Page 57 of Snowbound in Her Boss's Bed

“I made my money by having nothing else to live for outside of my calling,” he said, joking but also serious. His passion had been the only bridge between his parents and life that existed for him for a long time. “Coding, software engineering, design, all of it came to me as if I had been born with the understanding. It was my parents’ greatest wish that the world would recognize that someday. After they were gone, losing myself in my studies and personal projects were the only things I could do to feel like a working part of the planet anymore. By the time I came out of that, I had made my first million. It was easy after that.”

He had not planned on being quite so revealing with what he told her, but when had he ever with her? She had a way of drawing more out than he intended to give.

She gave back just as much.

Compassion warred with disbelief in her face. “I don’t know if I should be depressed, impressed or incredulous,” she said, beautifully honest, as always.

Amused by her frankness, he smiled. “Incredulous,” he challenged.

A spark lit in her eyes, and he knew she wouldn’t shy away.

“Easy? I don’t think you know how hard it is out here for some of the rest of us poor souls.”

“Of course I do. I told you, I wasn’t always rich.”

“But you were never poor, either,” she challenged.

Lifting an eyebrow, he pushed back. “And you were?”

“Recently, yes,” she said, bringing her hands together and closing her eyes as she recalled. “In the gap between graduation and getting the job at the foundation, I was holding it together with piecemeal part-time jobs, but barely. If I hadn’t been hired by the foundation when I was, though, I would have lost my apartment. It was pretty grim there for a while, facing either moving back into my parents’ garage or living in my car. But then I got this swanky new job that I must preserve at all costs,” she said, smiling with a serious look in her eyes. “I can’t afford to lose this job,” she added, and in it, he heard unspoken concerns about the security of her position.

There were reasons to dislike being her boss, so to speak. He wanted a different kind of power over her, the kind that ruled body and mind, not paycheck. He resented the shadow of coercion the fact that he could fire her brought into their relationship.

He wanted things to be different between them because he wanted her—even more powerfully than he had their first night together.

And despite that, he focused on her seriously and spoke clearly when he said, “No word will ever come from me that you are not the ideal individual for your position. You’ve convinced me with your work, and I would never put the foundation at risk of losing you.”

Her eyelids fluttered closed, and she exhaled a long breath.

He frowned while her eyes were shut, even more frustrated to have work exist between them.

And yet without the foundation, he would have never met her.

Causing her to fear for her future was not showing her a good time, however. Nor, even, was alleviating that fear.

He wanted to make her smile.

She opened her eyes, expression earnest, to find him staring.

A slight frown drawing her eyebrows together, she said, “Thank you. I was worried after last night...”

“We’re fortunate in being hundreds of miles away from anyone who might care, and neither of us is interested in reporting what went down here. As to last night, you have nothing to worry about.” It was a promise he would use his considerable power to ensure he kept.

And he would make her smile again.

Voice turning teasing, he prodded her away from the direction of her fears. “So, you’ve struggled, it sounds like, but only recently. What about in childhood?”

Lifting an eyebrow at his question, she eyed him warily as she shook her head. “As a kid, things were happy and stable. We were never rich or anything, but I didn’t have to worry about my needs being met, and my parents were able to afford things that weren’t cheap, like piano lessons and judo.”

“What did your parents do?” he asked, increasingly curious about everything that made her her.

“My dad is a pastor with his own church and my mom works for him as an administrator and all-around helpmate. The congregation pays the bulk of their salaries, which while not crazy by LA standards, was enough for a happy childhood and a bunch of spoiled grandkids.”

Lifting his brow in response, Benjamin asked, “A pastor?”

Cringing slightly, Miri nodded. “Yep. There’s a reason religious holidays are so big with my family.”

A deeper understanding of her feelings of unbelonging dawning on him, Benjamin was softer than he might otherwise have been upon learning the information.

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