Page 104 of The Secret

“There isn’t a ‘but’. However…”

She groaned. And not the type of groan I’d become accustomed to the last week.

“However,” I continued, “do you remember the contract you signed when you came to work for me?”

She nodded over the words I’d come to hate. I swallowed away the anxiety creeping into my throat.

“In it there was a clause about us not sleeping together. Which we… well, I’ve broken. And Rafe’s been on my case about it.”

She turned in my lap. “What does that mean?”

“It means we shouldn’t be together while you’re working for me.”

Fuck, this was coming out worse that it sounded in my head.

“So, you’re firing me?”

“No. I want you here. I want you here with Bell and me.”

She moved away again, her expression skeptical. “So you want me to work for you for free?”

I snapped, standing up, pacing as I thought. Not that I had anything to think about, I knew exactly what I wanted. “No, I don’t want you to work for me. I want you to live with us. I want you to be my girlfriend. I don’t want a fucking contract!”

She stared at me, her thick lashes almost brushing past her eyebrows with how wide her eyes had open.

“You’re asking me to move in with you?”

“No, you already moved in. I’m asking you to stay, as my girlfriend.”

“And my job?”

I knelt in front of her, brushing her hair out of her face. “I’ll support you for as long as you need or want. You can take your time to find the job you love. I’ll still pay you for the entire time; you won’t lose out on anything.”

Her single raised eyebrow told me I’d not exactly said the right thing.

I waited far too long for her to speak, but I was too scared of opening my mouth to say something else fucking stupid. But I’d done it now, I’d put it out there so I just had to wait and ride the wave.

“Okay, we can tear up the contract. Or change it, or whatever you want, whatever we have to do to it.” She smiled softly.

I yanked her forward once more into my lap, crushing my lips to hers in victory. But she hadn’t finished speaking, and slowly pushed me back with a hand on my sinking chest.

“The moving in, I need to think about. It’s a lot.”

I didn’t really think it was a lot at all, we already lived together; the rest were semantics, and she was my girlfriend. But I wasn’t going to say that, because she could have whatever she wanted and I would give it to her, as long as it meant we were together.

“Okay.” I kissed her again, more gently this time, softening my mouth to hers as it molded round her lips, eager to lighten the mood which seemed to have appeared like an errant raincloud on an otherwise sunny day. “Hey, you know, I’ve been thinking…”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yes, about the Columbia job.”

“Oh?”

“Working there gives you access to the library. And I’ll get us into Harvard. We could make it our mission to have sex in all the major libraries of the world.” She gasped in shock, making me laugh so hard my ribs ached. “Shit, even thinking about it now is giving me a boner. Who knew dusty old books could be such a turn on?”

She snatched her hand back as I tried to place it on my dick so she could see the evidence.

“I’m not taking the Columbia job to hook up in the library.”

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