The Owner's Secret Client

by Elana Johnson

  The weight of the world pressed into her shoulders, and she wondered if the CT scan would pick up on that. Could it detect stress? Loneliness? A broken heart?

  The bravest thing she’d done was call Michelle and tell her everything about her relationship with Liam. That had been so freeing and so terrifying at the same time. She’d gotten fired, of course.

  No, she thought. You resigned first.

  It probably would’ve been better had she gotten fired. Then she could’ve collected unemployment for a few months. As it was, she was jobless, purposeless, and about to be homeless.

  But hey, the nurse had just come out and called her name. It was her turn to get poked, and squeezed, and scanned.

  The tests weren’t as bad as she’d feared, and before she knew it, she was dressed back in her own clothes and headed out to her car.

  The sun shone down over Forbidden Lake, but the thought of looking through apartment listings and driving by buildings had her heart sinking to her toes. The annual Cherry Festival—the biggest one in the state—raged through town. Maybe she should go pick some cherries. Participate in the things she’d loved as a child.

  And she knew just the orchard to go visit. If she saw Liam, maybe she’d know what to say to get him back into her life. She hadn’t tried texting him. Calling was completely off the table. He’d remained likewise silent, and her phone only sounded now if Audrey texted her something about the baby.

  The parking lot at Sunshine Shores Orchards was full, so Serenity pulled back onto the street and into a vacant spot along the side of the road. She glanced down the lane a bit, seeing the turn-off that led to the row of homes the Addler’s occupied. She longed to go down that road again, but she wasn’t sure it was in her future.

  “Of course it is,” she said to herself, pausing beside her car. She loved Liam. He loved her. They could fix this. One of them just needed to make the first move.

  Feeling stronger than she had since the attack, she started down the road toward that private lane. A gate stood between her and Liam’s house, with a sign that said PRIVATE on it. She stepped right past it, half-expecting a security guard to intercept her.

  Nothing happened. The breeze lilted through the trees, and somewhere down the road in another part of the orchards, people laughed.

  She’d lost some of her spirit by the time she faced his front steps. That front door. He probably wasn’t even home.

  That thought gave her the courage she needed to get up the steps and ring the doorbell. He wouldn’t answer, and she could pretend she’d done something to get him back. Kimmie would be coming home that weekend, and she wondered who he’d hired to take care of the girl. Would he want that woman to take care of him too?

  Serenity really didn’t like that thought, and she frowned at the solid door in front of her. She’d just turned to leave, her heart heavier than she’d like it to be, when the door opened.

  She looked back, her eyes hooking into Liam’s and freezing her in place. She had no speech prepared. No thoughts in her mind.

  “Hello, Serenity,” he said, his voice deep and rich and wonderful, painting her whole soul with light.

  “I’m so sorry,” she blurted out, her emotions trembling through her, pumping her pulse into overdrive. “I was stupid that night, and I promise you—I really mean it this time—I promise you it won’t happen again.”

  Liam’s lips twitched, but he didn’t allow them to curve up into a smile.

  “I just got my tests done,” she said. “They’re going to send me a letter with the results of the mammogram, but the CT scan looks normal. Good. No cancer.” She swallowed. Why wasn’t he saying anything?

  “I’m surprised you’re home,” she continued as if someone had stuck batteries in her vocal chords and they wouldn’t stop. “What with the festival and all.”

  “It’s winding down now,” he said, and it angered her.

  “Are you going to say anything about us?” she asked. “I told Heartland about us. I got fired.”

  “You resigned,” he said, taking one step out onto the porch. There was plenty of space, but she felt crowded, like she needed to step back too. If she did, she’d be below him, and he was already so tall, and so handsome, and so perfect.

  Well, not perfect. He had some fears she thought were ridiculous, but she’d spent a lot of the last two weeks trying to see things from his perspective.

  “Who’s going to take care of Kimmie?” she asked. “Will you let me come say good-bye to her?”

  He shook his head, closing another step of distance between them.

  “Why not?”

  He reached out and touched her hand, sending sparks shooting up to her shoulder. “Yep, still there.”

  “What’s still there?”

  “I’m ready to talk about us,” he said, looking down at their joined hands.

  “I love you too,” she said, her voice wobbling over the important words as she said them. “I got the tests done. I’ll get them as often as you want, Liam. Please.” Her voice broke, and she mentally commanded herself not to beg.

  She drew in a breath, still annoyed he wouldn’t look at her. “Forgive me,” she said in a strong voice. “And let me come say good-bye to Kimmie.”

  He lifted his gaze to hers then. “You don’t need to say good-bye. I’m looking for a new nanny, and I’ve heard you don’t have a job.”

  Hope pricked the bubble of desperation rising through her. “What are you saying?”

  He took her other hand in his and moved all the way into her personal space. “I’m saying I’m still in love with you, and I want you to come work for me again.”

  Serenity looked up at him, the few inches between them almost like miles. “Are you serious?”

  “The apartment is empty in the basement,” he said, tracing his nose down the side of her face. “I miss you so much. Kimmie needs you. I need you.”

  He was saying all the right things, but Serenity still stood stiffly in front of him. “I don’t want to work for you,” she said.

  “Fine,” he whispered, pressing his lips to her jaw. “Marry me.”

  Fireworks exploded through her, and she inched back slightly to force him to look at her. “Liam?”

  “I accept your apology. Thank you for getting the tests done.” He glanced down the row of houses. “Now, will you come inside so I can kiss you without my brother watching?”

  Serenity giggled as she followed him inside and closed the door behind her. Liam turned immediately, pressed her into that solid wood, and kissed her, that sexy growl in the back of his throat.

  “I didn’t mean to drop by unannounced,” she whispered into his mouth.

  “I’m glad you did.”

  “I didn’t think you’d be home.”

  “Well, I am.” He matched their mouths up again, and Serenity kissed him back with as much passion as she could muster.

  He slowed the kiss, turned it tender again, and pulled away. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

  “You don’t have anything to be sorry for.” She rested her forehead against his collarbone, liking the fast thump of his heartbeat.

  “Yeah, I do,” he said. “I’m kind of a freak about tests and stuff. I shouldn’t be so afraid, but I am.”

  “It’s understandable,” she said. They separated slightly, and Serenity looked up at him again. “Do you really want to marry me?”

  “I really do,” he said with a big smile. “That was a really lame way to propose, wasn’t it?”

  “I’m not sure,” Serenity said. “I’ve never been proposed to before.”

  Liam laughed, wrapped her in his arms again, and hugged her tight. “I love you, Serenity. Please come work for me until we get married.”

  She grinned up at him too. “Oh, all right.”

  They laughed together, and he kissed her again. When he pulled away, he said, “When Kimmie gets back, let’s all go pick out a ring. Sound good?”

  “Sounds so good.” She gazed up at h
im, almost surprised just coming to talk to him had worked. “I love you, Liam.”

  “I love you too.”

  Yay! Liam and Serenity made a family with Kimmie! I love this kind of romance. If you do too, please leave a review now!

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  Read on for a sneak peek of THE BILLIONAIRE’S SECRET FLAME, featuring Sami, Liam’s sister and her boss who makes her heart pound…. Then go preorder it!

  Sneak Peek! The Billionaire’s Secret Flame Chapter One

  “I’ll be there.” Anderson Tanner wished he still had a flip phone so he could snap the two ends together and hang up on the mayor’s assistant. Of course, Andy would never do such a thing. Oh, no, not an upstanding businessman like him.

  Besides, the party was honoring Tanner Global Communications as one of the best companies to work for in Michigan. Not the only one, but one of the top ten. Andy didn’t like the fact that he’d have to go to another party and risk getting his pictures in the paper.

  After all, it was really hard to hide his identity if his picture was splashed everywhere.

  “And I’m still okay to have someone else accept the award for me?” he asked Joel, wondering where his own assistant had gotten to.

  He usually knew when Sami Addler was in the building, because she brought something that smelled good with her every time. Doughnuts. Coffee. Cheesecake. Hamburgers.

  His stomach rumbled, as he listened to Joel say that yes, he could have someone accept the award for him. “But I don’t understand, sir. Won’t you be there?”

  “Yes,” he said. “I’ll be there. And I’ll thank the state board personally, but I want to stay out of the spotlight.”

  Joel let a very long silence go by, as if Andy would explain further. But he wasn’t going to. No one—not even Sami—knew what his real last name was and that he had a deadbeat dad and a strung out brother who would just love to get their hands on his company, his money, his life. Everything he’d worked for and built over the past fifteen years.

  And he wasn’t going to allow that to happen.

  “Very well, sir,” Joel said, and Andy nodded though there was no one in his penthouse office to see him.

  “Anything else?” Andy asked.

  “Not at the moment, sir,” Joel said.

  “Thank you.” Andy hung up, his eyes wandering to the park across the street from the building he owned and lived in. If he left the building, it was from the rooftop, in his private helicopter, where he went to the airport to travel to whatever destination was on his schedule.

  Sami took care of that too, and she often accompanied him to remote towns and mountaintops to scout for the best locations for the cell phone towers that had made him a billionaire by age twenty-eight.

  Now thirty-five, Andy wondered sometimes what life would be like if he could wander the streets of Forbidden Lake as freely as others.

  A bright streak of golden brown caught his eye, and he knew where his assistant was. In the park across the street, throwing a ball to his dog, Rusty. He glanced to the dog bed in the corner where two windows met. Rusty’s favorite spot.

  It was empty, of course. Rusty had split loyalty between him and Sami, and if he wasn’t in his corner bed, he was lying on Sami’s feet while she worked at her desk one floor down.

  He wasn’t sure when he’d seen Rusty last, but the dark-haired woman in the park was definitely her. Andy chuckled as she threw the ball again and it barely went twenty feet. She wasn’t exactly athletic, though she hardly ever wore a skirt to work.

  She was the smartest person he knew, and he actually found that sexier than physical beauty. He shook his head, focusing on the close reflection of himself in the glass.

  He didn’t find Sami sexy at all. He couldn’t, as she’d worked for him for eight years and never once given any hint that they could be more than they were. He was the boss. She was the assistant.

  The end.

  His heart still pulsed a little stronger at the sight of her twenty floors below, bending to pick up that orange ball and attempt to throw it for his dog. He’d been across the street to the park several times and never seen anything suspicious.

  He pushed his family—who were still in Chicago—from his mind as he strode toward the private elevator that would take him all the way to the ground floor. Only he had the code. Well, and Sami, but she had to access if from the nineteenth floor.

  On his way down, he scrolled through the contacts on his phone, hoping a name would jump out at him. He needed a date for the party next week, whether he got behind the mic to accept the award or not.

  He couldn’t use Claudia or Nadia or Chloe. They’d helped him out in the past, and he didn’t want any of them to think they could begin asking him for favors if he arranged something with them again.

  Problem was, he didn’t get out of the building, literally. The elevator dinged, and he tucked his phone in his breast pocket as he stepped out. He’d enjoy a few minutes of August sunshine, and then he’d figure out what to do about the party. Maybe he could write a nice note and claim he’d come down with a flu.

  Across the street, his dog barked, and he grinned as he looked both ways. Rusty was a good dog, and Andy had gotten him as a puppy only the week before hiring Sami. She’d potty-trained him while Andy ran his business. She’d taught him to retrieve a ball and bring it back for a bit of hot dog. She could make him give high five and shake and spin.

  He entered the park and saw her bent over, her dark slacks probably sweltering in this heat. She scrubbed Rusty’s head, picked up the ball, and threw it again.

  Tossed was a better word. Andy didn’t actually know if throw or toss was even close to what she was doing. She threw the ball underhand, and it looked like it took considerable effort to do it. But the ball barely soared through the air.

  Rusty tore after it anyway, catching it on a high bounce and making a big circle back to her, pure joy on his doggy face.

  Andy wasn’t sure why he’d stopped to watch Sami interact with Rusty. Only that she’d made him hesitate and watch her a lot over the past year. She’d remained as professional as ever, but Andy feared he’d developed a little crush on her.

  A flame as bright as anything he’d felt for a woman before flared to life inside his chest, and he wondered if he could ask her to accompany him to the party next week. She’d do a great job on the acceptance speech too, and he wouldn’t have to worry she’d say something he didn’t want her to.

  She threw the ball again, eliciting another chuckle from him. Rusty brought the ball back, and Andy continued toward both of them.

  “You’re a good dog, aren’t you? Yes, you are.” She scrubbed his back and picked up the ball.

  Before Andy could say anything, she turned, bent at the knees, and threw the ball.

  He lifted his hand, but the ball moved faster than it appeared to from a distance. It hit him right in the middle of the forehead. Pain flashed down his face at the same time Sami said, “Oh, no. Andy.”

  He dropped to his knees for some reason, cradling his face in his hands as if he expected to need to catch blood in his palms. There was no blood, but adrenaline pounded through him as Sami arrived.

  “Andy,” she said, kneeling in front of him. “Are you all right?”

  Andy didn’t want her to see his eyes watering or a goose egg form on his forehead. Humiliation filled him from top to bottom, and the only thing he could do was start laughing.

  “Andy?” Sami’s feminine touch landed on his hands, gently drawing his fingers away from his face. “I’m so sorry.”

  Andy kept chuckling as their eyes met. Slowly, oh so sorry, a smile touched her lips too. In the few inches between them, Andy let himself look at her. Really look at her.

  And she was the sexiest woman he knew—had ever known.

  Would she go out with him?

  She’d always been so professional. Not a sly smile
out of place. Not a flirtatious look in his direction, ever.

  “I’m fine,” he said, his voice a bit on the emotional, husky side. “You’re a really bad throw.”

  Horror entered her eyes, replaced quickly by a flash of hurt. She straightened when Rusty arrived and licked her face. “Rusty,” she said with disgust, but Andy let his golden retriever lick his face as he laughed.

  He had to cover up the spark burning through him somehow. Laughter seemed to do it, only because it made Sami mad.

  But he didn’t want to upset her either.

  “Come on, Rusty,” she said. “Time to get back to work.”

  Andy scrambled to his feet. “Wait a second. I didn’t mean anything bad by it,” he said.

  Sami gave him the side eye as Rusty perched, tense and taut and ready to go after the ball again. Andy plucked it from her fingers and launched it, sending Rusy after it.

  “I have a question for you,” he said.

  “Is that why you’ve descended from your penthouse? To ask me something about work?”

  He watched Rusty pick up the ball and begin trotting back to them. “It’s not about work.” Though, technically, it was.

  “I’m listening,” Sami said, steadfastly refusing to look at him.

  Honestly, Andy didn’t mind. No direct eye contact would make it easier to ask her to the party.

  “So the Best of State gala is next weekend.”

  “That is totally work,” she said.

  “And I need a date,” he finished, his voice a little louder than normal. Rusty returned with the ball, dropping it only inches from Sami’s right foot. She should’ve treated him, but she’d frozen.

  “I’d like you to go with me,” he said, bending to pick up the ball. Why she didn’t use the throwing stick, he didn’t know. He frowned at the slobbery, sticky feeling of the ball in his hand and threw it.

  “You’d give the acceptance speech. Wear a nice dress. Hold onto my arm.” He cocked his elbow as if she’d thread her arm through it right now. “Stuff like that.”