Bet On It: An Age Gap Billionaire Office Romance(20)

Gino remained sitting. “I haven't finished going over the perks."

I buttoned my coat. "As I said, I'm not interested in making any changes at the moment."

Gino stood and visibly worked to give me an affable smile. "I'll tell you what. I'll hand-deliver a proposal tomorrow. It's going to be so good you won't be able to say no to it."

I shook his hand, again trying not to cringe. I let out a sigh of relief when he left.

The door had no sooner shut behind him than Catherine strolled in. "What did he want?"

"He wants to have a partnership with us. I'm not sure it's on the up and up. I don't suppose you have a handwipe or hand sanitizer." I really wanted to get Gino's handshake off me. Hell, maybe I’d go to the gym so I could shower him off me.

Catherine nodded to my desk. "There's hand sanitizer in your top drawer."

I sat down, opening the drawer and finding a small travel-size bottle of the clear disinfectant. I squeezed a large glob of it onto my hand and rubbed it in.

"I'd be happy to do a little digging on Paradise Limited,” Catherine said.

I shook my head. "It's not important. The business is doing great, and there's no reason to change anything."

She let out a sigh. "Sometimes, change is good. Like realizing maybe you’ve overlooked something that's right under your nose."

I looked up from where I was putting the hand sanitizer back into the top drawer, trying to decipher what she meant. But before I could ask, I saw Analyn walk past my open door. I needed to let her pass by without acknowledging her. I couldn't do anything that would have anyone, especially Catherine, question my relationship with Analyn. But the urge to go talk to her welled up like a tsunami.

As casually as I could, I stood. I checked my watch and realized it was lunchtime. It was the perfect excuse. "As I said, I'm not interested in a partnership. And in particular, not one with Paradise Limited. I'm heading out for lunch."

I didn't wait for her to respond. I made a beeline out of my office, turning in the direction that Analyn had gone. Warning bells clanged in my head that this was probably a mistake. Going out of my way to see her could quite possibly result in my losing the bet.

Of course, I wanted to lose the bet more than I wanted my next breath. The only reason I wasn't going to try and seduce Analyn was her desire to be taken seriously at work. I didn’t want to fuck that up for her.

But surely, we could find a happy medium. We could be colleagues, maybe even friends. Something in the back of my skull told me I was kidding myself, but I pretended not to hear it.





10





Analyn





By the end of the week, I was feeling really good, not just about my job but also at having Reed as my boss. Although I saw him around on occasion, for the most part, we didn't talk to each other. We barely looked at each other. He was doing exactly what I wanted. He was acting like my boss and like we hadn't slept together a month ago.

Even so, sometimes, like a stupid lovesick teenager, it bothered me that I wasn't catching him looking my way when I was looking at him. As it turned out, I was the one struggling not to let our history interfere.

So when I heard him call my name as I was heading down the hall toward the elevator to go out and grab lunch, I stopped short, wondering why he wanted to talk to me. I reminded myself that he was my boss, not the man I’d picked up at a bar a month ago. Chances were he wanted to tell me something boss-like, such as checking in on my first week or maybe offering praise on how I was settling.

I plastered on a smile and turned as he approached.

He pointed to his watch. "It's nearly time for lunch. Now that you've been here for a week, I thought we could meet, and you can let me know how things have gone."

Ah . . . okay, so boss-like and yet, I hadn’t seen him take anyone else out to lunch. I studied his face, and he appeared sincere. Like he really wanted to check in on me as his new employee, not as the woman he slept with last month.

I was hungry, and a girl's gotta eat. I decided I need to take him at his word. "I wouldn't mind some lunch."

He smiled, and for a moment, I was dazzled until I reminded myself, again, that he was my boss.

We walked together to the elevator, and he said, "We’ve got a really good Chinese restaurant on the ground floor of the building."

"I like Chinese." I stepped into the elevator next to him. I looked over at him until the memory of when he'd bet me that he wouldn’t be able to wait until we reached the hotel room to kiss me, and to prove it, the minute the elevator doors had shut at the hotel, he had pressed me against the wall and his lips were hot and thorough on mine before the door even closed.

I cleared my throat and looked forward. He didn't speak, and in fact, he took a step sideways, putting distance between us. Had he had the same thought and he was trying to behave? Maybe I had inadvertently given off sexy vibes, and he was worried I was going to try and make him lose his bet. This was why avoiding each other at work was for the best. Whenever he was around, my mind went all sorts of places it shouldn't go.

When we reached the ground floor, we exited the elevator and made our way across the lobby to the Chinese restaurant.

A lovely Asian woman met us at the hostess station. "Mr. Hampton. Right this way."