Page 39 of Falling for the Forbidden
I walk out of his office with the stack of papers in my arms, tears stinging my eyes.
As I watch everyone else leave for the night, I’m still setting up the bloody spreadsheet Dad had drawn out for me on a scrap of paper. Spreadsheets arenotmy forte, so it takes much longer than it should.
I’m just making a start on inputting everything when the buzzer for the main door to the building rings out loud around the silent space around me. I glance at my phone, but I’ve got no messages or missed calls.
When it rings again, I make my way over and press the button to see who’s at the door.
My heart turns over when I find Ben looking back at me. “Are you going to let me in anytime soon?” he asks into the speaker.
“Yeah, sorry. Hang on.” Pressing the button down, I give him time to enter the building before going over the office door to wait for him. “Mmm...this is a nice surprise,” I say once he’s released my lips.
“I got this really weird message from Mum telling me that she and your dad were going out to meet a client tonight and that you were working late. She never usually tells me shit like that—”
“She knows about us.”
His eyes widen in panic. “She does?”
“I don’t know for sure, but I’ve got a feeling.”
“That would make sense,” he says with a nod. “Anyway, I’ve come to help, and I’ve ordered pizza.”
“My saviour,” I sigh dramatically. “Surely you’ve got something better to do tonight than help me with this bullshit?”
“What are you doing?”
I walk over to my desk and explain.
“This isbullshit. This spreadsheet already exists.” He clicks around in the server and pulls up a replica of what I’m creating.
“He just wanted me out of the house. I can’t believe it.” The frustration I was already feeling starts to morph into anger.
“I can.”
“He’s not going to get away with this.” Grabbing my phone, I unlock it and go to call his number, but it’s snatched from my hands.
“Think about this, Lauren. I’d love for you to call him up and rip him a new one, but do you want to make him any more suspicious than he already is? He thinks that, by giving you such a pointless task, he’s keeping us apart. You can hardly tell him that I turned up to fuck you in his office and pointed this out.”
I stare at him. The anger coursing through my veins suddenly turns into something else. “You came to fuck me on his desk?”
“Well, I came to help. I was just hopeful for more.”
Stepping up to him, I press my lips to his. His hands start on my waist but are soon tangled in my hair as he deepens the kiss.
The buzzer going off again forces us to break apart. “I hope you like pizza.”
“Who doesn’t like pizza?”
He shrugs before walking over to the buzzer and letting the delivery guy in while I smooth my hair down.
“How did you know that spreadsheet exists?”
“I’m more involved in this business than everyone believes.”
“Oh.”
“This is my legacy. My future. I need to know that there’s going to be something left for me when my time comes.”
“Why wouldn’t there be anything left? As far as I can see, the profits are only increasing year after year and our reputation is sky high.”
