Page 7 of Boss of Her

“I…” Jade glanced to the side, breaking away from the woman’s gaze. But as she did, she caught a glimpse of Renee walking toward her, a drink in each hand. When she noticed the woman standing with Jade, she stopped short, her eyes wide as she mouthed silently to Jade from a distance.

Go for it.

But all Renee did was bring Jade back to her senses. She shook her head.What am I doing? What am I thinking?

“Thanks for the offer,” she said quickly. “But my friend is back. Maybe another time.”

For a moment, Jade expected the woman would keep pushing her, just like Tina had.

But she only glanced in Renee’s direction, then gave Jade a small nod. “I’ll leave you to it. It was a pleasure meeting you, Jade.”

Giving her one last piercing look, the woman turned and walked away. As she passed by Renee, she stopped and spoke a few words to her before disappearing into the crowd again.

And just like that, she was gone.

A few seconds later, Renee reached her. “Who wasthat?”

“She was no one.” But Jade could still feel that woman’s eyes on her, could feel the way her voice made her quiver and her gaze made her whole body burn.

“She was totally flirting with you. What happened?”

Jade shrugged. “I just wasn’t interested.”

“Is there something wrong with your eyes? She’s hot as hell. And she looks like she knows how to bring a girl to her knees. That’s not my thing, but I can appreciate it when I see it.”

“Like I said, I’m just not interested.” Jade paused. “What did she say to you just now, anyway?”

“Something about how I should do a better job of looking out for my friends, whatever that means.”

“Oh god.” Jade rubbed her temples. “I can’t believe she said that to you.”

“Did something happen?”

“It’s a long story. But everything’s fine now.” Jade took the glass of water from Renee’s hand and gulped the entire thing down. “Thanks for this, by the way.”

“Whoa, are you sure you’re okay?”

Jade nodded. “I’m great.”

But her heart was still racing, along with her mind. This mysterious stranger had come along, effortlessly dispatched theother woman, and offered Jade a chance to explore the kind of wild fantasies she’d never even dreamed of until tonight.

And Jade had turned her down. Because trusting her, putting herself in the hands of another even for a moment, was too risky. She’d been naïve and trusting once upon a time, and she’d paid the price. That innocent girl was long gone. In her place was someone who knew better.

And Jade would never make the same mistake again.

CHAPTER 3

Simone folded her hands on the conference room table and locked eyes with the man across from her, speaking calmly.

“Is this some kind of joke, Gene?”

He exchanged a glance with the men sitting on either side of him, then crossed his arms, flashing the platinum Rolex on his wrist. “Is there a problem?”

Simone held back a sigh. She didn’t have the patience for games. And she didn’t have the patience for men like Gene Kingsley. The property magnate made a business of buying up land all over Los Angeles and sitting on it for years, decades even, leaving whatever was on it to rot, until he could sell it off for millions. He was exactly the kind of person she despised doing business with.

But he had something Simone wanted—a plot of land in Silver Lake, currently occupied by an abandoned motel. It was the perfect location for a luxury hotel. It was also the only part of Los Angeles that Simone didn’t already have a hotel in, and Gene knew it.

He thought he had the upper hand. It was the only explanation for the dirty trick he was trying to pull.

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