Page 10 of Meeting the Billionaire Boss

Suddenly, he reaches out and touches my hair and my breath catches in my throat.

What’s he doing?

My knees go weak. My mouth goes dry. My lips part.

He brings his hand back and shows me. ‘You had grass in your hair.’

‘Oh!’ I run a hand over my ponytail, realising that my hair must be in a state. Looking down at myself, I see the grass stains, accepting that I’ll have to bin this T-shirt because there’s no way I’m getting them out.

‘Ask Cynthia if she has something for the stains. Joe has a habit of getting dirty so I’m sure she has something there that’ll work.’

His eyes linger on my T-shirt a fraction too long and my heartbeat quickens. Was he looking at my breasts? Again?

Of course not!I admonish myself. Just the mess I’ve made of my top. I’m sure he thinks I’m a right mess and could well be considering firing me at the earliest possible opportunity.

‘Thanks for making such an effort with Joe,’ he says. ‘Cynthia’s a bit past rolling down grassy inclines so he’ll have enjoyed that.’

‘I enjoyed it too.’

‘You looked like you did.’ There is mischief in his eyes now. ‘Are you going inside?’

‘Yes. I need to change before dinner.’

We make our way up to the house and I try to ignore how good his cologne smells as the breeze carries it to me as well as how handsome he is. This man is my boss and I have no right to see him as anything else. It will only lead to disappointment and could ruin this incredible chance for me to change my life. I haven’t wanted to be with a man in ages and that’s not going to change now just because I felt something when my skin met his.

Nothing is going to happen between us. Our relationship is strictly professional.

But however much I want to, I can’t deny that Edward Cavendish is incredibly hot.

Chapter11

Edward

The day has worn on and the sun is low in the sky, bathing the horizon with a soft peach glow. After dinner, which was eventful as Jack and Lucas ate with us — and byus,I mean Cynthia, Joe and Ava — and they were clearly enjoying themselves far too much showing off for Ava’s benefit, we went through some paperwork then came outside to the terrace.

‘It’s a gorgeous place,’ Jack says. ‘That view is spectacular and it’s so calm and quiet.’

I nod. Being here has helped me over the past two years, even though there are ghosts around every corner. Lucille loved this house and the gardens although I never saw her rolling down a grassy banking with Joe. Lucille said that there was a lot she wanted to do to this house but with her frequent modelling trips, pregnancy and then her death, she never had the chance.

‘Life is a rollercoaster, right? But being outdoors can be so beneficial.’ Lucas swirls brandy around in his glass then stares into it as if it has the answers to the meaning of life.

‘I wish my father had realised that,’ I say, surprising myself because I don’t speak about him often, not in any detail anyway. ‘But he had issues he didn’t understand and his relationship with Mum was challenging at the best of times. They should never have married but Mum was pregnant, then… after they married, she lost the baby.’ I don’t add that this was due to an argument that escalated and ended up with Mum falling down the stairs. She only told me about this recently and I was horrified. My parents’ marriage wasn’t just tense, it was volatile. It wasn’t a good example of how to live happily ever after. ‘They stayed together and I came along but they were never happy. I don’t know if Dad’s behaviour was worse because they were together or if his behaviour made things worse between them. Whatever way around things were, they weren’t well matched.’ BybehaviourI mean my father’s drinking, use of drugs and womanising. As well as his gambling that got him into masses of debt and that Grandpa had to bail him out of many times. Jack and Lucas know a lot about my background but there are some things I don’t share. Some things are too dark to say out loud.

‘So your grandpa believed that marriage to a good woman will keep you on the straight and narrow?’ Jack asks.

‘I guess so.’ I shrug. ‘Or at least he thought so at the end.’

Neither of my friends says that Ihada happy marriage. They know the truth about that too. Although, it was happy for a while, and I did adore Lucille. Until things went wrong.

‘But what if you marry and it isn’t happy? What if it became toxic too?’ Lucas drains his glass then sets it on the table. ‘There’s always a chance. It’s easy to fall in love but also easy to fall out of it.’

The three of us are similar in that we’ve been through difficult times. I thought I’d found the one. Jack did too, once upon a time. As for Lucas though, he’s never found a woman he wants to settle down with. At least that’s the story he’s sticking to.

‘That’s why I’m thinking that a marriage where feelings aren’t involved might be for the best. After what happened before… my heart doesn’t have the capacity to go through loss again but if I married someone for convenience rather than love, then there would be no chance of me getting hurt.’ The seed of this idea has been lurking at the back of my brain for a while and the more I think about it, the more sense it makes.

‘Kind of like a business arrangement.’ Jack nods his approval. We all like good, clear deals where there’s no room for error or confusion, where costs and overheads are laid out at the start and there’s no room for movement. Contracts go through negotiations, everything is signed and sealed and off we go.

‘So you need to find a bride who’ll be happy with that.’ Lucas snorts. ‘I don’t think any of the women I know would go for it. They all seem to want the fairy tale.’

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