like half of mine?”
“No, that’s okay.”
“So you want to sit here and watch me eat?”
“Well…I guess.”
He stands, gathers his containers of food, and moves them to the table across the room. He walks back to his desk and pushes a button on his phone. “Claire, could you bring in another plate, please?”
A few seconds later, someone—Claire, presumably—knocks at the door.
“Come in,” Braden says.
The door opens, and in walks a woman, blond and blue-eyed and wearing a skin-tight navy sheath. She sets the plate she carries on the table.
“Thanks, Claire.”
She nods and leaves the office, closing the door behind her.
“Sit down and help yourself. They always deliver enough for two or more people.”
“I didn’t come here to—”
“Eat, Skye. You’ll need energy for what I have planned for you this afternoon.”
“I—”
“You barge into my office with a contract you could have easily emailed me, looking sexy with your red lips parted. You think I’m not going to fuck you after that?”
“I… I didn’t mean—”
“You promised me your control, Skye, yet you hold on to it in any way you can. Don’t think I don’t know why you showed up here. It was in complete defiance. I told you to email the contract, so you did what you do. You got around my instructions.”
“You told me to forward the contract, Braden. You didn’t say to email it. So I forwarded it. In person.”
“You knew exactly what I meant.”
I don’t bother arguing the point. He and I both know he’s right. “So I got around your instructions. Just like how last night, you got around our agreement never to kick me out of your place. You said I was welcome to stay, but you made it very clear you were done with me for the evening.”
His lips tremble. Does he think this is funny? My neck burns with the anger creeping up on me. I wait for him to acknowledge my point, but he doesn’t.
“I never promised to give up my control outside the bedroom, Braden.”
“That’s true,” he says, “but you’re forgetting one very important detail.”
I whip my hands to my hips. “What’s that?”
“Any place can be a bedroom.”
Chapter Forty-Five
My legs tremble. I don’t for a second doubt that Braden is sincere. After all, he fucked me in the kitchen last night where Christopher or Annika could have walked in anytime. Already my core is on fire.
Then a knock on the door.
“Come in,” Braden says.
In walks Claire, her long blond hair flipped all over one shoulder. “The Babbler just came out online. I’ve ordered copies but figured you’d want to see this now, so I printed it. Let me know how you want to handle it.” She hands him a paper and then leaves, closing the door.
Braden scans the paper. He sighs and hands it to me, saying nothing.
I gape at the headline.
Braden Black Dating Kansas Native and Budding Influencer
Budding influencer? I only got the offer from Susanne Cosmetics today. Kay Brown works quickly.
I blink a few times, hoping the headline will disappear. “What the heck?”
“Did you think this would stay quiet for long?” Braden asks.
“But I didn’t tell her anything.”
“Do you think that matters?”
“Why do you keep asking me questions?”
“Let me put it to you this way. Neither of us said a thing. We didn’t have to. Read the article.”
I glance down.
Boston’s own billionaire Braden Black of Black, Inc. was seen nuzzling—
“Nuzzling?” I say, perplexed.
“To lean against,” he says.
I roll my eyes. “I know what it means, Braden. Jesus. We weren’t nuzzling.”
“Just read,” he says.
Boston’s own billionaire Braden Black of Black, Inc. was seen nuzzling a new love interest at the recent MADD charity event. She is Skye Manning, a self-professed farm girl and aspiring photographer who works for mega-influencer Addison Ames. “She’s smitten,” a source close to Manning says. “I’ve never seen her so infatuated.”
Yeah, I’m going to be sick.
Black, known for his womanizing ways, hasn’t dated anyone seriously since his short relationship with model Aretha Doyle ended last year. “I wish him all the best,” says Doyle. “He and I remain close friends.”
They do? First I’ve heard. Then again, since no source I know would say I’m smitten, this is probably another lie.
Black and Manning met at Ames’s office recently and have been inseparable since. They’ve dined together in public several times and Black will escort her to the Boston Opera Guild Gala this Saturday evening at the Ames Hotel Downtown.
Aspiring photographer Manning is reportedly thrilled by the attention. Several of Ames’s clients have reached out to her personally asking for