Page 16 of Off Limits (Alpha Billionaire)

I thought about his words for a moment. I was doing exactly that. His proposal didn’t sit in my inbox as I reviewed it before forwarding it to my group to get their opinion. I sent it out right away.

“Ryan, you know these things take time. Go home. You can relax knowing I’ve got your proposal and I sent it to my people with my endorsement to move forward. I’ll light a fire under everyone and get a meeting with everyone on the schedule as soon as I can. I know from my perspective, I have a full couple of weeks coming up.”

“Yeah, yeah, I got ya. But you have to know this isn’t going to be a great opportunity for long. Someone else is going to either come up with the same idea, and then we are just copy cats and not industry leaders.”

“I hear you,” I said. I also heard what he wasn’t saying. If I didn’t move on this, he would walk the proposal over to a competitor and hand it to them. This was clearly an ‘if you snooze, you lose’ situation. “I’ll see what I can do to expedite the process with my people.”

“I knew you were the right man for this. So, how's that pretty nanny of yours? Must be a real challenge knowing she’s under the same roof. Hmm.”

I did not like the tone in his voice when he asked about Jessica. I stretched my fingers out and then wrapped them tightly around the steering wheel. My foot pressed down on the accelerator, the car responding with a purr and more speed. I didn’t really have the kind of road I needed to really open the car up and let it cut through the night at high speed. Besides, with Max in the back, it would have been stupid to put my boy in danger because I had a need to get my aggression out.

“I’ll shoot you an email once I get things moving,” I said, completely ignoring his comment about Jessica.

“Okay, talk to you la—” I punched theEnd Callbutton on the steering wheel before he was finished.

I checked on Max in the rearview mirror. He was out. Good. Not that he would have been able to repeat anything, but I didn’t want Jessica knowing that Ryan was asking about her.

Something inside me hated that Ryan even knew about her. I wanted to keep Jessica like she was some beautiful secret for just me and Max.

8

JESSICA

It was late when I got back to the house.

Driving around while blaring rock music had made me feel less angry, but tension creeped back into my shoulders as I pulled up to the house. It wasn’t like I could tell Dylan to replace Clara. It was one thing to be rude to me. It was something else to endanger Max. And my quitting wouldn’t change that Clara didn’t like Max.

I wished I had an answer to my dilemma. I mulled over what I could do as I returned to my room.

“You okay?” Dylan asked as I started to open the nursery door.

I turned to see him leaning against the door jamb to his bedroom. His dark hair was sticking out in different directions. His PJ pants hung low on his hips. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, and even in a relaxed state, his physique was breathtaking. He even had those hip dips that accentuated the V shape of his abs.

I swallowed sand. How my mouth was dry, I didn’t know. I should have been drooling.

I managed to nod as I tried to get my voice to work. “Yeah,” I croaked. “Max?”

“He was overtired. He fell asleep pretty fast.”

“I’m sorry if I woke you up,” I said, not knowing what else I should say. Maybe I should have told him to go put a shirt on. His skin was distracting.

“I was waiting for you. I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“You mean you wanted to make sure I was still working for you?” I joked.

He shrugged. “Possibly. You didn’t get hurt or cut at all, did you?”

I shook my head. “No, nothing like that. I was just very frustrated,” I admitted.

“Anything you?—”

“It’s nothing, really,” I cut him off. “I can handle it. I just need to figure a few things out.”

Dylan nodded and ran his hand through his hair. That explained why it was such a mess. “If you ever need to talk, I’m a good listener.”

He was also my employer. I didn’t know how smart it would be to complain to him about someone else at work, someone who had seniority.

“Good night,” I said as I stepped into the nursery.

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