Page 92 of Playboy Boss

His heart slowed down. “What are you saying?”

“What I said last night. It’s over.”

The room became clear. Everyone came into sharp focus again. He saw everything, everyone. And himself. He’d lost her. Tara pulled Scottie into her side, and Konrad watched his heart walk away.

****

The party was over. Konrad shook his head. Worst birthday in history. It was over. Completely over. He was numb with the realization. Or maybe it was the half bottle of Mortlach he’d drunk as he sat in his office. He couldn’t go home or anywhere anyone would look for him.

The events ran through his mind obsessively. Everything thing he said. Everything she said. Everything he wanted to say. Everything he wanted her to say. This should have put him off the desire to be committed to someone, but, it didn’t. It made him more determined to feel. To have the experience. Because he’d gotten a glimpse of how good it could be, and he wanted to try.

If not Scottie, then who? He’d not think about that.

He took another drink, feeling buzzed, but at least he’d stopped weeping. He’d only wept once in his life. He’d been sixteen then, and his mother had just died in a hospital. He’d learned about it because his father’s secretary had called him at boarding school.

He touched his keyboard, and the computer lit up immediately. He’d not shut down his email, which was unusual. This whole day had been unusual.

At the top of his flagged emails was the contract for the EaDo property. He’d not sent it over to Ortho-Sync as he intended to before the day was over.

The day he’d taken Scottie there came back to him. They’d been strangers then, but he’d known instinctively she’d affect him in some way. And then he thought of what she’d said after the meeting with Ortho-Sync.

He leaned back in his chair. Maybe he had it all wrong. Maybe some things weren’t meant to be profited from. He’d only understood profit from a young age and nothing more. Profit was all there was.

He glanced back at the email and, for once, he understood there was something more.

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