Page 14 of My Forbidden Billionaire

“Ah, yes, but Lainey’s been very instrumental in facilitating me with a recent, ah, legal situation,” Bradley spoke up defensively where Lainey was willing to say little. “She’s stepped up to fill the office manager’s role while she’s preoccupied with more pressing matters. She’s really taken a shine to her new position.”

She choked at his word choice. Her mom smacked her on the back between her shoulder blades. “Are you okay, lovey?” She sounded concerned.

“I’m fine. Sorry, just choked on a walnut.”

“I knew I should have gone with almond slivers or cut them smaller. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault I can’t eat right. I’m going to go refill my water. Sorry. It’s a good salad. Sorry.” She was talking too much, and she knew it. She needed to get ahold of her situation, start acting like a normal person at dinner with her parents and her boss, who she’d also known her whole life. For all they knew, this shouldn’t be weird. She needed to stop making it weird. She braced herself against the butcher block counter in the kitchen, rubbing the wood grain in circles to ground herself. She could go back in there and pretend that Bradley hadn’t bent her over a desk with a wood grain just like this. Couldn’t she? She groaned with the knowledge that she wasn’t that savvy.

“Hey, are you all right?”

She groaned again at her boss’s voice in her ear, her back instinctively arching as she pressed into the counter. No, she was definitely not going to be able to pretend his presence didn’t melt her into a puddle of her former self.

“I’m fine. I just did not expect to see you here,” Lainey said tightly as she turned to face him.

“I was a little surprised myself to see you.”

“This ismyparents’ house,” she said plainly, shaking her head.

“And this ismybest friends’ house,” he teased, his hands snaking around the back of her waist. Her hands settled on his forearms, feeling the way his skin was tight against his subtly muscular physique. He was so close. She could just stand on her toes and kiss the hollow at his throat if she wanted to, her parents unknowing in the other room. Before she could follow through, he leaned down and placed his pillowy lips on hers. His tongue lightly ran along her bottom lip, and she sighed against his mouth. His kisses along her jaw were so feathery that they felt ethereal. They gave her the same feeling as being picked up as a kid after she fell asleep in the car—that ginger, dreamlike wavelength.

“I don’t know if they’ll be your best friends for long if you keep this,” she gestured to his proximity to her, “up.” Something dark flashed in his eyes. Normally sparkling with a friendly mischievousness, they had a looming depth, a heavy cloud over a tree she’d just settled to picnic under. “What’s wrong?” she asked, resting her forehead against his chest. She couldn’t decide between his eyes or his chest for her future home. She could live in either, senseless, floating, while everyone else navigated the world outside. “I was just joking.”

“Nothing. I know you were,” he assured her easily, pushing her lightly and separating from her. “Don’t forget you came in here for water,” he called as he exited the kitchen.

Chapter fourteen

Whenshereturnedtothe office, still a little buzzed from kissing Bradley in a room where her parents easily could have seen, he wasn’t around much. Monica had returned to her normal duties, not because everything had been fixed but because Bradley had taken over. He was holed in his office, only coming out to use the restroom from time to time or to ask Lainey to shred or fax something. He would do so without looking at her and without a please. Their honeymoon phase had waned rather soon, she thought, watching him retreat back to his lair.

“Is that normal?” Lainey asked, her eyes scanning over a welcome packet that Monica had asked her to proofread. She replaced an “its” with “it’s.”

“For him to run himself ragged taking control over something he should delegate to his employees? Yes.” Lainey turned to look over her shoulder at her, and Monica shrugged, her shiny black hair falling to the front of her shoulder. “What? It is.”

“Does it annoy you?”

“Do I sound annoyed?”

“Do I really have to answer that?”

Monica rolled a swivel chair over and sat next to her. “I’m not annoyed. He’s a great boss, and I guess I should be grateful he doesn’t pile on work. But I’ve known him for a couple of years now, and I just think—” Lainey hung on every word. She’d never had an office job before, and she got this tingly awareness that this was office gossip. She’d never really gossiped before either. Before Jill, she hadn’t been much for making friends. Her mother had told her to join band or theatre, hoping she’d loosen up and meet friends, and instead she’d opted for debate where everyone she talked to was arguing. But Monica stopped herself and bit into an oat ball.

“You think what?”

She sighed like she’d been caught, even though Lainey considered her prodding minimal, and lowered her voice. “Well, if you were a literal billionaire, wouldn’t you go and do things? He just spends his life away working.”

“Yeah, but his dad—”

“His dad is fine now. He did it. He made the thing. Why doesn’t he outsource now and go skydiving, you know? I’m not bitter. I’m fine being an office manager forever. I’m just worried about him.”

“Totally,” Lainey said, but if her stomach was a ship, it was belly-up. Monica knew about Bradley’s dad too? She thought that was a secret he’d told her, something he’d entrusted her with—an envelope with a wax seal. And if she knew, how? She’d been such an idiot to not even consider the possibility that she wasn’t the first intern Bradley had slept with. He was sexy and tall and smelled good and was powerful and charming. This could be his game.

Monica sat, unbothered, chewing on her oats and peanut butter, looking at her own laptop. She was beautiful and intelligent. Her hair was silky, and her eyes were deep, and her skin was unblemished. Most of all, she had a good work ethic, and she was professional. Lainey knew Bradley valued those qualities.

Bradley made an appearance, his door opening silently, a shadow in the corner of her eye.

“Hey, Monica, will you take a look at these and tell me if there’s anything to them?”

“I’m not a lawyer,” she said coolly as she walked toward him, her heels clicking against the hardwood floor.

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