go to the doctors because I’d caught the flu that winter and she had to pay the extra out-of-hours fee. If she’d been given half a chance instead of earning minimum income to single-handedly raise a child that bus never would have crushed her legs.

I shake my head, unable to speak. I don’t trust half the people living there and I hate I’ve left Mom on her own. Maddy said she would check on Mom, but Mom isn’t her responsibility. She’s mine.

“What do you think of the area?” David asks. Then, “Adeline?” when the silence draws out.

I look at him, all lost hope and wishful thinking. “I…”

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