Page 8 of Snowbound in Her Boss's Bed

Ms. Howard, however, appeared to be less moved by his most revealing space than she had been by the rest of the house.

She likely saw only that it was less awe-inspiring than the other areas, not realizing that it represented the essence of him.

To her, in all likelihood, it was merely the room that housed a desk and computer.

She wouldn’t necessarily see that the computer and what he did with it were worth more than the entire compound—as well as the reason he could afford it all in the first place.

“This is where we’ll be working,” he said, observing her as he spoke. “You can sit there.”

He pointed to a chair at his left.

Ms. Howard nodded and went to the seat, placing her teal box on the desk to the side of her shoulder bag.

The bag had seen better days.

Unlike the foundation’s previous events director, a woman who had owned a seemingly endless supply of immaculate designer briefcases and handbags, Ms. Howard’s accessory had cracks in the leather of its handles and fraying seams.

In fact, like the rest of her attire, it appeared rather threadbare.

“What’s in the box?” he asked, unable to keep a taut note from entering his voice as he took a seat at her side.

“Oh,” she said, taking a quick glance at the box as if she had momentarily forgotten about it. “Doughnuts from Grease Monkey. It’s the new it spot in LA.”

Lifting a brow, he remained silent, staring at her for a moment before smirking at the direction of his thoughts.

She would have no idea bringing doughnuts would touch a nerve.

She was probably just eager to impress.

“Do you usually go through a box of doughnuts in a two-hour meeting?”

A frown swept across her brow at his question. “Absolutely not.”

He chuckled. “So they’re for me, then?”

Shaking her head in another quick negative, Ms. Howard denied quickly once again, “No.”

“Then who were you hoping to impress with doughnuts from LA’s latest hot spot?”

Frown deepening, Ms. Howard looked around as if she expected someone to appear in the deep inner sanctum of his house. “They’re for your family. With the holidays kicking off tonight, I thought...”

Benjamin stilled.

She had brought doughnuts for the loved ones that she assumed he would be around for the holidays.

It was a sweet gesture.

There was just no one left in the world that he loved.

He had been blessed with two sets of adoring parents in his life—and he had lost them both.

Neither set had left him with any grandparents, cousins, aunts or uncles, and being twice orphaned had left him leery of going for a third shot and making a family of his own.

And if all of that meant an isolated existence for him, it also meant there was no family to compete with his work for his time.

There was no one to make demands of him, no one to disappoint.

He could disappear into the woods and no one would come looking for him.

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