Page 98 of Assistant to the Billionaire CEO

“Ace?” My sister snapped her fingers at me, and the sound pulled me right back from my thoughts. The onions were still sizzling, the mobile was still playing its song, and I was more certain than ever before that I was willing to cross oceans for Stella Copeland.

“Sorry,” I said. “Lost my train of thought there. I got things I need to get to.”

“Oh,really?”

I wasn’t ready to tell her about my relationship with Stella just yet. Not before I had figured all this shit out. Tilly had enough on her plate now that little Teddy was here.

“What things?” she pressed. “Work?”

“I’ll tell you later. But I won’t be gone long.”

“You better,” she said excitedly as I hurried to the front door. “Don’t forget. You know I have my doc appointment later this evening, and you need to watch Teddy.” She’d made the evening appointment so as to not interfere with my work schedule.

“I’ll be here. Be safe while I’m away.”

“I promise I won’t open the door for strangers. Unless they’re hot. Or tattooed. Or drive a motorcycle. You can bet your ass I’m opening the door to them.” She laughed and rolled her eyes.

The elevator doors slid open and I stepped inside. It jolted and then started descending. There was something unnerving about making the journey to Stella’s apartment, especially not knowing what her reaction would be when she heard that her brother had shown up at my front door to question me about us. Sure, I could have called, but I wanted—needed—to see her face to face.

The elevator doorswhooshedopen, and I headed straight to my black motorcycle. In no time, I put on my helmet and kicked down.

An eternity passed between hauling ass through the streets and parking in front of Stella’s apartment building. I rushed to her front door and knocked on it like someone trying to outrun a zombie attack, or something equally dramatic.

She opened it with the same sense of urgency, wearing a beautiful crimson dress. Her hair was all over the place. Her face lit up as she realized it was me. Then her eyes grew wide, and she attempted to straighten some of her messy hair strands, only to realize she was wearing glasses. She quickly removed them, hiding them behind her back.

“Ace!” Her eyes were red and puffy. I could tell she had been crying. This had to be Damon’s doing, I had no doubt.

“Hey, hey. You all right?”

“Yeah…fine. Bad hair day. Don’t look,” she sniffed. “What are you doing here?”

“I missed you.” I smiled, hoping to hide my internal turmoil and to cheer her up at the same time.

“That’s so sweet. Well, come in. It’s not like I can turn you away now.”

I stepped past her. “Would you want to?”

“No,” she replied, closing the door behind me and putting the glasses she had just hidden from me on the side table. I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her against me. She stared up at me.

“Good.” I softly kissed her lips. “I have something to tell you though.”

“Uh-oh, that doesn’t sound good.” She grimaced and led me over to her couch. We sat down next to each other, and she stared into my eyes, rubbing at her forearm and biting her lower lip.

“Go ahead, tell me,” she whispered.

“Okay, but you have to promise me that you won’t freak out.”

“I can’t promise that, and now you’re just making me nervous.”

“All right,” I said. “Your brother was just at my apartment. He showed up to ask me if we’re seeing each other.”

“Oh.” She gulped. The color drained from her face. “What did you tell him?”

“Basically nothing,” I said. “You and I said we were going to keep this thing quiet for a while.”

“We did,” she whispered, bobbing her head up and down. “But we can’t keep it a secret forever.”

“I know. It’s not my plan to keep it a secret forever.” I picked up her hand from her lap and kissed it. “But I do need to ask you to keep it a secret just a little while longer.”

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