Page 18 of Boss of Her

“Look at me.”

Jade obeyed.

“Listen. The file isn’t gone. The servers back up everything regularly. IT can restore it, understand?”

Jaded nodded.

“Now, I know a missing file isn’t enough to throw you like this,” Simone said. “So I need you to tell me what’s really going on. If you can’t handle the work I’m giving you—”

“It’s not that,” Jade said. “This isn’t about work. I can do my job, I swear.”

“Then tell me what’s wrong.”

“I’ve just got a lot going on right now. And I just got a phone call that—” Jade’s voice cracked, her body trembling again.

Simone put her hands on Jade’s shoulders, looking deep into her eyes. “Take a deep breath for me. Then another. Keep breathing, just like that.” She waited for Jade to calm down. “Now, you said you got a phone call?”

Jade nodded. “I got a call, and…” She swallowed. “It was my landlord. A pipe burst in my apartment. Everything is flooded. I can’t go back there tonight. Or maybe ever. I have nowhere togo. And my things… What if they’re ruined?” She drew in a deep breath, steadying herself. “I’m sorry. This isn’t your problem.”

“Of course it’s my problem. You’re my assistant. You’re no use to me like this. I’m not going to leave you with nowhere to go.”

“I’ll figure out something. I can find a room somewhere. Or stay on a friend’s couch.”

“I won’t have you sleeping on a couch or running around trying to find a hotel room at this time of night. No, you’re coming with me. And the first thing we’re going to do is get you something to eat because you haven’t had anything since lunch, have you?”

“I guess I forgot,” Jade said. “I’ve been so busy.”

“I’ll order dinner for us now. That way, it will have arrived by the time we get home.”

Jade blinked. “Home?”

“Yes, you’ll stay with me tonight.”

“You want me to come home with you?”

As soon as the words left Jade’s mouth, her cheeks turned pink.

“You’ll sleep in the guest room, of course,” Simone said.

“Of course. But I…” Jade shook her head. “I appreciate the offer, really, but I can’t accept all this. I’ll f—”

“Figure something out? Jade, it’s late. You’re stressed. You’re exhausted.Let me help you.” Simone ran her hand down Jade’s arm. “Let me take care of this for you.”

Jade looked up at her. And for a moment, her eyes shimmered, not with tears, but with longing, desire. And they stirred the same in Simone, the lust she’d buried deep the first day Jade had walked into her office. Could Jade see it in her, feel it?

Could she hear all that went unspoken in Simone’s words?

“I’ll…” Jade’s voice was barely a whisper. “I’ll come with you.”

CHAPTER 8

Jade was woken up the next morning by the kiss of the morning sun on her face.

Sunlight?Hardly any sun reached her studio, morning or otherwise. She groaned and opened her eyes, squinting at her surroundings. Sunlight. Bright white curtains. A soft bed she could stretch her arms across and not touch the ends of.

Jade wasn’t in her studio. She wasn’t in her bed. She was in Simone’s Beverly Hills mansion.

She buried her head in the pillow. How had she ended up here, in the guest room of the woman she’d spent almost two weeks trying desperately to ignore her attraction to? The previous night was a complete blur. She’d gotten the phone call from her landlord. She’d lost the file. She’d almost burst into tears in front of her boss.

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