Page 49 of His Secret

I stop the lawn mower and pull out one of my earbuds. “Hi,” I say with a small smile.

“Hi. Sorry to interrupt, but I just wanted to introduce myself. I’m Charlotte.”

“I’m Matt,” I reply, giving her my hand. “Sorry. Sweaty.”

She grins as she carefully wipes her palm on the side of her jeans. “No worries. My husband and I have lived here for over a month and haven’t even said hello yet. But it’s just been busy.”

My brows dip. He hasn’t told her I’m his boss.

The front door to their house closes and Adrian struts over with a nervous look on his face. His eyes drink in my half naked torso before they find his wife.

“Hey.”

“I was just introducing myself to the neighbor,” she says with a smile, gesturing toward me. “This is Matt.”

I look at him, waiting to see what he says. Why wouldn’t he tell her I work with him? I’d assume she doesn’t know about our past, but to not say his boss is his neighbor seems weird.

“Oh, yeah. We work together,” he says, giving me a forced smile. “Small world.”

“Indeed,” I reply, my eyes on him.

“Really?” Charlotte questions, her expression confused. “You never told me.”

He hasn’t told her a lot, I’m sure.

Adrian shrugs, his hand going to the back of his neck as he tilts his head. “I don’t know. Not a big deal, I guess.”

Charlotte gives him a look but quickly covers it up. “Well, okay.” She faces me. “Matt, you should come over for dinner sometime.”

“That’s probably not appropriate,” Adrian says quickly.

My brow arches slightly.

“What do you mean?” Charlotte asks.

“No fraternizing,” he offers.

She laughs. “Isn’t that for romantic relationships?”

“Not always,” he says. “But he’s my superior.”

Charlotte looks at me. “Oh.”

I smile at her and then look at Adrian. “I won’t tell if you won’t.”

He stares at me while his wife giggles. “Well, I need to get the groceries inside. It was nice meeting you, Matt.”

“You too,” I reply with a small nod.

When she’s gone, he speaks. “Why do you have everyone call you Matt?”

That’s definitely not the first thing I thought he’d say, and I’m not quite ready to tell him I don’t want his wife calling me by the same name he does. I’ve always preferred the way my name falls from his lips. Especially when he was gasping and moaning.

“It’s a shortened version of my name,” I say instead.

He’s trying to keep from looking at my torso, but he’s failing. “Is it weird that I didn’t tell her you and I work together?”

“Kind of.”

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