Page 29 of Her Boss

“Yeah. I think she’s twenty, or twenty-one?”

Will whistled softly. “Oh, boy…”

“Yeah, pretty much says it.”

“I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess you’re either fucking her, or considering it.” Will pointed at me. “Am I at least in the ballpark?”

“Might be.” I hated not telling him, but it wasn’t technically lying.

Will blew out a breath. “Well, I’m the very last person who’s going to be chucking stones from the porch of my glass mansion. But I’d have to assume Nantes isn’t the sort who’d approve of one of his business partners having a romp in the hay with his…?”

“Niece.”

“Right. So… I guess you’d better be careful then, hadn’t you?” Will rubbed the back of his neck. “Because before you even know it, they can steal your fucking heart.”

I grunted. “Trust me. My heart’s not involved in this at all. But the other parts of me sure are.”

We both laughed again.

Will raised his hand, addressing the server nearby. “Ma’am? Gonna need the check.”

Heart’s not involved? Do you really believe that—or are you just a liar?

CHAPTER 12

Geneva

Lying in my bed, the fan blowing lukewarm air over my naked body, what happened played through my mind for the hundredth time, the stars beginning to twinkle in the night sky outside my window. It wasn’t so much that he’d fucked me; I’d liked that a lot more than I wanted to admit. And it wasn’t that he was my boss that was the problem either.

It was that he was someone Uncle Chest had recommended me to. What would he say if he knew? I didn’t know all that my uncle was into, but I wasn’t stupid. I knew enough.

The larger questions that were sparked from what had happened in Rick’s office were, if anything, far more complicated. What did it mean for us?

Why do you think there even is an ‘us’? Why would you even want there to be?

Which was fair. It probably was nothing more than just him getting his dick wet, or both of us blowing off some steam, relieving the tension. If that was all it was, that would be okay with me.

Why do you persist in lying to yourself?

I feared that my life was a little bit… empty. Was that why I was entertaining anything other than walking away? Was that the reason for me being open to where this—whatever this was—might end up going?

Yes, I was young, and just beginning the process of figuring out what the fuck I wanted, but for a while the same need gnawed at me. What I thought I’d wanted was this life of adventure, to be kind of a modern career woman. I was raised that way—but there had always been a missing piece, a part of that plan that never quite fit my makeup. But until recently, I’d never summoned up the courage to really take that out and look at it, to examine it and figure out what it actually meant.

There was something about the idea of being this career woman, this take-no-prisoners, fiercely independent person that left me just… uneasy.

Wondering. Questioning.

It didn’t quite satisfy me—and I could never understand why.

Which made me question the true reason I’d agreed to try the internship when my uncle had suggested it.

“He’s a very powerful man,” Uncle Chest had told me. “He’s a good man. He can open some doors for you. Trafford might be rough around the edges, but just do as you’re told, be a good girl, and it’ll go great.”

The glint in his eye as he’d said those words had got me wondering though. What if he’d known what Rick might require of me? Was it merely a bid to get his niece locked down with a man who would take her off his hands for good?

I didn’t want to believe that, refused to even consider it, but the thought had crossed my mind.

When it came to what the internship would actually be, I’d assumed it would probably last a few weeks, maybe a few months, depending upon how it went. I didn’t exactly have anything more than that to go on.

---