The Big Boss - Penny Wylder Page 0,8

slap his stupidly handsome face. In fact, maybe I’ll do just that after I give him a piece of my mind.

But on the other hand, he did take my advice. So he was listening to me. It was a small thing, but it was something.

“The cactus is my fault,” I say. “Not yours. I suggested that he get something sharp so that he could deflate his ego.”

Behind me, Jess bursts out laughing. “Oh my god, that’s fucking hilarious. I would have paid money to see the look on his face.”

Lila looks amused too. “I guess that’s better than him just being tired of my arrangements,” she says. “I’ll get the cactus ready.”

“Yeah,” I say. “Give it to me. I’ll take it to him as his lordship demands and tell him that he can’t just assume everyone who walks into his office is a servant. I can’t believe he just assumed who I was and where I worked.”

Lila’s face falls, and my stomach clenches. Fuck.

“Because working for me would be so terrible?”

“Jesus, Lila, that’s not what I meant at all. You know I love being here and helping you, this is about a man who has too much money for his own damn good assuming that everyone else is beneath him. It has nothing to do with you.”

She sighs. “You’re right, I’m sorry. It’s just…”

“I get it,” I say. “He’s an important client. I won’t fuck up your relationship.”

“Thanks.” Lila smiles and gives me a hug before heading to grab the cactus.

And I will do that. I’m not going to fuck over my friend’s livelihood because some corporate billionaire is an asshole. But I’m going to make it clear what he can and cannot do while making assumptions about people he doesn’t know. That much is for damn sure.

5

Keenan

I can’t focus on anything. This morning has been a complete loss waiting for the damn flower delivery. Or cactus delivery as today’s case may be. I made it clear to Lila that I wanted the new girl to make the deliveries from now on, but it’s possible that she might not be available.

My entire body seems to be buzzing with energy. I can barely explain it, but every nerve is electrified waiting to see her, this nameless woman that’s taken hold of my imagination. I dreamed about her last night. Wanton, sexy dreams that had me out of bed and into the shower an hour earlier than normal just so I could jerk off.

More than once.

This limbo is maddening. This is why I try not to take chances with anything. Not in business, not in life. Chances mean there are possibilities for failure, and I don’t like that. This whole morning has been maddening with the idea that she might not show up. And equally maddening with the idea that she will.

What will I say to her? “I’m drawn to you so impossibly and completely that I changed my entire routine to see you again?” That would sound at best desperate, and at worst entirely creepy.

It’s a good thing that I didn’t ask for her name because I would have tried to look her up last night, and that would be even more creepy. I just want to see her again to see if the chemistry that I felt is real, and if it’s something that we should pursue. My gut tells me that it is. I’ve never felt anything like that before. Like lightning arcing between us.

I want to know everything about her.

There’s a knock at the door, and she doesn’t wait for me to respond before she enters, cactus in hand. And immediately she’s talking even though she’s pointedly not looking at me.

“Listen, you’re an important client to Lila, and that’s the only reason that I’m not screaming at you right now. But you have a lot of nerve ordering me here like I’m some kind of servant. I actually don’t work for Lila. I’m her best friend and delivered your damn flowers yesterday because she was sick. I have my own job to worry about, let alone being bossed around by someone who thinks that he’s better than everybody else.”

She puts the cactus down on the desk a little too hard, and I don’t even care. I’m drinking her in. Her hair cascades around her shoulder in dark waves, and her simple casual clothes highlight her form in a way that I hadn’t appreciated before. She’s definitely not the kind of woman I’ve tangled with in the past. And