Page 1 of Boss With Benefits

CHAPTER ONE

‘DOIKNOWYOU? Because you look a lot like my next girlfriend.’

Sitting at the bar of Manhattan’s newest and buzziest cocktail lounge, Ella Green winced. The chat-up line delivered by the guy on her left was as repellent as the malodorous combination of alcohol, sweat and cologne that was emanating from him and catching her at the back of her throat. It was the twenty-first century. Could a womanstillnot drown her sorrows in public on her own on a Friday night in June in peace?

‘You don’t know me, I’m afraid,’ she said politely, as she ramped up theback offvibes and edged away.

‘But I’d like to,’ said the guy, leaning a little more heavily on the bar, his smile presumably aiming for seductive but resulting in somewhere between dribbling and lecherous. ‘I’m Pete. Do you have a name or should I just call you “mine”?’

Ugh. ‘Never do that.’

‘You know, if I could rearrange the alphabet, I’d put “U” and “I” together.’

Ella sighed. ‘It’s “you” and “me.”’

‘What?’

‘If you’re going to try and pick me up with terrible lines, at least be grammatically correct about it.’

Utter befuddlement met that remark. ‘“U” and “me” doesn’t work,’ said Pete with a frown.

‘Well, there you go then. Take the hint.’

He didn’t. Instead, he doubled down. ‘Would you at least stroke my arm so I can tell my friends I’ve been touched by an angel?’

‘No.’

‘Then how about I stroke yours?’

He reached out and put his hand on her bare upper arm, and in the blink of an eye she’d spun round, her knee had connected with his groin and the contents of her glass had landed on his shirt.

Pete gave a yowl and clutched his genitals, his face contorted in pain, but Ella refused to feel guilty. She had given him every opportunity to go away and leave her alone. It was his own fault he hadn’t taken it.

‘Sorry,’ she said, not sorry at all. ‘Dodgy stool.’

Gasping and spluttering, Pete plucked at the vodka-soaked cotton, puce with humiliation and evidently furious. ‘Frigid bitch.’

‘Inebriated jerk.’

With a filthy glare, he limped off and Ella swung back to the bar. She wasn’t frigid. Or a bitch. She just valued her personal space and didn’t appreciate being groped against her will. Like most people, she imagined. Although most people probably hadn’t grown up in a dangerous, deprived backwater of a neighbourhood where it was sensible to learn self-defence at an early age.

‘Nice moves.’

This dry remark came from the guy on her right, who was a different kettle of fish entirely.

She’d been bitterly contemplating her drink when he’d sat down beside her ten minutes earlier. An odd sort of charge had electrified the displaced air. An exquisitely woodsy scent had wafted towards her. Her skin prickling in the most peculiar way, she’d instinctively glanced over and out of habit had catalogued what she’d been able to see from the side.

A man of around her age, maybe a few years older. Thick dark hair. Straight nose. Square jaw with the hint of a five-o’clock shadow. Pale blue Oxford shirt, sleeves rolled up. Tanned,muscled forearms. An expensive-looking gold-faced and tan-leather-strapped watch on his left wrist. Big hands, long fingers, short, neat nails.

Very attractive in profile, she’d concluded as a hot shiver had rippled down her spine. Possibly even more so from the front.

She’d reluctantly averted her gaze before he could catch her ogling. He’d summoned the bartender and given the order for a large Scotch, his cut glass accent indicating that he came from the other side of the Atlantic. Parking her curiosity and leaving him to whatever had him also studying his drink, Ella had resumed her acidic ruminations on the gross unfairness of life that meant her unspeakable ex was up for an industry award while she was still trying to repair her career after their short yet illicit workplace affair blew up a year ago. But she’d nevertheless remained acutely aware of her neighbour’s size, stillness and his intriguing sense of contained power—until her attention had been claimed in the other direction.

Now, however, with that deep deliciously sexy voice aimed straight at her, the timbre of it vibrating through her body and igniting her nerve endings, she turned. Her gaze met his, and for one breathtaking moment the world slammed to a halt. The dimly lit bar with its glittering opulence and sultry vibe vanished. The bottom fell out of her stomach. Her heart skipped a beat and then began to race.

She’d been right, she thought dazedly, her head spinning and her temperature rocketing. Hewaseven more attractive from the front. His eyes were like the ocean. As blue and as deep as the Pacific. And suddenly she felt a stab of empathy for Pete, because as cringeworthy as the thought was, she wanted to dive right into them.

After what felt like an hour but could only have been a second, Ella blinked, snapping the sizzling connection. Hersurroundings swam into focus and the world cranked back into gear.

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