Page 41 of Faking it with My Billionaire Bosses

I swallowed down the urge to ask my fifteen-year-old sister for the gossip. “It doesn’t matter. It’s embarrassing for me to fight with her. I know better.”

“Whatever, Sonnie. You did good. You stood up for yourself.” Holding up the cupcake towards me, Rosie smirked. “Your chocolate cupcake is better.”

She left me standing with my mouth open. Rosie never complimented my baking. She’d eat it when it was there, but she just wasn’t a compliment kind of girl. Hearing her say she thought my cupcake was better than the guys’ made me want to cry. Instead, I grabbed one of the cupcakes sitting under a glass dome and took a big bite. I closed my eyes and let the chocolate hit but she was right. My cupcake was better.

Forgetting about Samantha and how she’d touched Drake, I lost myself in buzzing around the kitchen to find all the ingredients I needed. Price had said to treat his home like my own and I hoped he’d been serious. I got to work throwing my chocolate cupcake batter together and started the frosting while the cupcakes baked. I lost track of time and the tension all faded away as I focused on my cupcakes. In those few moments,nothing else mattered. The science of the perfect cupcake was all that mattered.

When I finished, I looked out the window to see if the guys were still outside, but they weren’t. I took three plates with two cupcakes each and went in search of them. They were sitting in Price’s office, each of them looking unhappy when I found them. Their faces shifted to smiles when they saw me, but I could see they were upset about something.

“Is everything okay?” I took in the vibe and wished I’d kept baking.

Drake sighed. “I’m sorry about Samantha, Sonnie. I feel like—”

Shaking my head, I passed out the plates. “I don’t want to talk about her right now. First, try these.”

“We’re not talking about her. We’re talking about us. You were upset earlier and I need to apologize.” Drake reached for me but I held up my hand. “See? You don’t even want me touching you right now, Sonnie.”

“I was upset. She touched you and you didn’t stop her. It’s a stupid reason to be upset, though, when I have no real claim over you. She was married to you. If she wants to touch you and you want to let her, it’s not really my business, is it?” I took a deep breath and winced because I’d just revealed too much of my negative emotion on the subject while trying to pretend like I was fine. “Anyway. Try the cupcakes. One of them is yours. The other one is better. You should update your recipe.”

I was a coward but I practically spun out trying to get out of there so fast. I’d already picked up the kitchen so I slipped out of the back door again and walked past the pool and down to the lake. I wasn’t used to having large emotions for men or romantic feelings. I wasn’t sure I liked it. The sex part was great, but the rest made me feel confused and kind of shitty. I didn’t understand what was happening. I felt like I had no control inthe situation and I was walking into a lot of pain. And if the personal feelings weren’t hard enough to decipher, the public as a whole thinking I was a skank didn’t exactly help. I didn’t need to look online to know there were more articles, more stories about me being awful. I was starting to feel like I wouldn’t recover from the guys, in any way.

I sank onto the grass next to the lake and tugged at the strands. I was in way over my head.

CHAPTER 31

Price

“Why do I have to stay here and talk shit out? It’s not my ex who keeps showing up and hurting Sonnie. I should be free to go and comfort her.” Cole rubbed his face, feeling as stressed as we each were. He unwrapped one of the cupcakes Sonnie had dropped off and shoved half of it into his mouth. “This cupcake is fine. What’s she talking about?”

I kept my scowl on Drake. “I told you not to marry her.”

He threw his hands up. “Are you serious? That was forever ago! You also told me not to change the cream cheese frosting. Now look at it. Not all of my ideas are as shitty as marrying Samantha.”

Cole moaned suddenly and held up the other cupcake. “Oh, shit. I tried the other one. We’re going to be out of business if she ever starts selling these on a larger scale. Holy fuck. What does she do?”

I took a break from wanting to punch Drake to take a bite of the cupcake I hadn’t made. My mouth watered and I instantly slumped in my chair, wondering if I’d messed up the recipe for our chocolate cupcakes. “What the fuck?”

Drake growled and followed us in tasting the two cupcakes. His eyes widened and he finished the one she’d baked in two bites before tossing the one I’d baked in the trash. “I told you. She’s got talent.”

“Talent? That makes it sound like she’s a beginner on a TV show. This is amazing. It’s literally better than ours.” Cole finished the last of his and licked his fingers. “If one of us ends up being the cause of Sonnie leaving us, I say we get rid of Drake. We’ll keep Sonnie instead.”

I looked at the man in question. “Well?”

Drake crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. “Fuck you both. I’ll make it right. She’s upset and she has every right tobe. I wasn’t even thinking this morning when Samantha touched me. I was too pissed about what she’d been saying. I understand Sonnie being angry and I’ll explain everything to her. She got excited about that asshole Kyle Ross and his charity last night and I nearly fucked her in front of him. That’s how much I didn’t like him looking at her. If she feels even a small percentage of what I felt last night, I’m surprised she didn’t smack me in the face with the cupcakes.”

“You should’ve gone after her earlier.” Cole was in a mood about everything and I didn’t see anything making it better until he got Sonnie back in his arms.

“I would’ve loved to. I didn’t think Samantha chasing me into the house was a good idea, though. Not when she was ranting and raving about the press we’re getting.” Drake growled and stood up. “The last thing Sonnie needs to hear is the public is crushing on us again while throwing her under the bus. I’m so over this bullshit. We’ve never lived our lives for others and here we are, jumping through hoops to make sure a bunch of faceless people on the internet like us.”

“It seems they like us just fine.” I tapped my fingers on my desk and tried to reconcile my desires and my conscience. I didn’t want to give Sonnie up but I didn’t know what the full cost of keeping her would be for her. It wasn’t fair. What we were doing, taking a chance with her life, made us assholes. I just couldn’t give her up.

“I’m going to go make this right.” Drake walked to the office door and looked back at us. “The part that I can, anyway.”

After Drake left, Cole sighed and rubbed his beard. “I’m taking Sonnie out tonight. If she still wants to go. How can I be over the moon fucking excited and full of dread at the same time? This is going to end poorly, Price. We’re going to hurt her.”

I ground my teeth together and sat up. “No. We’ll make it work. We’ll figure it out so she doesn’t get hurt. Maybe she’ll stay with us.”

He smiled. “Maybe it’s weird, but I fucking hope so. For the first time ever, I don’t feel inadequate in a relationship. Not that I’ve had much experience in relationships. It was always shitty, though, feeling like I couldn’t be everything that person needed me to be. Seeing the looks of disappointment when I somehow wasn’t enough, again… It feels different with Sonnie. She seems happy with me as I am, but also, if I’m busy at work, you two assholes can make sure she’s taken care of until I come home. I like knowing she’s always being taken care of.”

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