Page 15 of Billionaire Boss's One Night Stand

Like a dream I couldn’t hold on to.

I left, preferring to shower at my place, but I hated the thought that I was washingheroff my skin. That I would soon see her erased from my body as the claw marks from her nails on my back healed.

It wasn’t normal towantstrings attached. That wasn’t how this was supposed to work. But she remained at the forefront of my mind. Sure, I was relaxed. My body felt limp and used in agood way, almost like a hard, satisfying workout but ten times better.

She sure workedmehard.

I grinned, unable to dismiss these thoughts.

No attachments could form, though. We’d seen to that without sharing a name, a detail—hell, any type of a clue. Yet, I felt like I’d learned so much about her. Not only that her laughter and giggles were sexy as hell as I discovered that she was ticklish on her side. Nor how she blushed so prettily at dirty talk, then also admitted how much it turned her on. I also learned that letting loose and doing something spontaneous with the right woman could really, truly reset me.

I haven’t felt this good in a long time.

I left my building feeling lighter than I had in days, and it was the perfect mood to be in before facing my team to prepare for the Gammon campaign.

Except when I stopped by the café I frequented every morning, I tensed up. I only came here, where I trusted the baristas not to screw up my order because I had been a regular for twenty years and I never deviated from my black coffee, iced or hot.

Sometimes, Aaron DuPont came by this café too.

This morning happened to be one of his visits.

Just my fucking luck.

He turned and smirked at me as soon as I walked in, and I had a bad hunch that he’d come here today to see me, singling me out like that. And that expression of disdain…

I was proven right when he approached me.

“Morning, Mr. Richards,” the barista said. “Your order will be right out.”

“Thanks,” I replied dully. The young man wouldn’t take offense. He knew me and my moods, and the fact that I tipped very well.

“Well, well,” Aaron drawled as he sauntered up close. He was shorter and beefier than I was, too addicted to spending time at the gym to make himself look mighty. “Look who it is. The cheat who thinks he can stealmyclient.”

I let a gritty smile cover my face. “I’m not stealing anything, ass wipe.”

Even though we both worked in the corporate world, I wasn’t afraid to slip with profanity around him.

“Gammon is a DuPont client,” he snarled. “So imagine my surprise that I heard through the grapevine that you’re trying to take them fromme.” He jabbed his finger at his chest for emphasis.

He heard that we’re interested already? That was fast.But of course, he’d hear about it. Why wouldn’t we jump on acquiring Gammon? We were rivals in the same industry.

I crossed my arms, standing with my feet shoulder width apart. “Imaginemysurprise when I heard you run such a shoddy ship that you lost them in the first place.”

He screwed his too-tan face up in a scowl. “That’s not true. We still have Gammon for multiple accounts.”

“If by multiple you mean more than one, sure, you havetworemaining accounts. Small ones.” I rolled my eyes, loving this chance to gloat. “They probably kept them with you out of pity.”

“No one pities me, Richards,” he spat. “If anyone is in need of pity, it’ll be you after you try and fail to score them as a client. I never had to wonder why they chose us over you every time.”

I huffed, taking my drink from the counter. “They only ever started with you because old man Gammon was a family friend of your grandfather. Nothing more, nothing less. It only tookyou”—I jabbed my finger at his chest this time—“to screw it up and lose them.”

“That’s not true.”

“No?” I arched a brow and sipped my coffee. “Then all those reports about your managers slacking, harassing their employees,andembezzling money are false?”

He clamped his lips shut. A vein bulged on his brow, and I fought the urge to chuckle. Throw a little water on his shaved head and it’d turn to steam. “Those employees have been dealt with.”

“Sure. After a juicy scandal. How many years were they getting again for those fraud cases?”

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