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“I don’t know,” Cassie said finally. “It sounded like the way he reacted was flirtatious. And all this?” she said, gesturing to the apartment. “If this isn’t a guy trying to get in your pants, I don’t know what is.”
“It’s stroking his own ego,” I said, even though I only halfway believed it. “With all his money, something like this is nothing to him. He was literally outside for like two minutes at most to set this up. I think he just pawned it off on one of his assistants.”
“But…” Paisley said, sensing there was more I wasn’t saying.
“But he also spent his own time here looking after me. If it was just the contractors and remodeling, I’d say it was all ego. Except he was honestly really sweet with how he looked after me. I just wish I could understand it.”
“I can,” Cassie said. “He wants to put that big, fat, bossy cock of his inside you.”
One of the painters sputtered with sudden laughter, then cleared his throat and pretended he hadn’t heard anything.
I rolled my eyes. “If that’s his goal, he has a very, very weird way of showing it.”
“Well, what if he’s conflicted about it?” Paisley asked. “I mean, you heard what happened with his brother, Hector, right?”
“Max–” I stopped myself and made a strangled sound in my throat. Shit. I wasn’t supposed to talk about Max. I was about to say Max had mentioned something about him and an inappropriate office relationship.
“Max?” Cassie asked. “Who’s Max?”
“Sorry. He was this guy I ran into at the gym in Stone Tower,” I blurted. I immediately felt like shit for lying to my friends, but I had signed an NDA. I couldn’t afford to see what Mr. Stone’s real wrath would look like if I violated our agreement. “He mentioned something about Mr. Stone’s brother and an office relationship, yeah.”
“Oh,” Paisley said. She looked convinced, but Cassie was still watching me with uncomfortable focus. “Anyway, I was just thinking he is probably really aware of how bad an office relationship can go. His brother seemed like he had everything going for him. Then all of the sudden he was on the street and disgraced. I guess the lady he hooked up with was actually trying to use him to get access to secret company files or something. It was a huge mess.”
“Oh,” I said. “I didn’t know that last part. Like she was a spy?”
“Apparently she worked for a rival company. They were trying to poach some of Stone Financial’s biggest clients. She swiped the list and they leaked client details to the public, which lost Stone Financial several of their top contracts. It cost Hector his job, too.”
“So you’re saying Mr. Stone wants to sleep with me, but he’s worried I’m a spy?”
Paisley laughed. “I don’t know. I just mean it has to be on his mind. So even if he does have feelings for you, he’s probably pretty acutely aware of how badly it could go for him if he acted on them. It could explain the Dr. Jekyll and Dr. Hyde situation he’s got going on.”
I sat back, crossing my arms. “Huh,” I said quietly. “Well, he’s still an asshole.”
“Definitely,” Cassie agreed. She’d pulled some kind of nut bar from her bag and was chewing each bite roughly a thousand times before swallowing. “A hot, sexy asshole. And bonus points because he wants to bone you so badly he’s going to fix the mold in my apartment.”
“And my car,” Paisley said with a laugh. “I have to admit, I’ve never seen a guy want to sleep with a woman so badly that he even spoils her friends. I could get used to this. You should hold out as long as you can.”
I grinned. “You two are terrible. I don’t want his bribes.”
“What do you want?” Cassie asked. “Because if it was me, I’d at least give him a shot to send me to orgasmic bliss once or twice. What’s the harm?”
“The last thing I want is another relationship right now.”
They exchanged a silent look. I could tell Paisley and Cassie had come to some kind of silent agreement not to press me about my past in New York. My comment probably made them feel like I was cracking the door to that conversation open.
“Did your last one end badly?” Paisley asked carefully.
I snorted. “You could say that.” I pulled out my phone and showed them the number of unread texts, missed calls, and unheard voicemails I had.
“Daamn,” Cassie said. “What did you do?”
I shook my head. “I promise I’ll tell you guys soon. I’m just… I don’t know. I’ve felt close to normal since I got here. Part of me worries if I explain everything it’ll feel like what happened in New York will have followed me here.”
