To My Arrogant Boss (The Inappropriate Bachelors #2) - J. S. Cooper Page 0,26

sure.” She stared at me with eyes narrowed and for a few brief seconds, I almost thought she could read my mind.

“So, I have an idea,” I said as we continued walking down the street. We passed an old man holding a sign, and I pulled out a twenty and placed it in his hand. “God bless,” I said with a small smile. Jane looked at me with an astonished expression. “What?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I’m surprised you gave money to him.”

“Why? He was homeless. It’s a huge problem here in San Francisco.”

“Yeah, but most people say they won’t give homeless people money.” She shrugged. “They say that they’ll just spend the money on alcohol or drugs.”

“Maybe some do.” I nodded. “But many will buy food. No one should be hungry.”

“I agree.” She looked at me with new respect in her eyes, and I felt myself puffing up like a peacock. I was happy that she was proud of me in some way. “And yeah, homelessness is a huge issue.” She sighed. “It’s sad that a city as rich as this has so many homeless people.”

“I know.” I bit down on my lower lip as I wondered if she was going to judge me. As someone with an enormous amount of wealth, I often wondered what it was that I could do to try and make a real difference.

“You okay?” She stopped suddenly as she gazed at my face. “You look pale.” Her eyes suddenly became concerned. “Are you sick?”

“No, I’m fine.” I brushed off my feeling of despair and grinned at her. “I was just wondering if you were going to wear a sports bra or no bra at all. I like to watch boobies bouncing.”

Her expression changed from one of concern to one of disgust. A part of me was annoyed that she’d believed my lie so easily, but I surely wasn’t going to confide in her that the homeless problem in the city often kept me up at night. I knew that I was fortunate. I’d never had to worry about money and now I had more money than I could spend in several lifetimes. Somehow it just didn’t seem right.

“I’m not even going to answer that.” She sighed. “Look, just wait here. I’ll be back in five minutes.”

“I wanted to come in with you.”

“I’ll be faster by myself, and I don’t want to hear any more of your asinine comments.”

And with that, she turned away and walked towards a store. A feeling of unease washed over me as I watched her go. I didn’t like it. All my life I’d been the hot one, the rich one, the flirtatious one, and women responded to me by batting their eyes and smiling eagerly. It didn’t matter what I said. It didn’t matter what I did; they still wanted me. They didn’t look at me as if they were disappointed in me. No one outside of my family had ever looked at me in that way. No one except Jane. She looked at me as if she saw through the veneer and she didn’t like it. She was different from other women I’d met. I wanted to get to know her. I wanted to fuck her, sure, but I also wanted to explore her mind. And I didn’t like it. I didn’t want it. I didn’t need it. Something had to be done about this situation because little by little, Jane Garcia was really getting under my skin.

Chapter 8

Jane

“That man is getting on my last nerves.” I grabbed at a t-shirt from the rack angrily and cursed under my breath as it fell to the ground. “Calm down, Jane,” I lectured myself as I bent down to pick it up.

My heart was racing and my face was flushed, and more than that, I was disappointed. I’d actually thought that Tate and I were really getting to know each other, but no, of course, I’d been dreaming. He was just a pig whose mind was filled with thoughts of sex 24/7. When he’d given that money to the homeless man, I’d seen a different side to him. A caring side. A side that thought about other people. I’d been wrong. What an asshole. I was fuming. I walked over to another rack and started looking through the yoga pants. Why the hell had he asked me about himself? And whoa, I’d been surprised that he’d shared so much about himself and his family. Of course, I’d known