Page 46 of The Damaged Billionaire's Obsession

“Well, one can't help but read into it. She’s good, but how reliable can she be? You’ll have to admit that it raises issues of trust and permanence.”

“I know. But she can’t change her past. Are we going to keep punishing her for it?” he asks.

Jordan knows how to make someone feel like shit. “Of course not.”

“I’m sorry, but I have to ask.” He looks almost terrified. “Ethan, is it possible that you like her? As in, is there a chance you’re masking attraction to her?”

“Yes,” I scoff, “the way you’d like a porcupine.”

I didn’t lie, I said yes. Although like is such a tepid word. Try obsessed. An insane desire to possess a woman who seduces me but might not like or want me but also won't resist my advances because she's scared. Fucked up sounds better actually.

He breathes a sigh of relief. “I told Bree she’s not your type." Jordan has known me for almost six years and I'm sure has never seen me with another type of woman except blondes.

"So, she rubs you the wrong way then.”

It’s a statement, not a question, so I don’t answer. “Okay, so you won't be best friends. Can you at least be reasonable and not sabotage the company because of your personal beef? She can do this, you know she can. And she needs it,” he insists.

Then, for his next point, he ensures that he has my full attention. “Bree doesn't know the whole story because Bonnie never talks about it, but she doesn't think Bonnie had a great time growing up and she doesn’t have much of a family.”

Aww, hell. Kill me now. The way he says it makes me look like a fucking asshole blocking the progress of both my employee and the company.

I throw my hands up and practically roar, “Fine, give it to her. But if she fails or flakes, she goes. Those are my terms.”

“I knew you could be reasonable.” He pats my shoulder and leaves before I can change my mind again.

Because Bonnie is unlikely to fail.

But she might turn down the offer if she doesn't want to work with me. Maybe the universe will be kind to me this one time.

Jordan will inform her before the end of the week I'm sure.

And I was just beginning to build what I hoped was a budding friendship with the woman.

Too bad because it will all go to shit now because I don't see myself being alone in a room with her without going mad with lust. Unless she genuinely is on the same page with me, I'm well and truly fucked.

Chapter 13

Bonnie

“Heard you’re working ontheDakota? Need any pointers?“ Jordan pops his head around my office while I’m typing away frantically.

“I’m just about finished.” I stretch out my cramping shoulders. The afternoon was filled with demanding work, but it was rewarding.

“Shall I send it to you as well as Sajid?” I ask.

Ideally, I should be showing it to Ethan since he’s suggested I work on it to get experience with identifying complex security breaches, but Zeus has been in full arctic mode for the past week, sending none of the emails or messages I’d begun to look forward to.

I wonder what’s eating him up now?

Shortly after that episode in his office, he’d started reaching out to me every day, sometimes even twice a day, sending me messages to check on my work, sometimes picking up on things I’d left out.

It’s uncanny how the man can anticipate my issues. It means Ethan not only knows the program I’m working on but also that he understands my personality and how I would approach a problem. I liked that he could do that so effortlessly.

I liked it a lot.

All we talked about was work, but those couple of hours we spent after work hours have been the highlight of my day for these few weeks.

I was beginning to see what had Sabrina so enamored. He can be a phenomenal boss and an amazingly warm person when he wants to be.