Page 50 of Serving the CEO

JESSICA

“Everythingin your partial looks wonderful, Bristol,” Jami said, a pleased grin on her face as she looked at her iPad where Bristol and her agent, Imani, were on a Zoom conference call.

We’d gotten the partial earlier, and now Imani had sent the full manuscript, which Jami and I planned to read this week. A phone call this early was unorthodox, but I was so excited to sign Bristol, and I knew her book would be a hit, so when Bristol asked if we could talk, I’d gone ahead and told Jami to call her.

But despite how enthused I was about this book, I couldn’t focus.

Jami shot me a telling look over her iPad, and I jerked my attention back to the discussion, picking up the tablet I used to read through the manuscript earlier.

“I love everything about this, Bristol. But you already know that.” Smiling, I added, “I totally adore the chapter on why we shouldn’t settle.”

Jami cleared her throat, almost obnoxiously loud as she did so, and took a drink of her coffee. Face flushing, I picked up my thermal cup of ice water and took a sip, pointedlynotlooking at Jami. This was neither the time nor the place for her disapproval.

Besides, I wasn’tsettling. My relationship with Derrick was complex, but it had nothing to do with me feeling like I couldn’t do better.

“Is everything all right?” Bristol asked.

“Everything’s fine,” Jami answered before I could.

“So what comes next?” Imani asked.

“We’ll go over the full manuscript, but it will take a little while before we can commit to anything firm. You know how the business works.” Giving Bristol an encouraging look, I said, “Just keep in mind, things in publishing move slowly. It will probably be a month or so before you hear anything concrete. But you know I love this book.”

A few minutes later, after we’d all signed off on the call, Jami rose, but instead of leaving, she closed the door.

She’d kept her mouth shut when I’d told her that I planned to invite Derrick to spend the Fourth with my family and when I’d admitted to her yesterday that Derrick had spent the night with me. She hadn’t been happy, but she hadn’t said anything about it.

Now, I realized that she’d just been biding her time.

“What are you doing, Jess?” She shook her head, confusion in her eyes. “You’re getting all dewy-eyed about a man who is literallypayingyou to date and marry him. A cold-hearted asshole who doesn’t care about anyone but himself.”

None of that was true.Not really. Derrick wasn’t the hard, callous ass he projected to the world. He listened to me when we talked. He was courteous and held doors. He made me laugh, and most of all, he made me feel good about myself.

And the other night…my heart raced just thinking about it.

“It’s not that simple,” I said.

“I’m pretty sure it is,” she countered, folding her arms. “Derrick Thomas is a massive douchebag who wouldn’t know how to do the right thing if someone gave him a blueprint.”

“Really?” Irritation made my voice sharper than I meant for it to be. “I knew you didn’t want to hear about how things went on the Fourth, so I didn’t tell you what he did, but now I think you need to know.”

“I don’t care.”

“He practically saved my nephew’s life.” Jami gave me a skeptical look and I continued, “Well, Brayden might not have died, but he would have been seriously injured, maybe even lost his hand. He was doing one of those stupid internet challenges and this one was to let a firecracker go off in the palm of your hand. Except Brayden didn’t realize he had to keep his hand flat.”

Jami’s eyes widened. She might not have liked Derrick, but she at least appreciated the seriousness of what Brayden had done.

“Derrick saw what Brayden was doing and knocked the firecracker out of Brayden’s hand before it went off.”

Jami shifted but her expression didn’t soften. “I’m glad your cousin’s okay, but just because Derrick stopped Brayden from being seriously injured doesn’t undo all the shit Derrick has done.”

I thought of the things he’d let me add to our deal even though he could’ve countered with money or even found someone else to be part of his experiment. And he’d agreed to exclusivity, even when our contract said no sex. Then I remembered how careful he’d been with me every time he’d approached a physical boundary, always willing to back off if I saidno. How, even when the sex hadn’t exactly been gentle, there’d been a tenderness about him.

No, it didn’t undo the things Derrick had done, but he wasn’t just a hot asshole in a suit either.

“People change, Jami,” I said. “I have to believe that.”

“Being good in bed doesn’t mean he’s a better person.”

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