Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 97865 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 489(@200wpm)___ 391(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97865 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 489(@200wpm)___ 391(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
“No wife.” He leans in, his breath fanning my cheek, then pulls back, making his way to his desk.
“I didn’t mean to pry. I just wanted to make sure someone—”
“Miss Evans, that someone is you. Read the job title.”
My brows rise into my hairline. “To be your wife?” Now he’s confusing me.
His hands wipe down his face. “No. To run my errands. And while you’re dropping off my dry cleaning, pick up my other suits.” He picks up his phone and dials a number.
“Well, if it makes you feel any better, I got my shirt dirty too—”
“It doesn’t. If you’re done ruining my day, I’d like my coffee and morning agenda—Phil, good morning, Theo Monroe. . .”
I turn on my heel, dismissed. “Geez, it was an accident,” I grumble under my breath.
“I don’t have time for accidents,” he snaps back.
Crap, how did he hear me? “Right. No time. Busy, busy.” I twist back around and head out, silently mumbling more choice words.
Chapter five
Theo
“What the hell did you do?”
“I did what you couldn’t.” He doesn’t even acknowledge me.
“She had nothing to do with this. She didn’t deserve this.”
“Then you should have done what I told you to do in the beginning. She deserved to know the truth.”
“The truth?” I scoff. “That I’m living a fucking lie?”
Father stands and rounds his desk. “Hardly. Alana is very much enthralled by you.”
“Good for her. I don’t give a fuck about Alana.”
“You should. Accepting this will make it easier. Alana is very happy for what’s to come.”
“Because she’s part of this sham. Buy his company or merge with it; I don’t give a fuck. Keep me out of it.”
I walk out of his study, but his words stop me. “This will happen over and over. Keep testing me, son.”
“This is fucked up. You know that.”
“Business is business. One day, you’ll learn the importance of it.”
“I doubt that,” I spit out and walk away.
I stare after her until my office door closes.
“Um, Mr. Monroe, did you mean to call—”
“Wrong extension.” I hang up on Amy.
I drop into my chair, scrubbing my hands down my face. Why the hell am I torturing myself like this? My skin still tingles where her palms touched my chest, and her lavender and vanilla scent lingers in my nose. Christ, I even snuck a peek down her indecent silky blouse that would definitely look better on my bedroom floor. “Fuck.” If I were smart, I’d stop this sudden fixation, have her fired and escorted out of the building. But I won’t be doing any such thing. She’s quickly become my little obsession—a toy I desperately want to play with.
I know better, though.
And now, with the merger about to be finalized, she’s the last thing I need.
My door opens, and I sit forward.
“Agenda and a hot cup of coffee as a peace offering?” She walks in and sets the mug on my worktable. I have no idea how she still has a smile on her face after the way I just treated her.
“I have to say, looking over your agenda, I groaned for you. I don’t know how you do it—meeting after meeting. Conference calls, lunch meetings, dinner meetings. But I guess that’s why the CEO title is on your door.”
She sets my agenda on the table, sits, and opens her laptop. I still haven’t moved from my chair. I can’t stop staring at her. The way her hair brushes her bare shoulders. The dip at the base of her throat. In another life, I wouldn’t waste a second making her mine.
“Um, is now a bad time? I can come back.”
I shake my head and stand. “No.” I grab my coffee and stop next to the table. “What does my day look like?” As if I don’t already know.
“A ten o’clock with Stephen Bellinger. Lunch at noon with The Hellmann’s Group. Wise and Wise at two. Four o’clock with Steel Brewing in the conference room.”
“The reports I asked you to review yesterday?”
“Done and couriered over.”
“The financial reports?”
She scoots her laptop closer and opens a file. “They should be good to go.”
I step up behind her and lean in, getting a better look at a report I can damn well see perfectly from where I was standing. “Something’s not right.”
“It’s not? I followed all the—”
“I said it’s not right.” I lean in farther, setting my coffee down next to her laptop and caging her in to make quick adjustments. The heat from her back radiates up my chest, and the lavender and vanilla from her hair make me dizzy. I clench my jaw and keep my hands steady, fighting the urge to wrap it in my fist and pull her head back to feast on her glossy lips. “There. . .” I say, my voice tight but steady. I dip my head lower, my breath washing over her skin. Goosebumps rise on her chest and shoulders. “You missed a decimal.”