Page 39 of Hired For the Billionaire's Secret Son

She tipped her head back to look at him, taking in the two-day-old stubble on his hard jaw, the furrow between his eyebrows and his taut mouth. ‘Do you even know what I need, Bo?’

Confusion jumped into his eyes, and she knew that he didn’t get it. Or, if he did, he didn’t want to acknowledge the truth. She considered getting into the taxi and leaving, but she didn’t want to leave with misunderstandings between them.

Gathering her courage, she looked into those eyes she loved so much and forced her tongue to form the words she needed to say and he needed to hear. ‘I love you and I want to be with you. I want to help you raise Mat. But I also want to work, to do something worthwhile and important. I wish you could trust me when I tell you that I wouldn’t hurt you or Mat, Bo.’

He looked as though an invisible pair of hands was around his neck and squeezing tight. ‘You’re asking me to take too big a chance, Olivia, a massive risk. And I can’t.’

She nodded, blinking back her tears. ‘I guess I knew that but I had to try.’ Knowing that there was nothing more to say, she stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek, inhaling his fresh, clean, citrusy aftershave for the last time. ‘Goodbye, Bo. Hug your boy every day for me.’

Ollie slipped into the back seat, shut the door, rested her head on the headrest and closed her eyes.

It was done. Her Copenhagen caper was over. Now she just had to find a way to live her life without Bo and Mat in it.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

OLLIE’SPARENTSHADa strict dress code for all their employees—suit and tie for the men, corporate boring for the women—and Ollie knew that arriving in tight, skinny jeans, an off-the-shoulder top and high-top trainers was not suitable corporate attire. She saw eyebrows rising as she walked down the long hallway of Cooper & Co, trying to ignore the pointed glances of her parents’ employees behind the glass-walled offices.

Taking a deep breath, she walked to the end of the hallway where her parents and two of her brothers had their offices, and looked to the left at the empty office she knew had been designated for her use. She shook her head. Nope, not happening. Her office was next to her oldest brother’s and, feeling her eyes on him, Michael lifted his head and grinned. Then his grin faded, and he grimaced as he looked to the conference room behind her.

A talk with their parents in the conference room was never a good thing. He mouthed, ‘Are you okay?’ and Ollie responded by rocking her hand up and down.

She would be; she just had to get through the next half hour. It wasn’t going to be fun in any way.

Through the glass walls of the swish conference room, Ollie watched her parents walk out of the massive office they shared. They’d managed to live and work together for so many years and it amazed her. Her father was tall and dignified. Her mum was shorter and rounder but, as always, was immaculately dressed. Energy crackled off her. Her mum could work, raise kids, be the chair of the PTA and bake bread. She was a master at multitasking and, because of her, Ollie knew that she could be a wife, a lover, a mother and a businesswoman.

But it didn’t matter what sheknewshe could do. Bo had needed to be convinced and that hadn’t happened. That wouldn’t happen.

She missed him. Since leaving Copenhagen three days ago, she hadn’t heard from him. Helen had sent her a couple of messages and photos of Mat, and he seemed fine, as happy and wonderful as always. Helen hadn’t mentioned Bo and Ollie hadn’t asked.

Her phone remained stupidly, stubbornly silent and Ollie cursed herself for thinking that he would message or call, or that he would follow her to London. She was spinning impossible dreams and she pushed those thoughts away. He’d made his position clear—he couldn’t, wouldn’t, commit to her. He wouldn’t commit to anyone, ever. She would never hear from him again and it was time to start accepting that reality.

But it hurt so much. She felt as if she were walking around with a heart punctured by porcupine quills. And that the quills were still lodged in her barely functioning organ.

The door to the conference room opened and her father stepped back to let her mum precede him. Her dad had beautiful manners and, despite being a force of nature herself and a feminist to the core, her mum loved her dad’s courtly gestures.

Ollie crossed the room to him, allowing his strong arms to come around her, resting her head on his strong chest. Her dad gave the best hugs and she wished that she didn’t have to disappoint him.

But she couldn’t live a lie. Nor could she spend the next five years hating every minute of her job and life.

Her mum looked at her watch and cleared her throat. ‘We have a busy day and need to get on,’ she told Ollie, and then raised her eyebrows at her super-casual outfit. ‘That’s not how I expect you to dress at work, Olivia.’

‘But I’m not one of your employees, Mum,’ Ollie said, pulling out a chair and sitting down. And she never would be. Her parents just didn’t know it yet.

After her parents were seated, her mum directly opposite her and her dad one chair to the right, Ollie gathered her courage. She just needed to spit it out and be done.

Expect fireworks, expect recriminations, and maybe some raised voices, but you can’t let that put you off.

She was convinced that they could find a solution that wouldn’t involve her sacrificing the next five years of her life.

‘I came here to talk to you about the fact that I am supposed to start work here in ten days,’ Ollie said.

Jasmine leaned forward and tapped her bright-pink nails on the glass table. ‘Olivia, please don’t tell me you are taking another nannying position. We made a deal that you would return to work.’

Ollie shook her head. ‘I can’t do it, Mum, please don’t ask me to.’ Ollie hauled in a deep breath before continuing. ‘I understand that you spent an enormous amount of money on my education, and I am prepared to pay you back. I can do a transfer this afternoon, and maybe we could work out a payment plan, with interest, for me to repay you the rest over a couple of years.’

Her mum looked as though she’d been hit with a thick branch of a tree. Her father, strangely, didn’t look that surprised. He simply leaned back, folded his arms across his chest and sent her an easy smile.

‘We never expected you to repay us the money, Olivia, and I’m sorry if you felt like there were conditions attached to us educating you. That was our choice and our pleasure. We know that you love what you do, but you can be more than a nanny. It’s a fine job, I’m not knocking it, but you have a first-class brain and we’d like to see you use it in a more—’ he hesitated ‘—business-like setting. But, if being a nanny is what you have your heart set on, then we will support you.’

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