Page 55 of Runaway Bride for the Boss

“It’s Ms. Montgomery…”

I straighten in my seat. “Autumn? Send her in.” Noah gives me a knowing look like he wasn’t expecting a different response from me, but I don’t pay him any mind.

He moves away from my door; a couple of seconds later, Autumn walks in. I lean back, taking her in. She's wearing a flowery patterned dress with a flirty skirt just shy of her knees. Her curls are pulled back into a tight bun. I frown as she’s always had her hair down.

I’m a bit taken aback when I realize that she’s glowering at me. “What is it, Autumn?”

“You made the call for them to fix my car and have it delivered yesterday? And then youpaidfor it?” she growls as she slams the door behind her. “What made you think you had the right to do that for me? I was going to pay for it myself. Eventually.”

Great. Her accepting my previous gift lulled me into falsely thinking she wouldn’t be terribly angry at me for fixing her car. “I would have just bought you a new car if I knew you’d be angry, anyway,” I mutter. I don’t intend for her to hear me but she does, and it seems to stoke the flames of her anger. Damn it, it turns me the fuck on.

“What did you just say to me?” she asks in a deadly whisper, and darned if I don’t feel proud that she has that in her. If I was a lesser man, I might quake in my shoes. But I’m not.

“You need a car to get around town, I fixed your car not because you’re not capable of doing it yourself but because I needed it done as soon as possible for my own sake, not yours. I worry, you know. I’m sorry it made you mad.”

Her eyes soften behind her glasses, but her stance remains rigid. Is she surprised that I’m apologizing so easily? Or that I said I worry about her?

“You should have told me about it and not just gone behind my back to make the call. That can never happen again, Alex. It just can’t.”

“It won’t,” I say smoothly, meaning it now that I know she doesn’t like surprises. In the future I’ll tell her my plans to buy her gifts, then go ahead with my decision whether she agrees or not. I can’t help it if I’m aching to shower her with every luxury the world has to offer.

“Good.” She hesitates, then whispers, “Hi,” as she pushes her glasses up her nose nervously.

I narrow my eyes when she finally walks forward to take the seat across from me. She’s no longer angry then? Good. She bites her bottom lip, then opens the ridiculously big bag hanging from her shoulder to take out a couple of documents. I realized she’s here for more than one reason.

“I thought about what you said yesterday, and I even had a conversation with Andrea about it. I’m going to accept your offer, that is, if it’s still on the table,” she adds quickly.

“Of course it’s still on the table.” I try not to smile, so she won’t think I’m gloating.

“Great.” She gives me a tentative smile and says, “I’m going to accept your offer to invest in my company. Here.” She pushes the documents at me.

“What are these?” I ask, barely glancing at the printed words.

“I thought it would be more appropriate to come up with my own proposal, so I drew up a draft of the agreement contract. Go on, read it.”

I push the drafted contract to the side to take a look at the proposal first. It’s almost identical to what I had come up with.If not for the fact that she hadn’t read past the title page, I would think it was plagiarized.

I finally let a smile spread across my face as pride swells in my heart. She did this on her own. I wasn’t completely blowing smoke up her ass yesterday when I said the contract is separate from my feelings for her, I had no doubt that she could bring in a solid ROI; but I have to admit that she wouldn’t get the offer this soon if not because of our relationship – and I’m proud of her for taking the initiative.

“Great minds do think alike after all,” I murmur softly. “This looks great, Autumn. Especially the part where you will give Beaufort Construction the right to first hire every season.” It’s not the same as being the sole business she works with, but it does give us an edge.

“It’s only fair that I do that since Beaufort Construction is giving me the chance to take off. So what do you think? Would you like to change anything? Do you have any questions for me?” She looks a bit anxious.

“No. Everything looks good, for now,” I assure her, and she relaxes into her seat. I hesitate, then draw the contract toward me. Immediately, I detect my brother’s conniving signature all over it.

I grin, though, glad that Ezra is trying to protect her. He knows that I can be vulturous and even self-centered when it comes to investing in startups. He’s worded the contract in such a way that there are no loopholes for me to try to take over the company at a later date or even get majority shares without breaching the contract. Sneaky bastard.

“Nicely played,” I praise her and she demurs. “Now that that’s over, there’s something I’d like to show you.” I get up from my chair and command, “Follow me please.”

We walk to the elevators and ride down in silence. “You brought your car?” I ask her when we’re out front of the building,and she nods. “I’ll have someone drive it back to Andrea’s for you,” I tell her, leading her to my Bentley.

“You drove today?” she asks in surprise.

“Yes, I needed to clear my head.” It is mainly thanks to her. She lowers herself into the car. I wait for her to strap her seatbelt before closing the passenger door.

“Where are we going?”

“It’s a surprise. It’s not far so you’ll find out soon enough,” I add when she narrows her eyes on me. I drive her to the empty plot of land on Lawrence Street, not far from the construction site, where I saw her in the rain a week ago.

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