Page 29 of Donut Overthink It

“Just leave!” I snap at her, trying to calm my racing heart.

I look up in time just to see her walking out and shutting the door behind her.

AIDEN

I sit in the conference room, dick hard and my mind in the gutter. I should have locked the door. I should have taken her into my office, stripped her out of her clothes, and fucked her right then and there. Instead, I put her in a compromising position. The fact I even thought of doing something to her where we could have been caught makes me pissed.

“That shouldn’t be a problem.” I hear my brother say, pulling me out of my thoughts. “What do you think, Aiden?” he asks.

I nod even though I have no clue what he just asked me. The brunette with brown eyes and a scowl on her face stares at me as if she knows that my mind is elsewhere. Her husband sits next to her, his hand in hers.

“How many sexual misconducts are we talking about?” I ask, knowing where the conversation was headed.

“One,” he answers, and his wife snorts.

“She’s lying,” she snaps. He squeezes her hand and then kisses her knuckles. “Can you help us or not?” she demands.

The door opens, and I look up to see Hadley walk in, but she comes to a screeching halt, her eyes on the woman sitting across from me. The woman looks at her for the briefest moment before looking away. The man, however, smiles brightly. “Had,” he says with excitement in his voice.

She stands there stiffer than a board, and I stand. “You okay?”

“I have to go,” she says before spinning on her heels and taking off.

“Excuse me,” I say, following after her. “Miss Burns?” She ignores me as she storms to her office. “Miss Burns,” I holler at her. She continues, but everyone standing in the hallway looks at me. She enters her office, slamming the door behind her.

I shove it open and enter, also slamming it behind me. “What was that?” I demand.

She’s pacing back and forth. Her head down and quietly mumbling to herself. I step in front of her, and she runs right into me. I place my hands on her shoulders to prevent her from moving back. Her body shakes under my hands, and I know it has nothing to do with me almost kissing her minutes ago. “Talk to me,” I order.

She shakes her head. “You’re my boss—”

“That’s right. I am. So fucking tell me what that was back there,” I demand.

She sighs. “Nothing.”

“Bullshit!”

Her eyes narrow on me. “Just because you’re my boss doesn’t mean you’re privy to my life outside this office,” she snaps.

The door to her office opens, and the woman from the conference room stands there. “Miss, give us a moment,” I tell the client. Who the hell does she think she is just walking in here like that?

“Hadley,” she growls.

“You know her?” I can’t help but ask. She didn’t act like she did earlier. But the man had …

CHAPTER ELEVEN

HADLEY

“OF COURSE, I DO. SHE’S MY DAUGHTER.”

My body stiffens at her words, and Aiden looks down at me wide-eyed. I watch her brown eyes go to where his hands are on me, and when they meet mine again, she smiles. I pull away from him, and his hands fall to his sides like they weigh a hundred pounds.

I know what she’s thinking. She thinks I slept my way to this job. My mother always thought I’d be a nobody. Go nowhere. I hate that, in a way, she’s right. I wonder if she knows I was almost arrested for prostitution. I close my eyes and release a long breath when I realize she probably does. My stepdad is a cop, after all.

“My mother is dead,” I reply flatly. Just seeing her here has me wanting to punch her in the face. I can’t even stand to look at this woman. She took everything away from me.

“Don’t be so dramatic.” She huffs.

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