Page 27 of My Cruel Billionaire

“Don’t look now,” he said, pointing across the room with his big hand. I’d forgotten how imposing he truly was. It used to make me feel safe. I longed for that safety again, but it was in the past. Mom always said that once things were over, they could never be that way again.

Maybe that had something to do with why I never told Michael he had a son. I didn’t want to risk rekindling a romance that was dead on the vine from the start. Nothing could ever match the exhilaration of those early days when I thought I meant something more to him than just an office fling.

Or could it?

That was my conundrum. Working in the world of high-stakes corporate empires teaches you a thing or two. I knew that when there was high risk, there could also be high reward. I knew that things between us would never really be the same, but that didn’t mean that whatever resulted from a renewed romance would be necessarily bad.

Or necessarily good.

I reeled on the inside but I did my best to hide it from Michael and the rest of the world. I had called the tune, and now it was time to pay the piper. Through hook and by crook, I’d pulled off my scheme to the last crossed T and dotted I. Now I had to deal with the consequences of that.

Namely, a lot of flesh pressing and talking to people I barely or didn’t know.

“What a turnout,” Michael said when I had a spare moment. I hadn’t even stepped away from the podium at that point. A lot of people wanted to get a statement from me directly. My throat had gone a little hoarse from all of the talking.

“I know, right?” I coughed slightly and held my throat. “Can I be honest with you for a second, Michael?”

He turned his gaze on me, a penetrating stare that seemed to bare me to the soul. It was as if he knew too much about me and not enough all at once.

Michael put his hand on my shoulder and leaned in close, putting his mouth close to my ear to be heard above the din.

“Always. I want you to always be honest with me, Jenna.”

“Are you sure? Everyone says that, but they often don’t mean it.”

“Am I a man often given to saying things I do not mean?”

I snorted, and took a step back, pulling away from his hand. He was having that shivery effect on me and I didn’t want to let him off the hook too easy.

“You strung me along, didn’t you?”

“I don’t recall ever discussing our sweet, sweet time together as anything more than what it was. Refresh my memory if I’m wrong. We never had ‘the talk,’ did we? That meant either of us was free to end it, no strings attached.”

I knew that some of what had happened was because of my own rose-colored view of our affair. He was right, in that we had never had that conversation where we looked at each other and asked ‘what are we?’ We never talked about what we had or where it was going. I thought it would go on forever, and obviously I had invested more emotionally than he had.

On the other hand, he hadn’t thought to mention to me my work was subpar, either.

“Whatever,” I said with a growl. “I really don’t want to talk about this right now. I need your help to work the crowd.”

I brushed imaginary specks of dirt off his suit, getting very close to him to do so. He smelled as nice as I remembered.

“There we are,” I said, tidying up his necktie as well. “Now show those pearly whites and make everyone feel good.”

“This is too tight,” he said as I cinched his tie.

“Suffer for fashion, Michael.”

He laughed but as soon as I let go he loosened it some. It was still a nice, tidy knot. I was rather proud of myself.

Michael stopped at the bar on our way to mingle and ordered a gin and tonic and some foreign drink I didn’t quite catch the name of. He turned around and presented me with a small wine glass filled with amber fluid and what looked like flecks of metal.

“What in the hell is this?” I asked, swirling around the slightly viscous fluid.

“Goldschläger,” Michael said. “It will sooth and lubricate your throat, and make it feel better. You’re a little hoarse.”

“Bullshit, you’re just trying to get me liquored up.”

“It’s not terribly potent.”

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