Page 22 of Boss Abroad
What a night.
“Shall I tell you a dying puppy story to take that smile off your face so I can kiss you some more?”
I laugh out loud and pretend to chastise him with an insincere “Liam!” and a poke.
That poke unwittingly entered me in a jiu jitsu tournament and the man flips me on my back in one swift move. Where did that come from? Enough with the surprises, please.
Before he can suffocate me with his weight, he whispers so very low I might be kidding myself, but I think he says, “You’re fucking perfect.”
CHAPTER TEN
liam
My alarm buzzes me awake and I’m still half asleep when I stretch my arm across the bed, looking for April’s body.
I have no idea what time we went to sleep, but I’ve slept like a rock for the few hours between then and now.
Just so I don’t break my just acquired bad habit, I forget this was just another job for her and catch myself wishing she was still in bed with me.
I check my phone for the first time since I turned it off last night, look at the time, ignore the many message notifications I have waiting for me and take a quick look through my emails to see if there are any fires to put out.
Before I jump into the shower, I call George, my driver, asking him to come pick me up at the hotel this morning and not home.
Afterward, I stroll around the room, clean but resentful of the soap that erased April’s scent from my body. So I grab her robe to put on instead of mine and scavenge for my scattered clothes, finding a note on top of my trousers.
I’ll be walking funny
for the foreseeable future,
but thanks for giving me
a night to remember.
xxx
April
What is this? A goodbye card? Brooke must have told her I don’t do repeats. Fuck, if I’m not tempted to. Tempted to, planning on. Tomato, tomahto.
George's reply pinging onto my phone stops me from reminiscing. He's already at the door. I fasten the robe in place and open it to get my suit carrier from him.
“Is he decent, George?” Mia’s voice peeps from behind him.
“Gunn? It’d take reincarnation to call him a decent man, Mia.” George answers and they daftly laugh together. Am I incapable of hiring serious professionals?
“Come in, you fucktwits.” He’s not wrong, but I can’t just laugh along. “Order breakfast if you want. I’m going to get changed, then you can talk me through my day. Make yourselves comfortable.” I point to one of the few immaculate surfaces safe for them to sit on in this room. “But for fuck’s sake, be useful. Do some actual work for a change.”
George is young, smart, and has been with me for the last four years. I hired him as a favor to God knows who. I can’t even remember. I see too much potential in the kid to let him waste his brain away driving me up and down, so Mia is training him to take on more responsibilities and he’ll become her PA or something when she says he’s ready.
Unfortunately, they’re having too much fun at it. George never made it to college, so I’ve enrolled him in marketing and managing night classes. Kid’s fucking acing it and will get his degree soon enough.
I come out of the bathroom brushing my beard down, hair already styled back.
Fuck, what a night. I feel so good, I could smile. I won’t, but I could.
I stare at myself in the full-length mirror, ready to face the day in a sharp, navy, three-piece suit. Then the toddlers I hired start catcalling me and ruin the post-fuck vibe I was riding.
“I don’t know if I should fucking ground you or fire you. My advice: do not tempt me or my patience,” I tell them when their teasing pushes me to my limits.