Grumpy Boss Hamel, B. (best ereader for textbooks TXT) 📖

given anything away, but I didn’t think I had. Lady Fluke was perceptive though, and mixing that with her apparently intimacy with Rees meant she could practically read our minds.

“I’m trying to keep things simple,” I said, dodging her accusation without lying, exactly.

“Of course,” she said, and for the first time since I sat down, she seemed to relax. “I wanted to say, please, be careful with Rees. He hasn’t had an assistant in so long, and I think he desperately needs one. And perhaps a nice, pretty woman will do him some good.”

“Ah, thank you, I think,” I said, blushing like she’d just called me the most beautiful girl in the whole world. I was smitten with Lady Fluke, like a child looking up to a mentor, and it was definitely insane.

“But don’t fall in love with him, dear,” she said. “I’ve seen it before. You think you can soften him, and maybe fix him, but I promise, there’s nothing to fix. That man is what he is, and he’ll never change.”

“I don’t plan on loving him,” I said quickly, hands up in the air. “I mean, not even a little bit.”

“No?” Lady Fluke’s smile tightened. “So why did Kevin send me a text message this morning about Rees having a relationship with you?”

I felt like my entire body turned into a balloon, filled with helium, then popped in one desperate explosion. I slumped in my chair, wishing I really could collapse into myself like a dying star.

“It’s not like that,” I said.

“I’m sure.” She cleared her throat, finished her tea, and sat up straighter, if that was even possible. “Tell Rees I’ll look at Alfie’s proposal, but no promises. And as for you, heed my warning. Don’t fall in love with that man. It will only bring you trouble. For as much as I think he’s a good person, he’ll never change. You’ll find yourself with a broken heart if you try it.” She stood then, like a panther uncurling from a tree branch. She stepped forward, put a hand on my shoulder, and smiled—like a bright light in a dark room. She walked off then, leaving me alone at the table.

I leaned forward on the elbows and thought I might cry.

I didn’t love Rees and didn’t plan on it. So far, I found him attractive and interesting, but difficult, demanding, and a little too comfortable grabbing my rear end. And yet her words echoed, and I felt as though she’d seen something, perhaps something I hadn’t noticed myself yet.

Rees returned a moment later and sat down next to me. “How’d that go?” he asked.

“Fine,” I said, not able to meet his gaze.

“She tore you apart, didn’t she?” He laughed a little and ran a hand through his hair. “She does that, you know. Did it to me the first time we met. I felt like she looked into my soul and found me lacking somehow. And then she told me exactly how I could fix it.”

“It wasn’t like that,” I said, shaking my head. “She told me she’d look at Alfie’s papers.”

“That’s good,” he said, nodding. “Alfie will be pleased.”

“That’s what we came here for, isn’t it?”

He turned and looked over his shoulder toward where Lady Fluke left. I saw something in his expression then—a yearning, or a sadness, and I realized that this really was about making amends with her. Despite everything, they were friends, and I got the sense he didn’t have many of those.

“Right,” he said. “That’s it.” He stood again and held out a hand. “Shall we, assistant?”

I took it and let him help me up. “You’re not going to try and fondle me again, are you?”

“Not unless you ask,” he said. “I’m not in the mood to have my genitals smashed in today.”

“Good,” I muttered, and smiled a little to myself. He walked back through the dining room and I followed, the Lady’s words still playing through my mind, over and over: don’t fall in love.

10

Rees

Colorado is a flat expanse of small scrubby trees and bushes, broken up by highways and cul-de-sacs and housing developments. Between Denver and Boulder, there wasn’t much, but we kept going west. The mountains loomed in the distance, craggy and pitted, white peaked and beautiful.

“They’re almost terrifying,” Millie said as we drove further and further into the country, surrounded by fencing and the occasional horses. “Having them always there.”

“You’d probably get used to it,” I said, but I knew what she meant. There were no mountains like them, not back in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania was all forest and rolling hills, but this arid semi-prairie, in the shadow of those enormous mountains, felt somehow unnatural, like they could come crashing down at any moment.

She made some dismissive sound and stared out the window. Ever since her meeting with Lady Fluke, she’d been strange. One moment, she seemed particularly engaged—reading over Alfie’s prospectus, for example, made her almost giddy with the boredom of financial jargon—and the next she’d pull away. Jack said the Lady had that effect on people, and that she’d move past it sooner or later.

I wasn’t so sure. It’d been nearly a week, and she still seemed off. I wondered if maybe I should palm her ass again, just to knock her out of whatever funk she’d dropped into.

I followed GPS directions to a long, dirt road that jutted through a series of fields. Ahead, hidden in the middle of a copse of trees and brush, was a large house, bigger than I’d expected. It was in the ranch style, lots of wood, very western feeling, but there were small, unexpected modern flourishes, like big glass windows. We were far away from civilization, about an hour from the nearest town, and everything in spitting distance was owed by Byron Nave.

Jack did some research into the guy. Apparently, Kevin wasn’t joking—Byron truly was rich as all hell. He was a cattle baron and owned thousands of cows and steer and other livestock, not to mention acres and