Chapter 8 – Pleasing the Boss

I spent the rest of the afternoon at Jessa’s side. We joined Elvis, Joe, and Arman for dinner. The bunnies, it seemed, weren’t invited to the dining table. But after the meal, Elvis disappeared for “man time,” which I was sure was a euphemism, and so I spent the rest of the evening checking out the library.

After I’ve washed my face and changed into my sleep shorts and a tank, I climb into the queen size bed with my book and try not to wonder where Elvis’s spending the night. The clock on the nightstand says a quarter to midnight, when my door opens.

“Hey, sweet girl. In bed already?”

I hate myself for being glad that Elvis’s here. “I didn’t think I’d see you tonight.”

He c**ks his head and looks at me like I’m being silly. “Where else would I sleep?” he asks, toeing off his shoes and unb**toning his shirt.

In the redheaded bunny’s room. “I don’t know.”

He pauses his undressing and frowns down at me. “Brystin.” It’s his soft voice. The one he uses when he’s being sweet or when he wants to win me over.

My eyes sting, so I turn them back to my book.

He stretches out on the bed and places his hand on top of my th**h, over the covers. “Hey. I’m here with you, Brystin.”

I shake my head, disgusted for feeling emotional. He hates it when I’m jealous. “I wasn’t sure.”

“Be sure. Hey. Look at me.” He waits for me to do as he says. “We’re here for us. Okay?”

“Right. Okay.” I run my hand through his floppy hair. “I wasn’t being…” I don’t know how to finish that because of course I was being whatever the word is that follows it. “I was just…”

He takes pity on me. “I stayed out too late. I’m here now.” He crawls closer so he can cup my face and k**s me. It’s so easy to get lost in his k**ses. They’re almost manipulative the way they make me forget what I was thinking.

It’s not too long before his hand trails down my neck, under my tank to sq***ze my br***t.

“Elvis,” I m**n, but I pull away. “People might hear us.”

“Let them.” He resumes the k**s and travels his hand lower, sl*pping it down my shorts to r*b me the way he knows I like it.

“Elvis.” I push him away. Gently, but definitively.

“Really?” He’s frustrated, and it almost makes me change my mind.

Almost.

“If people overhear you f**king, you get clapped on the back. If they overhear me, I get called a slut and suddenly I’m a woman who isn’t smart enough to tell the news.” It’s true, but more true is that I don’t know if he’s come to me from someone else’s bed, and I’m not in the mood to compartmentalize that tonight.

“You could be quiet.” But he seems to know he’s already lost the battle.

“I’m terrible at being quiet.” Also true.

Reluctantly, he draws away. “I understand. I’m going to jump in the shower then.”

“Okay. What time are you planning to get up?” I reach for my phone to set an alarm and realize it’s not here. “I think I left my cell in the library.”

“Want me to go look?”

“No.” I consider getting it tomorrow, but then it will be dead, and I hate being without a charged phone. “I know exactly where I left it. I’ll be right back.”

The hallway is dark, but the library is easy to find since it’s the last room. It’s a two-story booklover’s dream room. There’s a fireplace and desk on the first floor with bookcases lining the walls. The second floor opens to below in the middle, but another row of shelves line the entire perimeter except for a few windows with window seats. It’s definitely my favorite place on the estate I’ve discovered so far.

At the end of the hall, I push quietly through one of the glass doors, and don’t even have to turn on a light because the shelves are lit and I can see my phone right where I expected it to be. I grab it quickly, planning to dart right back out.

But then I hear voices below, and when I recognize one of them as Hadrian, I freeze.

“I wanted to be here, believe me,” he says. “Everyone get here okay?”

“Seems so.”

I step carefully toward the railing and peer over the side and realize it’s Steele that’s with him, his younger brother. I met him briefly at dinner, but I didn’t talk with him enough to know him from voice alone.

“Nothing interesting happened without you.” Steele delivers a glass with deep red colored liquid to his brother who is standing at the desk.

Hadrian takes it, downing half of it in one swallow. “Thank you. I needed that.”

“What the f**k kept you? The board meeting couldn’t have taken that long.”

“Wanna bet?” Hadrian takes another sip of his drink then sinks down in the chair. “Numbers from the last quarter came in this morning.”

“Oh. That bad?”

I know I shouldn’t be here for this conversation. I’m curious by nature, but it’s not just journalistic inquisitiveness that keeps me glued to my place. It’s this man. This strong, intimidating creature who, in this moment that he thinks is privately shared with family, looks vulnerable and raw.

“Dad wasn’t unhappy.” Hadrian lets out a slow breath. “But he’s only one person, and the numbers weren’t bulletproof. Certain members of the board—I’m sure you don’t need names—poked holes at them for hours.”

“f**k. They have to be on Uncle Reynard’s payroll. You know that.”

“Can’t prove it.”

Steele sits on the edge of the desk. “So where did it end up? Are you out?”

Hadrian shakes his head and takes another sip of his drink. “No, I’m not out. Yet.”

“You have a plan, right? You have to have a plan.”

Hadrian lets out an almost laugh. “Working on it.”

I swear I don’t make a sound, but something seems to alert him to my presence because, just then, his gaze lifts and smacks into mine. His eyes drink me in, and I’m paralyzed. A deer caught in the sightline of a hunter’s pointed gun.

“Believe me.” Though he seems to still be speaking to his brother, I’m dead certain he’s talking to me. “I’m working on it.”

I don’t know if it’s a threat or a promise, but it’s bold enough to stir me from my immobility. I push off from the railing, and sl*p out the door, scampering back to the safety of my husband and my room.

I put my hand over my eyes to shield the sun and look as far to my right as I can see. Nothing but trees and grassland. Same thing to my left. And behind me. The one direction I know not to go is straight. There’s a giant pond a hundred feet or so in front of me, and I definitely haven’t seen that yet today.

Everything within view is beautiful.

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