Second Chance Mess (Bad News Billionaires #1) - Lucia Jordan Page 0,25

was nice to be able to walk around his house completely naked since there was literally no one else around in the mountains. It was even better watching him walk around naked.

“I want you to stay with me,” he said as he wrapped one arm around me while the other held his coffee cup. If we’re going to give this a second shot, I think you should stay with me.”

“What do you mean, here in the mountains?” I asked.

“Yes, on nights that we come here. And then in my downtown apartment on the nights that we stay in the city.”

“But what about Kate?” I asked. I knew she would be okay if I moved out, although we would miss each other and our girl’s nights. She’d probably have Nick move in. But still, I was paying rent for my room, and she needed the help.

“I’ll pay her rent for the remainder of the year,” Tim said.

“Really? You’d do that for her?”

“Kate is your friend, and I’d do that for you. I’d do anything for you, Brooke.”

We had coffee and got dressed for work together, and I agreed to move out of Kate’s apartment and to move in here with Tim. It was a pretty rushed decision, considering I’d just agreed to give him a second chance last night. But there was just this overwhelming sense to take a leap of faith this time and know that it would work. Maybe it was one of my stupidest decisions; I didn’t know, we’d see. But I did know that if I didn’t go for it now with Tim, that I would regret it for the rest of my life. I could deny it all that I liked him and fool as many people as would believe me, but the truth was that I had fallen so hard for Tim that it was too late for me to save myself from drowning in my feelings for him. I was putting my tiny, exposed heart in his hands.

When we got into the car to go to work, I felt good. I felt good about my job and about my relationship with Tim, and about my change in the living situation again. I felt like I could trust and believe in Tim, and that was all I had really wanted to begin with. I thought Tim felt that way, too, and that he was excited to walk into work today, hand-in-hand, and show Max that we were back together.

“There’s a photo shoot at the office today, Tim said on our drive into work. “The Spokane client wants us to make some sort of promotional material for them to use both on their website and in hard copy. There’s an agency that I usually work with for the photo shoots, and they should be bringing all the gear and the models.

“That sounds pretty fun and interesting,” I said. “What do you want me to be working on during the photo shoot?”

“Maybe backing up some of my computer files and exporting them to an external hard drive.

“Sure.” I wanted to see the photo shoot, too, so maybe I would sneak down and take a quick peek after it had started.

As soon as we walked into the office holding hands, Max looked up and smiled at us both.

“See, this is why I knew you guys would work out. You had to. You’re too perfect for each other, not to be together.

Tim beamed at Max, and even his new office assistant, who he had forgotten to reassign, picked up on the fact that he looked exceptionally happy today.

Tim, Max, and I began working on the project together until it was time for Tim to go to this photo shoot. Max had a bit of a strange look on his face as Tim left, almost as if he knew Tim was headed into a storm.

13

Chapter Nine (Tim)

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said under my breath as I walked into the building’s lobby where we would be doing the photoshoot.

Chelsea stood there in her tight, plunging black dress that looked like it had been painted onto her body. I wondered how she even got that thing on without tearing it. She wasn’t overweight by any means, but she was curvy and voluptuous, and her breasts made it look like the dress was bursting at the seams.

“Tim!” she smiled as she sauntered toward me in her towering heels. Balancing all of those curves with that catwalk swagger on those heels