Page 69 of Assistant to the Billionaire CEO

“Well, I’m not doing it on purpose,” I said, crossing my legs. I crossed my arms too, and frowned at him. “I thought you were enjoying my presence…”

“I was,” he said bluntly. “Iam. And that’s the problem. I shouldn’t be.”

“I know it’s wrong.” I shrugged. “But it doesn’t feel wrong. It feels so right.”

“It’s unprofessional of me to even have put you in this position.” He buckled his belt, then locked eyes with me, his features deadly serious. “Listen, I apologize, Stella. As your boss, I shouldn’t be making advances on you. It’s unethical, on top of everything else.”

“It’s okay. Really,” I assured him. I got off the table and straightened my skirt and blouse. “We can pretend this never happened.”

He straightened his shirt and tie, then made his way toward the opposite end of the table and collected the broken saucer shards on the floor from the crockery he’d so urgently shoved aside. For a second, I was taken aback. Why would he worry about the saucers? Cleaning staff would be in during the late night. It was odd to see the CEO of a soon-to-be billion-dollar company cleaning up. I rushed to him, helping to collect the last dirty cups on the boardroom table.

He stood and looked at me. “If you were anyone else but Damon’s sister, things could have been different. Hypothetically. But we can’t let this happen. We can’t get involved. I know how betrayed he’d feel if he knew what just happened between us.”

I gulped, feeling terrible. “Agreed,” I said, cups in my hands. “We won’t let this happen again. No problem. No hard feelings. We’ll keep things professional and write this one off as a weak moment. One of many, but it was the last one.”

We locked eyes. “Thank you for not making this harder than it needs to be, Stella,” he said calmly, taking the dirty cups from me. “You can come in later tomorrow to make up for having to stay later today.”

“Thank you,” I replied. “I’ll take you up on that offer.”

“Good night.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” I wanted to hug him, but instead, I gave him an awkward wave and turned to rush out of the room.

“Oh, before you leave.”

I turned back around to face him. “Yes?”

“I’ve been meaning to tell you, Winifred called me this afternoon and said that she got a call from MKY Shipping. The lost shipment was found. The twenty boxes are being sent overnight to us. I understand you had your helping hands in all that? This means we can finish the papers by the end of next week and send them off to Humphries. Good job, Stella. Very good job.”

I smiled at his honest praise. I could tell that a huge stone had been lifted from his shoulders. “Oh, that’s wonderful news. Glad to be of help, anytime.”

“I appreciate it. It was smart to bring you on.”

Feeling a rush of weird mixed emotions—happy about his words, bad for not really deserving praise due to the stupid circumstances, I quickly turned to leave. It was a good sign that he was glad we’d found the boxes. He would have reacted differently if he was hiding something like Bonnie had suggested. “Good night.” I waved, no less awkwardly than before.

“Hold on. Winifred also informed me that she got some files for you from our offices in San Francisco.”

Shoot.I felt my body tense back up.

27

ACE

Stella drew to a halt, stiffening. “Oh?” Her eyes were huge.

“She asked me to tell you there weren’t any files on the three companies you’d specifically asked about, but she’d gotten you the last years’ annual reports. What’s that about? What companies did you ask about?”

“Ehhh…well…” She stalled.

I narrowed my eyes on her. “Yeah?”

“Oh. Let me think…” She stared back at me, fidgeting. “It was all related to…the upcoming merger.”

I had asked for a basic list of Windsor Architects’ most profitable clients’ projects from the beginning of time to be prepared and listed in order, with samples, photos, and numbers. “You’re talking about the basic list?”

“Uh…yes. Exactly,” she said curtly and turned to leave.

“Thank you for your help with that.” Hiring her had been a good decision. She was on top of things. I owed Damon.

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