Page 103 of Assistant to the Billionaire CEO

“Well…” She giggled.

The clock on her bedside table caught my eye.

Shit.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

I’d been here for two and a half hours, I realized. God damnit. I’d promised Tilly I’d watch Teddy while she was at her checkup.

I pulled out from under Stella’s arm and sat upright. “Sorry, but I have to leave.”

“But…but…you just said…I thought it was amazing.”

“Itwasamazing. You’re amazing. I promise if I hadn’t made prior plans, I would stay.”

Stella sat upright too, and glared at me. I could see an amalgamation of anger and disappointment swirling around in her eyes.

“Really?” she asked. “Because that sounds like a flimsy excuse for running.”

“It’s not, I promise.” I stood up and started gathering our clothes from the floor. Damn, why did I forget my cell? My sister had gotten a new number after moving back from California, and I didn’t have it memorized. I got dressed and walked over to kiss Stella. She was still sitting on the bed, but turned her head away from me when I leaned toward her. “Stella, I promise. I’m not looking for an excuse to leave, I just promised my si—”

“It’s okay.” She interrupted me. I could see from the expression on her face that it wasn’t, but I didn’t know how to make her believe me. She didn’t want to hear my explanation.

“If you don’t want to hear my reason, you just have to learn to trust me. Like I’ve had to learn to trust you.”

“Right. I’ll let you out.” She slipped off the bed, pulled a robe on, and led me out of her bedroom.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said. She tried to smile, but I could tell it wasn’t heartfelt.

She closed the door, and I found myself standing in the hallway in front of her apartment alone.

43

STELLA

Aminute or two passed before I finally heard Ace walk down the hallway, heading away from my front door. Once I was sure he was gone, I leaned my back against it, sank to the floor, and dissolved into tears.

I had been right all along.

I was nothing but his dirty little secret. Bonnie had been right. Damon had warned me too. As had Jay. Why had I ever thought a man like Ace would commit to a girl like me?

I tried not to let my imagination run wild, but it wasn’t long before I found myself wondering where Ace was now.Probably in the company of whoever he really wanted to keep our relationship from, I sulked. Maybe it was another woman. A beautiful, gorgeous, fit, and trim bombshell of a woman with blonde hair and soft blue eyes.

I shook myself out of my grim doubts and those awful little voices trying to bring me down. No, Ace wasn’t a cheater. I knew that for a fact. More than likely, he was with the guys.

He just wasn’t ready for a relationship with me. That thought stung. A lot. What it boiled down to was: He didn’t have enough feelings for me.

Could I settle for what Ace was willing to give me? Over time, would he learn to really love me with all his heart if I just learned to wait? Patience had never been my forte, but I could learn if I had to. It was the idea of getting half of Ace’s attention, half of his love, which tipped me over the edge. It would be synonymous with a slow, painful death. I saw myself hungering for his touch, and him shutting my apartment door behind him over and over again because something or someone else was more important than me.

Sobbing like my life was ending, I lifted my hands to my face and emptied my tears into them. I cried until I thought I’d tapped every ounce of moisture from my body. When I finally had no more tears left, I quietly got up and shuffled over to the corner of my living room where I’d set up my dedicated home office. My laptop’s fan whirred as it came to life. I sat down behind it and wiggled the mouse until my bright screensaver lit up the room.

The Internet connection wasn’t great today, and it took Instagram forever to load. Once it did, I typed Ace’s name into the search bar and navigated to his profile. There hadn’t been any recent activity on it. I knew he didn’t think much of social media, or those who overindulged in it. Nevertheless, I started scrolling through his gallery. I stopped when I got to a photo of Oliver, Miles, Damon, and Ace standing huddled together around a campfire. They couldn’t have been more than eighteen or nineteen years old. Ace sported a patchy beard, a testament to how long they’d been camping, but none of his friends had managed to achieve the same level of facial hair (except for Damon, but he didn’t count).

Originally, my plan had simply been to longingly stare at a few pictures of the man who’d stolen my heart (because: masochist), but I soon found myself staring at a montage of photos that could only be described as a homage to Ace and Damon’s friendship. They’d always been inseparable, despite Ace’s “stopover” in San Francisco. Then there were more “homage” pics of Ace, Damon, Oliver, and Miles. All on their motorcycles, the four of them. They were practically brothers. They all were.

A realization hit me like a ton of bricks. The feelings I had for Ace—which, let’s be honest here, he didn’t really want—were doomed to breakmyheart (stupid fool that my heart was, I was practically shopping for wedding rings, while he was only in it for a friend-with-benefits situation). Not only would our relationship poison Ace and Damon’s friendship, it would damage the bond between all of them.

If that weren’t enough, all that combined would ruin the merger.

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