by Sylvia Fox
Carrie shakes her head. “This hasn’t turned out to be the sweeping epic romance reunion I hoped it was.”
“You’re telling me,” I say with a sigh.
Adrian—er, Mr. Michaels—is already at his desk when I stroll into the office at eight on the dot. Scratch that. I’m not strolling. I’m timidly tiptoeing in to see if he’s there or not. And then when I see him hunched over his keyboard in a fresh, perfectly-fitted black suit, I back up a few steps and then pretend to stroll in like I haven’t the slightest care in the world.
When really, my heart is racing.
“Good morning,” I chirp out as I ease the coffee onto his desk. It’s not something he’s asked for, but I thought I might get on his good side if I pre-empted the request. I’ve decided to get a feel for things, test the waters a bit when it comes to the whole, ‘hey, you’re the father of my two babies situation. And I figure it doesn’t hurt to score as many points as possible.
“Good morning, Becca.” He raises his eyebrows, and I swear, his eyes flick over my body. It’s almost too quick for me to catch, but it can’t be my imagination. There’s an appreciative curl to his lips, though whether that’s for the coffee or for me, I don’t know. “Isn’t this a pleasant surprise? Thanks for the coffee. Why don’t you get your coffee from your desk and grab a seat? I have a few emails I need you to compose for me today.”
“Oh, I didn’t get a coffee for myself,” I say as I pull the notebook out of my purse and perch on the edge of the chair. I’m still not comfortable enough around him to relax into the seat like a normal person. “I grabbed this on the way in, and I didn’t have the cash for both.”
He frowns. Shit, maybe I shouldn’t have said that. I want to impress him, not make him think I’m poor. Even though I am, at least until my first paycheck comes in.
“Well, that just won’t do. I don’t want you spending your hard-earned money like that.” He leans back into his chair. “I’ll have HR get a company card set up for you. From now on, get all my coffees and lunches on that. And treat yourself anytime you’d like.”
“Wow, thank you,” I say, relaxing a little more into the chair. To be honest, I’ve been a little worried about the whole coffee-and-lunch situation. I thought I might have to buy everything myself and wait until the end of the month for expense reports to process through. And I’ve been too afraid to bring it up. Who wants to tell their boss they’re too poor to do the job? “That makes things a lot easier.”
“Good.” He smiles. “See, I’m a pretty nice boss. I take good care of my employees.”
I shiver, despite myself. Mostly because my mind went straight to the gutter. I want him to take good care of me alright, but in a way I don’t think he meant. In the bedroom. With his hands and his tongue and his perfect bulging cock.
With my mind half-distracted by memories of Vegas, I take down notes for today’s tasks. Turns out, Adrian Michaels is a very busy man, and it will take me all morning to sort through his requests. I don’t mind, though. I like staying busy. It’ll keep me focused on work instead of on his sculpted body my fingers want so badly to touch.
When we’re done going through the morning brief, Adrian smiles again, though this time, there’s a hint of seriousness behind the lighthearted expression. “You know, Becca, I’m never going to pry into your personal life, but I want you to know that you can tell me if there’s something going on. Some issue you’re facing that means things are a little tight…”
So, he’s caught on to the fact I’m in dire straights. Well, it’s not like I’ve done a very good job of hiding it, what with the whole not able to afford coffee thing.
“Family stuff,” I blurt out before I can think things through. “Which means I’m supporting more than just me right now.”
I bite my tongue. I’ve said way too much. As much as I want to tell him the truth about Vegas, I’m not ready yet. It’s not the right time. I’m sitting in his office taking notes about emails, and more and more employees are coming through the front doors. He’ll guess what I meant. I just know it. And then he’ll say that all of this is far too much and he needs an assistant who isn’t the mother of his children.
“I understand that more than you’ll ever know.” He nods. “I’ve been supporting several members of my family for years.”
“I…” I begin to correct him, but then I fall silent when he continues.
“In fact, my younger brother, the jobless dropout, just popped out another kid. Well, his girlfriend did anyway. Completely irresponsible of him, but I’ll end up helping him regardless.”
“Oh really?” I sit up a bit straighter, seeing this as an opening, a way to test the waters a bit. “What about you? Any children yet?”
“Me?” He laughs, shaking his head. “I’m thirty-eight, single, and see no signs of that changing anytime soon. I think the kid ship has sailed for me, not that I mind. I’ve never had enough time to start a family, being the CEO of a Fortune 500 company.”
My heart sinks. Every word out of his mouth is the exact opposite of everything I want to hear. He doesn’t want kids. It sounds like he has no interest in even being in a relationship with someone.
I want him to know about the twins. I want to tell him. But how can I when he’s just said he wouldn’t have time for them in his hectic CEO life?
4
Adrian
Hopefully, Becca now knows just how single I really am. Even though she’s off-limits, I don’t want her to think I have any women in my life. I’m not married, I don’t have kids, and I don’t have anyone in my line of sight. Anyone except for her, of course.
Maybe when everything goes back to normal with her family, she’ll move onto a better job. Until then, all I have to do is bide my time. I’ve done it for two fucking years. I can do it for a few more months.
As Becca works outside of my door, I can’t help but slide my chair to the side every now and then to keep an eye on what she’s doing. It’s impossible to stay focused on my work with the blonde beauty tapping away on her computer only a few short feet away. My eyes lock on the delicate curve of her neck. A neck I’ve licked, nibbled, and sucked.
And that’s not her only body part I’ve licked.
After two hours of this, Becca strides into my office with a pencil perched behind her ear. It looks so fucking cute, it’s criminal. “Sorry to bother you, Mr. Michaels—”
“Don’t be silly, Becca.” I shift on my seat. I would stand, but then she’d no doubt notice how my pants have become a tent for my cock. “Call me Adrian. We have too much history for you to be so formal with me.”
That didn’t come out right. The truth is, we don’t have much history at all. One night. Two years ago. But it feels like so much more than that, probably because I’ve been pining after her all this time.
“Right.” Her cheeks fill with delicious color. So that’s made her nervous, has it? That can’t be anything other than a fantastic sign. Of course, I remind myself, she’s off-fucking-limits. Even if she drapes herself across my desk, I can’t take her sexy body the way I desperately want. Not that I think I could stop myself if she did… “Adrian. Um, anyway, I just have a question about the email address of your contact at McKnight Media. I think I got the spelling wrong.”
“That’s fine. I’ll jot it down for you.” I smile, an idea suddenly sparking in my mind. “Speaking of my buddy McKnight, we have a dinner meeting this evening, and I could really use someone there with me to jot down all of the relevant information. I usually forget to take notes, and I’d hate to forget anything important.”
“Oh.” Her cheeks redden even more. “Of course. Should I see if one of your employees is available to go with you?”
“That won’t be necessary,” I say, as nonchalantly as I possibly can. Truth is, I’m desperate for her to go to this dinner now that the thought has entered my mind. What better way for me to get to spend some time—real time—outside of work with her than at a dinner meeting? Sure, there will
be work involved, but that usually lasts a few minutes, concluded before the first course lands on the table. After that, it’s wine and lighthearted chat, usually pretty late into the night. “You are my assistant, after all. I’d like you to attend it with me. If you don’t have previous plans, of course.”
Maybe she has a date. It’s Friday night, and she’s the most attractive woman I’ve ever laid eyes on. It wouldn’t surprise me if she has men lined up outside her door just begging her to go out to dinner with them every night of the week. Maybe I’m just another schmuck to her, a one-night-stand who meant nothing at all.
“I’m not sure…”
I’m usually the guy who can get any woman he meets. But the first time I truly want someone, I can’t even get her to go to a work meeting with me.
“So, you have plans?”
“No plans.” She bites her bottom lip. “It’s just the family issues I was telling you about. I need to make sure they don’t need me tonight before I can commit to anything.”
“Oh, I see.” Well, while not a yes (yet), it’s a hell of a lot better than a no.
“But I might be able to make it,” she says quickly, the blush returning to her rosy cheeks. “I’ll do my best.”
5
Becca
I pace back and forth in the break room, gnawing a hole in my bottom lip. My heart is flailing like a wild animal in my chest, and my palms are grossly sweaty. I need to get a grip, stat. Obviously, I am reading far more into the situation than I should, but how am I supposed to react when the man of my wildest fantasies and the father of my beautiful twins has asked me to go out to dinner with him?
Okay, so it’s a work meeting. And other people will be there.
But still. It’s dinner, and I didn’t miss the glint in his eye when he’d asked me, or the way he shifted in his seat when he checked out my ass. He wanted me two years ago, and it seems like he wants me now.
But I can’t let myself get carried away here.
Adrian Michaels is my boss, and I need this job. Desperately.
Not to mention the fact that he still doesn’t know about the twins. I have a feeling when he finds out, any hardness in his pants will disappear in the blink of an eye.
I need to stop myself from getting carried away, because I can’t forget what he said just this morning. No time, no women, no kids.
It certainly puts a damper on the enthusiasm I feel about this dinner.
Regardless, I’m going to try my hardest to make it. So, I dial the number.
“Hello?” Carrie asks in the wispy, easy-going way she has. I wish I could be that laid back about everything. Instead, I feel tightly-wound, as if I’m a spring about to bounce off the earth at any given moment. “Everything okay, Becca?”
“I’m fine. The girls okay?” I ask. Even though I trust Carrie more than anyone else in the world, I can’t help but worry about my babies when I’m gone.
“They’re sleeping like sweet little angels.”
“Good.” I take a deep breath, crossing my fingers. “Listen, are you working at the bar tonight?”
“Not unless the boss calls me with a last-minute shift cancel.” I can hear her frown into the phone. She’s been working overtime a lot lately. “Why?”
“Well, listen.” I glance up when someone passes the door. Even though this is a call about a work meeting, I really don’t want anyone to hear me talking about it. I feel like I need to hide it, even though I really don’t. There’s nothing untoward about an assistant going to a meeting with her boss.
Unless, of course, that boss is the father of the assistant’s secret babies…
“Hurry up,” Carrie says. “The suspense is killing me. Don’t tell me you finally have a date or something.”
“Well, not really, but kind of?” Even though it definitely isn’t a date, something about it really feels like one. Maybe because the last time I saw Adrian Michaels, he was pressing me down on the bed while he licked me inside and out. “It’s a work meeting. A dinner one. With Adrian.”
“You’re shitting me,” she says, her voice hitching up an octave. “Just the two of you? That’s not a work meeting, chickadee. That’s a fucking date.”
“No, it’s with the CEO of McKnight Media.” I take a deep breath and lean against the wall. Somehow, I have to keep my feet on the ground and my head out of the clouds. “Definitely not a date. A real one at least. Anyway, I can only go if I can find someone to watch the twins.”
“I’ll watch them,” she says without a moment’s hesitation. “You’re going on this date, and you’re going to wow the shit out of him.”
Wowing the shit out of Adrian Michaels ends up involving a long two hours where Carrie whisks out makeup brushes I don’t even own, as well as a slinky black dress that I’m pretty sure isn’t appropriate for a working dinner meeting. That said, I go along with it all, mostly because I want to wow the shit out of him myself.
I don’t know why. It’s not like anything can really come of it. As soon as he finds out about the twins, I have a feeling that any romantic interest he harbors for me will go flying right out of the window.
Regardless of all that, I still take great satisfaction in the look on his face when I walk into the restaurant, all dolled up like I’m someone who has somewhere to be. The dress is low-cut, tight, and pretty revealing, hugging my curves like a sleek silky glove. Adrian’s eyes practically bug out of his head, and he stares at me with a heat that makes me burn.
He lets out a low whistle when I settle into the seat beside him. He doesn’t look so bad himself. The dinner suit he wears is even sleeker and darker than his office suits, and the arms cling to his muscles in a way that shows off just how defined he really is. And that’s pretty freaking defined.
“You look good enough to eat,” he says.
My entire face floods with enough heat to set my whole body aflame. I try to reach for the right words, something flirtatious, something just as dangerous.
But then he clears his throat, shakes his head, and puffs out a little breath. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. How very unprofessional of me. What I meant to say is, you look very nice, Miss Becca Silver.”
“Thank you,” I say, grabbing the napkin from the table and spreading it onto my lap, even though we haven’t ordered yet. I need something to fidget with or else I might just explode. “You don’t look so bad yourself. Do you, ah, know when Mr. McKnight will arrive?”
I have to ask. Even though we’re at a table of four, two chairs are conspicuously absent.
“Ah, about that,” he says, signalling to the waiter. “Mr. McKnight had to cancel. He’s otherwise engaged this evening. He has twins, you know, and one of them has come down with a stomach bug.”
“Twins?” My mind sparks on the word. What are the odds? It’s not like twins are that common. Is this some kind of sign? Some kind of hint from the universe that I should spill the beans to Adrian right here and now? At what is increasingly starting to feel like a first date?
“That’s right.” He gives me a brilliant smile. “I got the call only a few minutes ago. Otherwise, I would have called you and cancelled, but I figure, we’re here now. Might as well enjoy ourselves, don’t you think? I’ll treat you. It’s on me. Boss to employee. How does that sound?”
“That sounds great,” I say, smiling back.
A part of me can’t help but think that all of this is ridiculously convenient. Mr. McKnight just happens to cancel last minute? But at the same time, if Adrian wanted to ask me out, then why wouldn’t he just do that? He’s confident, successful, and wealthy. It isn’t like he needs to play games to get a date.
Besides, he made sure to point out that he’s paying for the dinner strictly as my boss, not as anything else.
Why say that if he wants it to be a date?
“Fantastic.”
Adrian makes the order for the both of us, and I don’t argue. I’ve never been in a five-star restaurant like this before, and I’m happy to ta
ke it in and try whatever he suggests. Truth be told, I feel more than a little out of place. Everyone is suited up and reeking of money. I might have ended up coming to places like this more often if I’d followed through on my dream career. My big goal in life was to make partner in a Manhattan law firm.
But all of that went out of the window when the twins came along. As a newly-single mother, I didn’t have the time, energy, or the money to invest the kind of hours into my career that I needed to in order to make it.
It’s impossible not to wonder, sitting here in this swanky restaurant with the man who put his seed inside me, what would have happened if I’d given my number to him that night in Vegas. Maybe everything would be different now. Maybe he’d been in their lives and mine, making it far easier to juggle the many balls life has in store.
But, somehow, fate has brought us back together again.
“So, I didn’t know Mr. McKnight had twins,” I say in an attempt to turn the conversation back onto the topic I most want to talk about, to the words I need to figure out a way to say. If there was ever a time to attempt the conversation, it might be now. We’re out at dinner, away from the office, alone.
That said, it’s still an insanely public place to tell a man you’ve had his babies.
“They’re not really his,” Adrian says as the waiter returns with two glasses and a bottle of wine. “He adopted them when his sister passed away. But let’s not talk about McKnight. Let’s talk about you.”
“Me?” I swallow hard. Well, for starters, speaking of twins…
The waiter pours a glass of wine, hands it to me, and then Adrian clinks his glass with mine, watching me with dark and hooded eyes.
“Despite the fact you’re now my assistant, I don’t know much about your life these days. Last time I saw you….” He smiles slowly, and I can’t help but shiver. There’s something dangerous in that smile, something that brings a flood of memories back into my mind. This is how we met two years ago. I was standing at a bar in one of the many Vegas casinos, trying to get a drink. Adrian slid in front of me with that same sensual curl to his lips. He ordered us a bottle of red, and well, the rest his history.
