Page 75 of Modern Romance January 2025 5-8

At that point, Charmaine and Matias abandoned their drinks and disappeared into the bedroom at the back of the private plane. The really fun part was when Auggie had to accompany the women back to whatever city they had come from, if Matias had long-term work in the city they were landing in. That didn’t happen every time, often transfer would be arranged in a different way, or the woman would stay over in the city, but never long-term with Matias. It really was an amazing trip. He managed to be a shameless womanizer who was loved by all. Even the women that he had finished with.

Nobody could hate him.

It made Auggie even more suspicious of him, frankly. Because that was some black magic. Different than the black of his hair. Different than his eyes. A kind of sorcery that she couldn’t quite access.

That was the problem with him. He wasinteresting.

When she had taken the job with him she had been so certain that he would be dull. He was the world’s favorite boyfriend, as Irinka had pointed out. He had a reputation for being polite, a generous employer, a man who gave extravagant tips to anyone who served him. He was quick with a smile.

But that smile never reached his eyes.

She put her headphones in because she didn’t need to hear anything happening in the adjacent room. No, she did not.

She managed communications for Matias while they were in the air, and then did some finessing of his schedule. And once the time was appropriate, she put her ear to the bedroom door. And then she opened it slowly. They were both asleep, in bed. She had become very good at simply not looking at the man. Half-dressed, enjoying the aftermath of his liaison. It wasn’t her business. He was allowed to conduct himself in whatever way he chose. But she had something she needed to do.

She snagged the woman’s phone off of the nightstand and turned it so that it was held up to her face. Then she flinched, swiping up the screen on the unlocked phone, and going to the photos. There were none taken. Thank God. She had deleted pictures of Matias sleeping from multiple women’s phones.

There were no photos, but she could see an email banner pop up with some text.

Once you finish with him, I need you to...

And then it cut off.

She sat there and looked at it. And she felt a vague sense of disquiet. Granted, Charmaine could be getting that email about anyone. In any context.

She might not have told anyone she was having a dirty weekend with a hot billionaire.

Auggie hovered her thumb over the email app. She had lines, and boundaries. She didn’t invade people’s privacy. She didn’t go through texts, she didn’t surf through all the photos, the only thing she tried to do—historically—was keep Matias’s penis off the internet.

This went outside the boundaries of that.

Whatever it is, it isn’t your business.

She let out a breath, and placed the phone back, gingerly. There were no pictures. That was all that mattered. The rest wasn’t her problem and couldn’t be.

She snuck back out of the room, and not for the first time, gave thanks that she was nearly at the end of all this.

Matias was so much more work than any man she’d ever contracted for. Usually she found her job a delightful challenge. She liked the freshness of having a new client every few months. Typically, what she was doing was giving extra and specialized help while someone increased workload for a new project, or needed help with some image maintenance during a challenging time.

She wasn’t PR. But she often worked alongside a PR person to help with the flow of work, so that the subject of her help would look good, efficient, less stressed, etc.

Working with Matias just made her stressed half the time. And strung out on his beauty, which was a complication she’d never experienced before.

When the plane landed in Barcelona, both Matias and Charmaine tumbled out of the bedroom. Looking disheveled, but lovely, both of them.

She wondered if Matias would ever settle down, or if he was destined to remain unattached. He seemed to exist in the eternal now, but she knew that wasn’t true. Because a man didn’t accidentally become as successful as he was. Not even if he came from a rich family. Because he had not used his father’s money to get where he was.

There was just more to him. It constantly surprised her how the world was willing to take his enigmatic smile as the truth. To assume that he was simplistic, because he was happy to let them believe so. To trip through life as a man winning at the lowest difficulty setting. Which more than one person had said about him, and he seemed completely happy to take that on the chin. He was... Pleased to let people think he was a fool.

And that, to her, was the most suspicious thing of all.

“Charmaine will be staying in Barcelona for a couple of days, she wishes to see the offices.”

“Oh,” Auggie said. “So I won’t be making a return trip, then.”

That hit her strangely, and she knew it was because of the email.

When you’re finished with him...