The Last Eligible Billionaire(46)

“A ride in a hot air balloon, Sheila with the shoe collection, she didn’t like his hours, and the Copper Valley Thrusters, because he likes their mascot, just like me, but he said it first, for the record,” she whispers.

My heart squeezes.

When it comes to people, I get very, very little right.

With Begonia—I trust her.

And if she fucks this up, I’ll just fire whoever it is I hire on her advice, and I’ll start over from scratch.

With four applicants vetted by human resources, who will all be fired if they allow my waiting room to fill up like this again with applicants.

“Will you please come interview these hundred women who want to be my executive assistant? I’ll buy you diamonds and pearls and cancel Paris and take you somewhere else instead, and order you golden chocolates so that you can—I won’t finish that sentence, but I did listen to every word your sister said about it.”

“Hayes, you don’t have to buy me gifts for me to do the little things.”

“This is not a little thing.” I’m too old to crawl under my desk and hide, but I want to.

And wanting to is a bad, bad sign.

We should’ve stayed in Maine.

I could’ve done everything remotely.

I can still go back.

“Have you had lunch?” she asks softly.

“Yes.”

“What was it?”

“I don’t know.”

“What’s your favorite meal?”

“Begonia—”

“Your job applicants aren’t going anywhere if they’re worthy of working for you, Hayes. Where are you?”

“Locked in my office.”

“Good. Stay there. I’ll be there in twenty—no, Nikolay says ten minutes, but we have to stop to get you a lunch that’ll taste good enough for you to remember it, so definitely twenty minutes, and then I’ll handle everything. Also, can I tell Hyacinth about this?”

“No.”

“Good gravy, I’ll leave out the part where you look human and vulnerable, okay? You’re really, really great at a lot of things, but asking you to interview a hundred women on your first day back in the office after a death in your family sounds like something your mother would dream up in a really bad Razzle Dazzle film.”

I freeze.

She’s fucking right.

And if not my mother, someone in my family set this up.

“Do not call your mother,” Begonia orders. “Let me.”

I stare harder in the direction of The Egg, and I picture Begonia straightening her spine and smearing on blood red lipstick—no, not blood red.

Neon magenta.

To match her hair.

And while I don’t feel very chief financial officer-ish in this exact moment, I find I can breathe again.

“Begonia.”

“Yes, Hayes?”

“You’re a very good friend. Don’t fuck me over.”

“Someone hurt you very badly, didn’t they?”

Yes.

Yes, they did.

“Tell Nikolay to bring you here and then run out for whatever else it is you’re convinced I need. I’ll see you in ten minutes.”





18





Begonia



I look at Hayes’s square-jawed bodyguard as I disconnect my phone, and my face must be showing something, because his eyes start twinkling and he wipes a hand over his mouth like he’s trying to hide a smile.

“Mr. Rutherford is not a fan of pizza,” he tells me.

“Then where’s the best fried chicken in town? He needs something orgasmic. Coconut cream pie. No, too many people don’t like coconut and we haven’t had that discussion yet. A fudge brownie sundae and fried chicken and biscuits. Biscuits. We definitely need biscuits. I’ve tried everything else. It’s time for comfort food.”

“This way to the limo, Ms. Begonia.”

My phone rings again as I start to follow him, and I’m answering, assuming it’s Hayes again, before my brain can process the name on the readout, and suddenly I’m gaping at my phone in horror while my mother’s voice rings out. “Hello? Begonia? Begonia, are you there?”

Marshmallow whimpers, cowers to the ground, and covers his face with his paw.

Nikolay mutters something to him in Russian, then jerks his head at me like he’s saying, Come. The billionaire is waiting, and if you think your mother’s terrifying, wait until you see Hayes Rutherford displeased.

And now I’m rolling my eyes.

I’ve seen Hayes angry, and I’d rather relive that moment he found me in his bathroom seven thousand times over than take this call with my mother.

But I’m a grown-up, so I put the phone to my ear and reply to the woman I’ve been avoiding. “Hello, Mom.”

“You’re dating the world’s last eligible billionaire!”

“No, Mom, we’re having a torrid fling and I’m on my way to have loud, noisy, earth-shattering sex with him in public in a park just to horrify people, and then I’ll—”

Nikolay makes another noise, and I realize other people could overhear me and take me seriously.

And then I’d cause a scandal for Hayes, whose family is expected to model ideal, buttoned-up family perfection every waking minute of the day, and now I’m mad.