Brazen and Breathless (Untouchable #6) - Heather Long Page 0,39

be following up while I tackled Edward. I’d managed to avoid him completely for the last few weeks. While he hadn’t moved out of the house, no matter what Frankie’s idiot mother thought, he had taken a couple of bags and not returned as far as I knew.

The elevator doors opened to the senior executive floor. The whole space was luxurious, from the premium carpets to the wood paneled walls, huge plants and works of art hanging prominently. Susan sat at her desk. She was about sixty-five if she was a day, and she’d been among the senior secretaries for as long as I could remember. Slipping a hand into my pocket, I pulled out the candy bar and set it on her desk as I smiled at her.

“Good morning, Susan. You look fantastic as always, when are you dumping these assholes and running away with me?”

Her eyes lit up with fond laughter, and she shook her head. “You never forget.”

“And I never will,” I told her with a wink. When I was three and stuck at the offices whenever we were between nannies, Susan had been tasked with looking after me. On days when I behaved, she always gave me a full bar of chocolate. On days when I didn’t, I just had to split it with her. “Is he in?”

“In his office,” she told me, tapping the candy bar. “Am I going to have to share this one today?”

I chuckled. “You’re always good, so I very much doubt it.”

For me? I made no similar promises.

Without another word, I strolled down the hall. There were only three offices on this floor.

Edward’s corner suite, easily occupying about three thousand square feet. Grandpa’s, which he only used when he was in town, though they both had similar offices in other corporate buildings in other cities. And mine.

To be clear, I’d never used mine.

Janis glanced up from her desk. She was Edward’s private secretary of the most recent variety and occasional fuckbuddy. I’d walked in on her blowing him behind his desk enough that it rather surprised me to find her at her desk. She’d offered to blow me more than once. Not in so many words, but at least intimated it.

Hard pass.

She stood at my arrival and leaned forward. “Archie,” she greeted me in that breathless voice that made me wonder if she had asthma or something. Then again, it could have more to do with how tight her top was and the fact her breasts—handsomely paid for by Edward—threatened to spill out of her too deep for the office neckline.

I gave her a nod as I continued forward. Unlike Susan, I didn’t expect Janis to be around all that much longer. Then again, maybe she didn’t care about being the office squeeze while he plowed Maddy. What the fuck did I know?

Except now I had that damn mental image, and it turned my stomach.

She hurried out to catch my arm, and this close, I drowned in the scent of her perfume, but not even the power of it could erase the smell of sex. Clearly, still the office fuckbuddy. I gave the hand she put on my arm a cool look, then stared at her until she removed it.

Her tongue flicked out nervously to wet her lips. “He’s on a call.”

“I don’t give a fuck.” At her startled look, I raked my gaze over her. “You know, you could do better than him, right?”

A blush stained her cheeks, and she gave me a coy look.

“And I can definitely do better than you.”

Outrage flooded her eyes and she reared that hand back, but I caught her wrist. So predictable.

“Tsk tsk, that will get you fired.” I winked at her and she flushed a deep red, more furious than flirty. Good. I didn’t need to fend her off. I’d never been interested and that was saying something, because there was a time when all a girl needed to have was boobs and she had boobs. But she couldn’t hold a candle to Frankie.

Not to mention I wouldn’t touch a woman Edward had with a ten-foot pole.

Walking away, I pushed open one of the double doors to Edward’s office and let myself in. The man in question stood behind his desk, hands in his pockets as he faced the window, a headset on, and he spared me a glance before he answered a question in near flawless Italian.

I helped myself to the French press coffee and didn’t bother with anything to sweeten it.