Page 2 of Rosabel and the Billionaire Beast

“What?” Her exasperated tone broke through with sharpness.

I shook myself.Stop staring at her, idiot.

I’d only seen her every day for the last year and a half. Why should today be any different? She was still the same mind-boggling shade of beautiful she’d been the last time I looked.

Which was only twenty seconds ago.

“Never mind,” I said, waving her away and clicking my pen several more times.

Rolling her eyes, she strutted toward the printer to retrieve whatever papers she’d just sent through it.

Hmm. She was more annoyed than usual.

On top of her normal responsibilities and the ones she’d taken on herself—like filing the first-quarter employee payroll after sorting and balancing what the accountant sent over—I’d recently had her help my best friend vet auditions for his theme park.

And then the woman Rosabel had selected to play the Red Queen had ended up being rejected.

That might have something to do with it.

Sorting through thousands of auditions, reading their qualifications, doing what Maddox had asked, and selecting someone to play the Red Queen—wasn’t in Rosabel’s job description. She’d said as much.

I’d shrugged off her frustration with the request at the time. Maddox had needed help, and Rosabel was always the first person I turned to in situations like that. I knew I could rely on her.

Then again, that had been two months ago. Two months since Adelie and Maddox had posed as a fake couple and thenfallen into real love and decided to stay together at the end of it all once we found out who The Informant actually was.

Was she still upset about her breakup with Pete? She’d acted unraveled for several days, and the other women in the office had let me know the gist of how that relationship had finally taken its last breath.

Nah, it couldn’t be the breakup. It had happened a few months ago, too.

Maybe it was the audition thing.

Rosabel had to be used to my occasional, unconventional requests by now, didn’t she? She knew Maddox was my best friend.

Yes, it’d been months, since we’d found out Ulrich—the slimy treasurer from our Sigma Phi Rho days who’d embezzled funds from the frat and been kicked out for it—had been the one I’d run down after he’d targeted Ella and tried framing her.

It’d been Ulrich who’d been the one to vandalize and destroy the thousands of dollars Maddox had put into updating his theme park’s branding. Ulrich had been the one stalking women and sabotaging lives.

We were blazing at full throttle into August now, the hottest part of the year. The loser was in jail, right where he belonged. Maddox and Adelie were disgustingly blissful newlyweds, Ella and Hawk were neck-deep in their own wedding plans?—

And I was doing my best to avoid them all.

They were all making plans to visit Adrian and Gabby, since she’d had her baby ten days early, at the end of June. She’d birthed a boy whom they’d given a ridiculous name to: Soren Theodore Bear. It didn’t matter what they named that kid; thanks to their last name, he would always sound like a knockoff from Mattel.

Wouldn’t I like to come? Hang out? Bask in all that happiness?

I’d opted out. Being around my lovesick friends was like listening to an annoying song on repeat over and over or like I was being starved while they feasted and wouldn’t—couldn’t—share.

It didn’t help that they constantly brought up my feelings for Rosabel, as though they took pleasure in reminding me just how badly I wanted what I could never have.

Like my feelings were a joke to them.

I peered at her once more. Still standing beside the printer, Rosabel sifted through whatever she’d just printed, completely oblivious to the snare she had over me. A snare I’d happily free myself from if I could.

Frustrated, I skimmed through emails on my tablet, deleting as necessary, until a name stopped my heart.

Beverly Hawthorne.

My palms sweated. My tie choked me, and I tugged it loose.

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