Page 71 of Alice and the Billionaire Boss

“Least I could do after the orgasms you gave me.”

I smile and blush. I did make him come. Several times. It gives me a warm feeling in my tummy.

I don’t know what he meant about the distance between us being a hurdle rather than an obstacle. It’s not just the distance. I look after my mum, and that’s not going to change anytime soon. Maybe he’s thinking of suggesting getting someone in to care for her, but she wouldn’t want that. She’s a very private person, and I know she’d feel terribly embarrassed about having a stranger do some of the intimate things I have to do for her.

I don’t want to lead him on. But I like him so much.

On the other end of the line, I hear footsteps on tiles, the scrape of metal, then the squeak of furniture.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

“I opened the sliding doors so I could smell the jasmine,” he says. “It reminds me of your perfume.”

“Aw.”

“Now I’m lying on the sofa. What’s it like in your garden?”

“It’s a lovely evening here. I’m sitting in front of the spare room that I use as my studio.”

“I saw you’re running a Kickstarter campaign.”

“Yes,” I reply, flattered that he’s tried to find out about me. “It met the total I set last week. I’m so thrilled. I’m going to have the studio redecorated and get some new equipment.”

“Who are you interviewing next?”

“Tomorrow I’m talking to Abby Richardson—she wroteLife on Mars?”

“That’s sci-fi, right?”

“Yeah.”

“What kind?”

My lips curve up. “You’re a bad boy.”

“I’m just asking.”

“It’shaaaard,” I say in a breathy voice, and he laughs.

“I’m hopingNeuromancerwill turn up before Christmas so I can get stuck in,” he adds. “I’m thinking maybe we should come up with a list that I can work through. What would be on your list of top twenty sci-fi novels?”

I stretch out my legs in the warm evening sun, and smile as I begin the discussion of our favorite books.

Chapter Twelve

Kip

It’s Friday the twenty-third of December, and the last day we’re officially open at Kingpinz for several weeks. The girls in the office have put up a Christmas tree a few weeks ago, and they’ve decorated their desks with tinsel and other festive ornaments. The guys haven’t bothered, as usual, and mostly complain about all the fuss while secretly enjoying the atmosphere. All morning the secretaries have been organizing our Christmas party. There’s going to be a Secret Santa, and the caterers we’ve hired are just finishing setting up the food and drink in the boardroom.

I’m at my desk, signing some letters that Marion’s left me, when there’s a knock at my door, and Saxon walks in. My eyebrows rise. He’s wearing a pair of antlers and a big round nose that’s flashing red.

“Guess which reindeer I am,” he says.

I lean back and lift my glasses onto my hair. “Wanker?”

He laughs, takes off the nose, and sits in front of my desk. “Just trying to get in the mood.”

“What’s up?”

---