Page 43 of Playboy Boss

“She forgot her wallet in the office, and that’s where it happened.”

“In the office?”

Images of Scottie on his desk, skirt lifted above her hips, panties hanging off her ankle, came to him. He closed his eyes at the remembrance. “On my desk.”

Dallas wasn’t laughing anymore. He gazed with an intensity that made Konrad refocus on his drink again. He stared into his glass, seeing the night all over again, feeling everything all over again.

“You seem really fucked up about it, Konrad. This isn’t like you.”

Running his fingers through his hair, he didn’t disagree. That was putting it lightly. He was more than fucked up. He was head first in an existential crisis. He was facing his morality. He was facing his belief system and all the things he thought were true about relationships.

He couldn’t continue. “Did you see the email about the location for our hotel?”

Dallas frowned. Good thing he knew when to let things go. He was much better at that than Fabian or Tylund. “I did. Are we talking work now?”

“We are.” Konrad noticed his phone blink with a message. He picked it up, reading Fabian’s text. A brunch-on-the-yacht invitation for Sunday. “Pallis is having a thing on the yacht this weekend.”

“Oh, right. He mentioned that last night. You going?”

“I don’t see why not.” The sun and wind would do him good. Clear his mind. Make him see there was a world outside of his. “It should be right fun, yeah.”

“It always is on Pallis’s yacht.”

“Is he catering?” Konrad couldn’t help the question. Would he see Scottie again outside of the office?

“I think he mentioned that same girl who catered the other night.” Dallas stopped mid-drink, his eyes meeting Konrad’s. “Oh shit. Do you think Scottie will be working?”

Konrad’s pulse quickened. He needed Scottie to be on the yacht. “I don’t know.”

The waitress arrived with their meals. Several bites into his lunch, Konrad still couldn’t get Scottie out of his mind. “I know I should not have shagged my temp. It was fucking moronic. I was too attracted to her because of the way she judged me, I think, which is so demented when you think about it.”

He didn’t dare look up to Dallas, whose full attention he knew he had and who didn’t tussle him about his inarticulate thoughts. “But immediately afterward,” he went on, “I felt like she wasn’t just another hookup. She wasn’t just another fling I’d forget about. But I’m just like my father, right? I can’t see myself having these thoughts, but I do.”

The silence stretched between them despite the noise in the restaurant. Dallas finally said, “You’re not your father, Kon.”

Konrad looked up to his friend, their eyes meeting and holding for several beats until the waitress interrupted them again.

“How is everything?”

“Fantastic, darlin’,” Dallas said, winking at her.

Konrad only nodded his approval. Everything was far from fantastic, but perhaps if he could accept he wasn’t noncommittal like his father, it could get better.

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