Sleeping With My Boss: A Standalone Novel (An Alpha Billionaire Romance Love Story) (A Dirty Office Romance) (109 page)

He pulled me in close to his chest. I felt
him nuzzle his face into my hair and breathe it in. “I’ll work harder on it, I
promise. Just stop going around kissing my associates, okay? I’d hate to have
to beat him up after I fire him.”

Adam’s voice hadn’t changed from its
somber tone, and when I stepped back to look up at him, I was a little worried
that he was serious. I honestly hadn’t meant to goad him into fighting with
Nico, or firing him. I’d feel so awful if I were to blame for Nico losing his
job. When I saw Adam’s face, though, I knew I needn’t have worried. He had a
handsome smile forming at the edges of his mouth. I knew then that he’d only
been joking. I punched him in the arm lightly and with a smile of my own I
said,

“You infuriate me sometimes, do you know
that?”

 
“Yes, I know,” he said, still smiling. He
caught me off-guard then as his sexy lips came crashing down on mine. My head
was chaotically telling me to walk away and make him wait until he’d finished with
his divorce, but as usual, my body told me differently. I rose up on my tiptoes
and leaned my body into his. Against my better judgement I returned his kiss
with the fervor welling up inside of me. Just about the time I was ready to
consent to getting naked in the alcove and making love right there on the floor
he pulled back and said,

“We better get back before someone notices
us missing,”

“Maddening, maddening, maddening,” I
whispered, mostly to myself as he straightened his tie and I smoothed down my
rumpled gown.

“What was that?” Adam asked, pretending
not to hear me.

“I said
yes of course
.” My voice had a sarcastic edge to it that I’m
certain he didn’t miss.

“Fantastic,” Adam said, as if settling a
business deal in his favor, “We’ll talk more about this later, but thank you
for being so understanding.”

I rolled my eyes and as I left the room
first, I turned back to him and said, “You can bet we’ll discuss this later.”

********

I ended up going home alone that evening.
Before the night was over, Adam received a call from the CEO of the large
petroleum company our firm had begun representing recently. There was a large
oil spill in the gulf, and Hanson and Partners were the attorneys for the
defendants, a large and very rich company that was being sued for hundreds of
millions by the EPA and others who had smelled money and jumped in on the
bandwagon. Adam normally sent an associate or a junior partner when something
came up late in the evening, but this new liaison with the Petroleum Company
was sure to prove to be a lucrative one. Adam felt that while we were still in
the courting stages at least, he should give them VIP service.

I had been disappointed at first, but once
home and in my comfy yoga pants and cotton t-shirt, I decided that a night alone
to think might be just what I needed to figure this all out. I made myself a
cup of hot cocoa and called Kyla, my best friend. I knew she would be up
because she’d been at the party I just left.

“Hi.” She always sounded like she had a
smile in her voice. It was one of the many things I loved about her. “Missed me
already?”

“Of course, I did,” I told her. I took a
breath then and said, “I need some advice.”

“About Nico?” Kyla asked, playfully. She
knew good and well that wasn’t the advice I was looking for.

With a groan, I said, “No! Did everyone
see me make a fool of myself with Nico tonight?”

Kyla laughed. “Calm down, silly. I was
only giving you a hard time. I saw Adam watching you and Nico dance, and I
swear he had storm clouds in his eyes. Then you two disappeared for a while,
and you both looked happier and a little flush when you came back. I suppose
though that since I am the only one at the firm that knows the truth, I was
paying much closer attention than anyone else.”

“Thank you, Kyla,” I trusted her with my
and Adam’s secret because I knew she was too loyal to ever say anything to
anyone. “I hope Nico didn’t get the wrong idea, though.”

“I think Nico indulged a bit much in the
champagne fountain tonight. Odds are he won’t remember all that much in the
morning.”

“Good. The last thing I need is another
man at work angry with me.”

“Is Adam angry with you?”

“No, not anymore, anyways,” I told her. “I
just don’t know what to do, though. I’m so tired of all this drama with
Marjorie affecting his moods. I’m tired of pretending to everyone at work that
I’m just another colleague of his. But every time I think of calling it quits,
I look at him and I melt all over again. What’s wrong with me, Kyla?”

“Absolutely nothing at all,” my friend
said, “You’re in love, that’s all. It can be the most wonderful, amazing,
titillating, frustrating, maddening feeling you’ve ever had. It’s just
confusing sometimes. I know it’s hard for you having to hide it.”

 
“Well, thank you for saying nothing is wrong
with me, but you’ve told me what I already know. Don’t you have any special
advice that will relieve this ache in my soul? It wants to reach out to him,
but I feel like I have to keep it in a cage.”

 
“My
advice to you is that if your soul is already involved, aching or not, you’re
in too deep to get out now. Follow your heart, honey. You have a great head on
your shoulders, but sometimes you get too analytical with that attorney brain
of yours. Try not to overthink it, just do what your heart tells you to do.
Hearts always know best in the end.”

“Thank you, Kyla. My heart loves you, too.
Get some rest.”

“I will, you, too. I will see you bright
and early Monday morning in court.”

“I can’t wait,” I said sarcastically with
my lip curled. The case we had to be in court for on Monday had consumed every
one of our waking hours for months now. I wasn’t looking forward to facing the
sleazy D.A., but I was looking forward to the surprise we had for him. “The
NYPD and our tacky little D.A. are going to be dumbfounded when we present the
motion to suppress the confession.”

“Yep, I can’t wait to see Dawson’s face,”
Kyla said.

“Me, too!” I heartily agreed. Dawson was
Robert Dawson. He was the D.A. for the Manhattan borough of New York, and he
was also a short, balding, and pudgy little man with beady eyes and hairy arms
that thought his position of prosecutor gave him some kind of clout with the
ladies. He has hit on both Kyla and me more than once. He’s a pig, and I
couldn’t wait to see the look on his face when I offered up the evidence that
his police detectives had coerced a confession out of my client after he had
asked for a lawyer.

Our client in this case is the son of a
very wealthy contractor who was already a client of the firm. The kid’s name is
Nelson, and he is not very likeable at all, which makes my work even harder.
It’s not really his fault. He was the product of uber rich parents who had
little time to help him develop his social skills and instead gave him every
material thing he could ever want. I knew, though, that the kid hadn’t done
what they were accusing him of. It was all part of a political game and I had
no use for people who would play games with a young man’s life, whether he’s
likeable or not.

After hanging up with Kyla, I headed for
bed. Just before snuggling down underneath the soft down comforter that my
mother had helped me pick out just before my move to New York, my phone rang.
It was Adam.

“Hi, baby. Did I wake you?” he asked.

“No, I was just lying down. I’m glad you
called.”

“I wanted to say goodnight. I hope you’re
not mad at me still.”

I didn’t want to get into it again right
then, so I said, “No, I understand. How did the meeting go?”

Adam sighed. “This isn’t going to be
pretty. A reporter from the
Times
has
zoned in on the story and is acting as if she has taken up the Cross. She’s
hounding the CEO of Brigham Mobile, no matter how many walls the company puts
up to protect him. This reporter, Rose Dugan is her name; I hear she's like a
dog with a bone when she gets ahold of a story. She's digging into his personal
life and personal finances. She has also started beating a drum about his
connection to the presidential campaign.”

“Can you get a judge to issue a gag
order?” I asked.

“I wish,” he said, “Unfortunately, this
was an international incident, and apparently the ‘people’ have a right to
know. I’ve scheduled a meeting with Ms. Dugan in the morning. Hopefully, I can
convince her to ease up…”

“Be careful. Hanson doesn’t need a
reporter snapping at our heels with everything else that’s going on.”

“I will. I just wanted to say goodnight
and I am thinking about you.”

 
 
“Goodnight,
Adam, sweet dreams.”

“I will be dreaming about you,” he told
me.

CHAPTER
TWO

ADAM

  
I
was running late. The meeting with the oil company had gone on and on last
night and then after I’d gotten home and talked to Alicia on the phone, I
couldn’t go to sleep. I wanted her in my arms. I understood why my situation
would upset her. If things were reversed, I doubt I’d put up with it. I just
have to find a way to make her understand that I’m doing this for us. If I let
Marjorie take everything that I’ve worked for my entire life, there would be
nothing left for us. I’m not willing to let that happen. Alicia and I both just
had to be patient. This divorce couldn’t drag on forever.

  
 
I rushed into the café where the reporter Rose
and I had arranged to meet. I only left five minutes late but the traffic on
the turnpike had been horrific and now I was running a half an hour behind. I
had seen a picture of Rose under her byline in the paper so I knew her as soon
as I spotted her sitting at a table alone sipping her coffee. I watched her for
a moment, as she had yet to notice me. She held her coffee with one hand and
sent and received text messages on her phone with the other. She looked so
young to have such an important position. I smiled as I remembered having the
same thought the first time Alicia had walked into my office for her job interview.
I assumed it must have something to do with growing older. Everyone else seemed
to be getting younger. Sometimes I couldn’t believe I was already forty. It was
kind of a depressing thought.

The young lady finally looked up from her
texting and I took that opportunity to gauge her expression as I approached her
table. I made eye contact with her and watched her look over my
three-thousand-dollar suit. I’m not pretentious. I just truly believe that how
a person dresses is an extension of who they are both personally and
professionally. I thought I detected a change in the confident expression the
young woman had pasted on her face. It was very brief, but I recognized anxiety
when I saw it. Holding out my hand as I approached the table, I said, “Ms. Dugan?”

She stood up, all five feet two of her,
and offered her hand, as well. I was surprised to find that although her hand
was so small and appeared fragile, she possessed a powerful grip. “Yes. Mr.
Hanson, I presume?” she said, releasing my hand and sitting back down. “Please,
take a seat.”

I sat down and said, “Please forgive me
for being late. The traffic was terrible for a Sunday.”

“Yes, I know,” she said, “I drove all the
way in from Queens. I think it must be the approaching holidays bringing more
people out and about in the city.”

“Well, Ms. Dugan, I am grateful to you for
spending your Sunday morning driving into Manhattan to meet with me.”

“Please, call me Rose,” she said, “And
maybe we can save the small-talk and get right to the point of why we’re here
today.”

I raised an eyebrow at her brusqueness,
but if that’s what she wanted, that’s what she would get. “Okay, Rose, right to
the point we’ll get. I like that. Perhaps you can explain to me why you are
determined to smear my client’s good name all over the front page of your
paper?”

“Well…Adam…do you mind if I call you
Adam?” I nodded slightly, knowing full well that calling me by my first name
was an attempt on her part to keep us on equal footing.

“First of all, your client’s ‘good name’
as you put it, was lost the day he spilled hundreds of gallons of oil into the
Gulf and killed countless fish, birds, and wildlife. Not to mention,
contaminated drinking supplies to thousands of human beings.” I stayed silent,
and Rose continued, “Second, I am simply doing my job, reporting the news, as
are you doing yours, defending slimy oil barons who support crooked
politicians.”

I smiled. It was a happy smile, but an
ironic one. It wasn’t often that I met someone that stood up to me so easily. I
knew I could be intimidating and over-bearing. It typically bodes well for me
in my business. I could see that with this young lady, I would possibly need to
use a softer approach.

“I agree that we are both doing our jobs.
What I would like is for us to find a way to do our jobs without resorting to
smear campaigns in the press.”