Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 89666 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 448(@200wpm)___ 359(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89666 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 448(@200wpm)___ 359(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
As the clack of his hard-soled shoes grew louder across the black marble floor, I gathered up the papers and my tablet, which had a list of all the things he needed to review. Just like every day, I rose from my desk and moved to meet him at the door to his office.
“There’s my Byron. The man I would be utterly lost without,” Sebastian greeted with more exuberance than usual. He was a chipper person, but this was taking it to the extreme, even for him. Carl walked two steps behind him and gave a wordless shrug, as if to say he had no idea what had put him in such a good mood.
“Good morning, sir,” I greeted and pushed both of the doors open for him.
The first thing I’d done upon returning to Courtland Enterprises this morning was to clean up my paper mess, scrub away all signs that I’d ever had a drop of alcohol in that room, and freshen the air with his favorite scents. While I knew he’d seen the disaster I’d made, I’d wanted to make sure there was not even a shadow of it for his arrival on Monday. We needed to forget about that embarrassing incident.
Carl followed Sebastian in and made a quick check of the office to make sure everything was secure, then retreated to his own space. We wouldn’t see him until Sebastian stepped out for lunch.
As Sebastian dropped into his high-back leather swivel chair, I took up my usual position on his right. My too-handsome boss was dressed in my favorite suit—a dark-navy plaid material with a lighter-blue collared shirt and tie. There was something about the way the jacket hugged his shoulders that made it so hard to look away from him.
Did he know that was my favorite? I wouldn’t put it past him to wear it in hopes of swaying my final decision on the bargain he proposed, but how did he know it was my favorite?
It was only when I noticed Sebastian had his left elbow resting on the top of his desk and his cheek leaning against his fist as he gazed up at me with a grin that I realized I had been staring instead of talking.
“Sir, you have a long list of meetings today. The first is at nine—a briefing about the numbers Mr. Foster provided from the finance department on Friday. At nine thirty, the head of marketing for Courtland Comfort will be stopping by to discuss the last changes to the summer campaigns. Ten thirty—”
“Did you do anything fun yesterday?” Sebastian interrupted.
“Sir,” I gritted out, trying to get him on task. I would not talk about how I’d alternated between anger and masturbating after he’d left my place.
“Would you like to hear what I did with my Sunday?” Sebastian waggled his eyebrows at me, and I got the impression that there were some distinct similarities between our Sundays.
“I think it would be best if we focused on work. We have a very busy day ahead of us if we hope to protect the jobs of everyone who works at Courtland Enterprises.”
Sebastian flopped back into his seat, his right hand rested on his heart. “Ugh. That was cold. How could you be so mean to me first thing in the morning?”
Sadly, this was not the first time he’d ever said that to me. It was a refrain I’d heard frequently when I scheduled meetings for him prior to nine a.m. My boss always came in at eight, so he could have a minimum of a full hour to go through messages and notes before his first meeting. I was usually in between six and seven to prepare for my day, but he didn’t need to know that.
“You promised me an answer today,” he pressed, dropping his voice to a whisper.
“We’re at work. We need to focus on work,” I gritted out between clenched teeth.
Sebastian’s grin turned wicked as he reached into his pocket and pulled something out. My gaze followed his hand to the center of his desk, where he set the marble egg. The Friend Egg.
“That is not going to work.” I didn’t think anyone could overhear us, but there was no way I was taking any chances. “If I were to agree to your bargain, we would need to set up some ground rules about what’s not allowed in the office. The first thing would be that egg.”
Sebastian flashed me a wounded expression, complete with his bottom lip jutting out. “You can’t ban the Friend Egg. You have personal conversations with Kaylan.”
“But they still fall within the bounds of good taste for work. I doubt that would happen with you.”
Wisely, Sebastian didn’t debate that.
“You take private phone calls.”
“Only in an emergency.”
Sebastian pressed his index finger to the narrow top of the egg and slightly rolled it on its wider base. His thumb stroked up the flawless side, making my horrible brain wander to places it shouldn’t. Like, what would it be like to feel his massive hands running up and down my bare skin? On Sunday, the heat of those hands had burned through my clothes, and still I ached to strip so I could feel him skin to skin.