Page 22 of Billionaire Boss's One Night Stand

Since I called her out and asked what she was up to, I was operating on anger that Tom could touch her and talk to her when I couldn’t. When I wondered if she’d be a distraction, I was motivated to show how much she was stealing my focus.

We’d proverbially drawn the line in the sand between us then, and she had made it clear that her charm, her wit, her easygoing manners would never be intended toward me.

It didn’t matter what she did or didn’t do. This desire I had for her wouldn’t slow or weaken. She starred in my dreams. She was the main theme of my thoughts. Like a virus, she’d invaded me and taken up residence to destroy any semblance of peace or concentration I could wish for.

One look at her, and I felt that ache to hold her close. One accidental brush against her arm, and I was taken back to how she’d clung to me in bed as I drove deep inside her. And the elevator? Fuck me, I couldn’t stand to be in that metal box with her, too easily reminded of our first kiss in the elevator at the hotel. I was using the stairs no matter what to avoid the situation of being in a ride with her.

“Like this is going to help my cause.” I tossed my pen to my desk and gave up trying to look like I was busy. Slumping to set my chin in my hand, my elbow on the desk, I settled in to glare at her chatting with Brad near the copier in the hallway.

Every day, she came in with a new flower. A new bow. Something colorful and perky, as if she needed a prop to makemelook. I fantasized that she could be smiling at me as we spoke about something. I let my mind wander, wondering how she’d gaze up at me if I laid her on my desk and?—

“I’m telling you, those tacos are heaven in your mouth but hell on the gut.”

I jumped a bit, not realizing that John had let himself into my office. I’d been so stuck on staring at Loren, again.

“What?” I was missing something with that comment.

He furrowed his brow as he sat. “You looked like you were grimacing. It’s the tacos, right? The reflux always gets me about now.” He rubbed his flat stomach, groaning a bit in pain.

“Speak for yourself, old man,” I teased.

“You’re just as old as me, ass.” He smiled, sighing as he leaned back in the chair across from me. “If you’re not suffering from indigestion, what has you wincing like that?”

Wanting a woman I can’t have.

I shrugged. “Just thinking.”

He rolled his hand, prompting me to continue.

“About getting Gammon to go with us.”

“Ah.” He bought my line about work stress. It was true, anyway. When I wasn’t obsessing about Loren at the same time I was loathing the disruption she was in my life, I was thinking about the project. “But Loren seems to be a great addition.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder, indicating where she was out there in the foyer.

“Yeah.” A great addition for the team but a sore reminder of what I couldn’t enjoy otherwise.

Lusting after her only drove in the point that I wasn’t the ideal man to market a goddamn line of baby products. The Gammon reps, according to preliminary feedback, were looking for a family man. Someone settled enough to at least be in the progress of having a child. Which made sense. Someone using or potentially shopping around for the products would understand them better.

It wasn’t healthy, and I had no excuse to justify it, but that was a big part of my grumpiness toward Loren. She represented what I couldn’t have. What I had no business wanting, either.

“Don’t you think she’s fitting in well?”

Oh, she fitsmewell. Tight and wet. Eager and adventurous.

I cleared my throat, wishing the thoughts away.

“Yeah. The guys are taking to her well.” I furrowed my brow, finally having a chance to ask him if she thought all was going all right. If she’d gone to HR to complain about me, I would’ve heard about it sooner. “Has she said anything?”

He shook his head. “No. Nothing.”

“No concerns?”No… surprising news that we hooked up the night before she started…

“No. She hasn’t said a thing to anyone in HR.”

Huh. It seemed she wasn’t the type to kiss and tell, at least.

“Why?” He frowned. “Should she have?” As soon as he asked it, he smirked. “Like you wouldn’t handle any issues on your team to start with.”

I wondered why she hadn’t mentioned Tom yet. While he wasn’t groping her, he seemed too handsy to want to touch her somehow. I had yet to hear him say anything truly scandalous, but I caught her rolling her eyes once Tom walked away.

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