Page 74 of Bossing My Holiday
“What is this? I don’t understand,” I admit.
“We don’t have a COO because we have two CEOs. One doing the biotech side and one doing the business side,” Brax explains. “But now we’re growing, expanding, and we need someone who can oversee the company as a company. Who can compile all the moving parts into one and manage everything.” He meets my gaze, his expression open and hopeful. There are a million things brimming in his eyes, but he lets it all end there.
“This says I report to the board of directors.”
“Yes,” Tristan acknowledges. “It’s a senior vice president and executive director role, and with that, you’d report to the board. Not us.”
“But you’re on the board.”
Tristan shrugs. “It’s not an issue. There are enough board members that we don’t have direct authority over you.”
“You wouldn’t be my bosses,” I state matter-of-factly, and I can’t tell what the fuck this is. Did they do this so we could continue having sex? So that I could?—
“I see where your mind is going,” Brax cuts off my thoughts, inching in a bit on me so we’re eye to eye. “But that’s not how it is. This acquisition wouldn’t have been able to happen nearly as well as it did without you. There’s a reason we’ve had you in every meeting, as part of every chart we’ve coursed since you started. Youarethe COO. You’ve just been stuck under the designation of Tristan’s assistant.”
“Maybe you should take this downstairs and discuss it in private,” Alain suggests. “We can give Waverly her presents tonight before the party.”
And with that, we’re almost dismissed. I can hardly meet the eyes of Tristan’s family.
I don’t know what to make of this. I feel like Julia Roberts inPretty Womanbeing offered the penthouse in LA and the unlimited spending budget while her boss can use her as he needs and is passing through town.
Brax rises and extends his hand to me. I’m… I don’t know what I am, but I take his hand only to release it immediately. He’s not my boyfriend, and the man who is supposed to be my boyfriend isn’t either. Why are they doing this? I’m an assistant. There’s not a clear linear path between the CEO’s assistant and the COO.
The moment we step onto the elevator, I wrap my arms around my chest.
“You’re mad,” Tristan brilliantly surmises.
“Yeah. I am. Because what the absolute fuck?!”
He chuckles, and I go to strangle him when Braxton steps inbetween us. “Okay, slow down, Sunshine. You’re misinterpreting this.” He grabs my fists and wrangles them down to my sides before his face gets right up in mine. “What do you do for a living?”
“What?”
“What. Do you do. For a living?”
“I’m the assistant to the business CEO. I maintain his calendar and keep up-to-date functional notes on all accounts. I run interference between him and employees and third parties seeking access. I?—”
“Run the goddamn company!” Tristan booms. The elevator doors open, and he sweeps me off, gripping my other hand before he and Braxton pin me to the wall in the hall. “You run the goddamn company, Waverly. You make the organization function. Who the fuck else does that?”
My breath lodges, along with my words, in my chest.
“That’s right, Princess. No one. It’s you. Goddammit, when Braxton mentioned this to me the other day, I was furious I hadn’t thought of it myself. But when we went to the board and laid it out, they didn’t hesitate. They agreed. This is how it should be. It’s not because you’re fucking us, you amazing slut. And it’s not because we’re crazy about you, which we are. It’s because working for us is wrong because you are the one who leads us.”
Tristan’s panting. I’m panting. Braxton is smiling.
“This is what I’ve been talking about,” Braxton states. “I told you we’d figure something out, and it’s not because I want to keep fucking you or make you my girl. It’s because this is the job you’ve worked for. The job you’veearned. I didn’t know our Scrooge You was going to do it this way because I wanted to do all of this tonight in private, but here it is, and you have to face it. You’re ours, but more than that, you’re part of us. Our company, our lives, our blood. Our hearts.”
I lick my lips. “And in two months when you grow bored of fucking me or sharing me? Or when Tristan moves to Paris because he has to? Or when the board catches on and throws a fit?”
Brax moves in on me, his hand on my jaw. “Do you honestly think that’s why we did this?”
I open my mouth, and he closes it for me.
“I want you to be my girlfriend,” he continues. “Not hidden. Not only when the doors are closed and no one is watching. But for real. I think I’ve already made that very clear. In fact, I believe I told you that I love you. Get the fuck out of your head, woman. You deserve the job. If I had never slept with you, if you had been any other woman doing the same incredible work that you’ve been doing, I would have said that. We need this position. We need you in it. But on top of that, I need you to be mine. The two are mutually exclusive. We can have one without the other, you as the COO regardless, but I’m hoping we can have both.”
My heart is pounding. I’ve been holding back… everything. I’ve never fought something as hard as this. But I’ve already lost so much, and the thought of loving them and then having that ripped away from me… I couldn’t do it.
I blink and look over at Tristan.
