“Don’t forget pale, stale male swinging his dick around,” added Kelly.
“I bet he loved that,” said James. “You literally discussed the guy’s own dick with him.”
“I think I said something about it twitching, too.” I groaned.
“Was that before or after you sat on it?”
“Fuck off, James.”
“Okay, so a solid list of horrendous insults, the sort of thing that could easily get you removed at the drop of a hat, if not privately ‘erased’ by a contract killer,” said James. “Career suicide, deluxe.”
“I’ll be at the top of the list for any restructure, that’s for sure. Why, James, why?”
“No point crying over spilt milk,” said James briskly. “On the other hand, you just shagged an extremely handsome man who almost certainly owns a private jet.” He raised a brow.
“But he ran off without saying who he was,” I said. “It was clearly just sex to him. As soon as he realized I worked at Novexia, he couldn’t get out of there fast enough.”
That was the part I hated most of all. Had I really been so wrong abouthim?
“Oh, come on, Andy,” said Kelly. “This could be great for you. It’s clear our new—what did you call him, ‘corporate overlord’?—likes you.”
“Oh, please. I’m going to throw up.”
“But ‘corporate overlord’ is one of the least offensive things you called him, right?” She stopped as I glared at her.
“Just because something started as a hookup doesn’t mean it couldn’t grow into something more,” she said.
Yeah, right. The chances a young, hot billionaire would be interested in me—beyond a quick shag—were basically zero. He probably dated supermodels called Svetlana or Kira who spoke four languages, had never experienced a carb craving, and possessed the kind of bone structure that made Renaissance sculptors weep.
“Kelly,” I said. “He fucked me and fled. The last thing he wants is to see me at the office every day. Especially after all the things I said.”
God. It was worse than rude. It wasmean.
“I really doubt the guy is going to be upset over that,” said James. “If he’s running companies all over the world, it seems unlikely he’s going to be fretting over what some lowly employee called him before she knew who he was. It’s not like it’s going to affect his stock prices, is it?”
“I guess not,” I said. “But why didn’t he tell me who he was? And how did we not know?” I kept replaying the conversation in my mind. Why couldn’t I ever keep my mouth shut?
“That does seem bizarre.” James rubbed his chin. “He really should have stopped you the minute you started going on about Wilhelm von Roth. Not very gentlemanly. What was he doing in sweatpants anyway? No wonder you didn’t pick it.”
“Hadn’t he just flown in from the States?” said Kelly. “Maybe he came straight from the airport.”
“I guess,” I said.
Britney Spears’s “Womanizer” floated over the patio as three chilled espresso martinis and a lemonade for Monish showed up in front of us.
“Oh, I did some more stalking,” said Kelly. “Turns out your mystery dick has a Wikipedia page.”
She opened her phone and turned the screen to face us. Aphoto of an unsmiling Liam in a gray suit appeared. He looked nothing like the man I’d met. James and I scanned the text.
“Wilhelm von Roth Jr.,” Kelly read. “Born in New York. Studied engineering at Oxford.”
That explained why he sounded British and notGerman.
“No wonder you said he sounded posh,” said James.
Kelly kept scrolling. “Ooh. Former RAF officer.”
My mind flashed back to yesterday. I was sure I’d seen a scar, but it had been so dark.Was thatrelated?
