Boss I Love to Hate: An Office Romance(26)

“I’ll deal with Mason.” Brad turned my way and placed down his food. “Sonia, cancel my afternoon meetings. I hate to do that, but the worst babysitter left me no other option … unless …” He lowered his gaze, almost to a puppy-dog look. Nope, this must be his seductive do whatever I want look. “My favorite secretary and friend wants to do me a huge favor and pick up Mary? Our driver is off Monday afternoons, and I don’t trust anyone else to pick her up.”

And to think, I had been in such a good mood only minutes earlier.

He added for good measure, “Then, we can discuss the deal you were talking about earlier.”

I sighed overly loud. When he put it like that, how could I refuse him? I was the desperate one in this situation. “Fine,” I grumbled.

He smiled. “Best. Secretary. Ever.” He picked up his taco and took another bite.





Chapter 7





Sonia





After picking up Mary from school, I plugged in the address to their house on my navigation.

I needed a raise. Seriously, the things that I did for this man …

I stopped by the guard at the gate, and after he greeted Sarah, he waved for me to pass. I drove past a wall of manicured hedges, all leading down a long path that widened into a circular driveway.

And holy freaking crap …

My mouth dropped to the floor and kept on going.

“Nice house.” I wished I’d sounded normal, but my tone was anything but.

I had only seen houses like this on television—the ones on my entertainment feed that celebrities bought or sold. Wow de wow. I knew that Brad was a millionaire, but now, this house … was not much of a house. This estate only confirmed how wealthy his family was.

“Have you lived here all your life?”

The Brisken brothers kept to themselves. They were private people, and I knew that Brad had a place in the city, but I didn’t know where, nor had I known where Charles lived. Until now.

“Grandpa and Grandma lived here before everyone moved in,” Sarah said. There was an air of sadness in her tone, which reminded me of all the loss that this family had experienced. Not only had Sarah and Mary lost their mother, but they’d also lost their grandparents, too, in that horrific accident. It’d been all over the late-night news and newspapers.

I pulled in front of the house and placed the car in park. “Everyone lives here?”

“Yeah, Uncle Brad and Uncle Mason, too.”

Mary continued to work on the sucker I had given her when I picked her up from school. The sugar fiend, I remembered Sarah saying. No wonder Brad called her sweet Mary.

“Wait, both your uncles live here?” Why didn’t I know this?

“Yeah.” Mary took out her sucker and bit down hard, cracking the solid in half. “He doesn’t really stay at his other place in the city because he can’t tuck me in.” Mary had a glimmer of joy in her eyes as she crunched down on her candy. “Uncle Brad tucks me into bed every night, and he tells me stories.”

“Yep. Their nightly tradition.” Sarah unbuckled herself and stepped out of the car.

“Stories about Prince Charming and his royal jewels. That’s my favorite one,” Mary added, bouncing to the door.

I couldn’t picture Brad telling princess stories. I wondered how much of the story was about himself.

Gag. Double gag.

They punched in a code to the garage, and I pushed my glasses farther up my nose. Seven vehicles filled the multi-car garage. I only recognized one of them, but I could tick off the high-end types—Tesla, Range Rover, Mercedes. I assumed the joint prices of all the vehicles could have bought a small mansion.

When we entered through the door in the garage, a room that would most likely be described as the mud room welcomed us, except it was two times the size of my bedroom with a coat rack that spanned almost one whole side of the pale-yellow wall and little drawers that were lined beneath it.

I followed the girls as they put away their book bags and headed into the kitchen that was built for a Top Chef king. A marble island as big as my bed centered the room. Copper pots and pans hung from a rack from the ceiling. State-of-the-art stainless-steel appliances glistened against the sunlight peeking in through the floor-to-ceiling windows where I could see a massive-sized pool outside.

Holy freaking double crap.

Sarah pulled their industrial-sized fridge open and grabbed three juice boxes. After handing her sister one, she handed me one and smiled. “I had fun today. Besides all that weird stuff this morning.”

I plopped on the barstool by the kitchen island, and the girls plopped down next to me. “Yeah, it was, wasn’t it?”

Sarah being in the office had definitely broken the monotony of my day. It brought me back to my twelve-year-old self—pimples and uncontrollable hormones that caused me to cry for no reason and getting angry at the stupid things. Those days had not been fun.

As Sarah sipped her juice box, I leaned in. “Anytime you need anything, I know we just met and stuff, but you just let me know.”

Mary hopped off the stool and tugged at the edge of my purple silk shirt. “Wanna play Chutes and Ladders?” She slurped on her straw wedged into the juice box.

She was breathtakingly cute. Mary’s cheeks were round, and naturally blonde curls framed her heart-shaped face. No wonder Brad carried sugar everywhere. I’d give in to this girl, too, if I were him.