My Boss’s Secret by Taryn Quinn
Twenty
Say what?The topic change was so abrupt that I might’ve tripped if I hadn’t already been sitting down.
When I would’ve moved back—to breathe, to think—Bishop’s hand clamped down on my non-bruised hip. He never forgot, not for a second. “He’s my best friend. Basically, my brother. After yesterday, I thought I could say no. That I had to, if it was going to make this hard for you. Or awkward. Or just put one more thing between us. But—”
“You can’t.”
“No. I can’t. And the man you want in your life wouldn’t be able to either.”
Kit-Kat must’ve sensed the change in the air because she leaped down from her lofty perch and streaked out of the room. She’d been far more interested in hanging around when we were having sex.
My cat was a pervert.
I got to my feet and paced around the room, picking up and setting down parts and pieces from my various crafts. I was always in the middle of something. A lot of times I moved on before finishing. Always looking for a spark sustainable enough to get me to the finish line, whether it was for a present or a decoration for myself or something I put up in my Etsy shop online.
A lot of pieces, I created on a whim or from something I saw in a magazine, but I grew tired of them before they were completed. But the ones where the glow was strong and true from the first, I always loved, no matter what.
“You asked me what all of this stuff was for.” I gestured around the space. “We got diverted, as we usually do. But I didn’t really have an answer. Now I do. They’re for me, even if I don’t keep them all. They make me happy in the moment, and for some of them, that’s enough. I don’t need to keep them to have loved them or to remember how much they mattered. Some I sell online. I give a lot of them as gifts. That project on the sewing machine right now is a pattern for tarot bags for my girls for Christmas. Assuming I can stop dicking around and focus.”
Hey, look at you using dick as a verb. Progress!
“The one thing I don’t pick up and put down are jobs. I find one, and if it’s a fit, I stay. Like a barnacle on a ship in turbulent seas. I cling.”
He studied me for a long moment. Even not looking in his direction, I could feel the weight of his stare. Warm. Assessing. Above all, empathetic. Not pity. I couldn’t have stood for that. His sympathy and understanding were so much different.
“You need something you can count on.” He cleared his throat. “A place you belong.”
“Yes.” I couldn’t elaborate. Not when I knew he was already so conflicted.
But he’d told me. True, not right away, but he hadn’t waited that long, all things considered.
It had taken him a little a while, but he’d trusted me with this too.
“My first inclination the other day was to tell him hell no. Then I decided to try it out.” He sent me a heavy-lidded glance. “When I figured out you were his assistant, that his new girlfriend Ryan was your best friend…let’s just say I had some thoughts.”
“I bet you did.”
“Yeah. The kind where we test out my boss and secretary kink.”
I bit my lower lip and tried to control my sudden desire to climb on him like a carousel horse at the fair. “You have one of those?”
“Turns out if you’re the secretary, I sure as hell do.”
“Hmm.”
“I was at your building yesterday to do a trial run. To get the lay of the land, so to speak. And there you were, walking right behind my SUV. Which, by the way, I asked Preston to move for me with my spare key last night while you were sleeping through Law & Order.”
I flushed. “Just closed my eyes for a few minutes.”
Or like three hours. Whatever. I’d barely slept since I’d come home from the island, other than my first day back.
“Is this your delicate way of saying my current boss knows I’m banging my new boss?”
“No, it’s my delicate way of saying I talked to Preston last night and told him I couldn’t risk hurting you, even if it killed me to let him down. He helped me at a really tough time.”
“Dagger time?”
He glanced at me over his shoulder as I kept pacing and picking up and setting down craft supplies. The fuzzy pipe cleaners I was currently clutching gave him pause before he nodded. “Yeah. The tattoo.”
“I was hoping it was related to apex predator activities.”
“Well, that too. But the worst of those began after…”
“Just say it, Bishop. I can take it.”
I was pretty sure, anyway.
His smile was slow and arresting. “I love how you say my name. Usually with exasperation.”
“You like that? I can be exasperated with you more often if it twinks your winkie.”
“I don’t know what twinks means.”
“Me either.” I shaped a pipe cleaner into bunny ears to give myself something to do with my hands.
Waiting him out once again.
“I nearly married my law school sweetheart.”
The blow didn’t land quite as hard in my chest as I would’ve expected, mainly because he didn’t marry her. “Nearly?”
“She ran off with my older brother. Announced she loved him during the vows.”
However, that one had me sitting down hard on the loveseat. “God, that’s brutal.”
“Yeah.” His smile twisted like a rope around my ribcage because I could only imagine the hell he’d gone through. “They got married.”
“And?”
“And I haven’t spoken to my brother in the almost four years since.”
“Or your parents. That’s why?”
He nodded. “I don’t give a shit about Rina anymore. Far as I’m concerned, they deserve each other. But my dad should’ve stayed loyal to me. It was obvious who was wrong. And my mom pretending she didn’t have to choose because she loved us both—”
“No matter what your brother did, he’s her son.”
Bishop’s eyes narrowed. “Really?”
“Yes, really. What would you expect her to do?”
“Acknowledge who fucked up. It wasn’t me. God knows I’ve done plenty of shit wrong in my life, but I did everything I could to make Rina happy. Key just strolled in there and messed with her head and told her crap like I wasn’t really ready to settle down, that I’d back out within a year. That I’d never be anything but a workaholic.”
I rose and came over to him, sitting at his side even though my hip hurt more sitting on the floor. But I wanted to be at his side. “People do crazy stuff for love.”
“You’re saying he loved her? That she loved him? Well, hi, remember me? He had a responsibility to treat me honorably as his brother.”
“And she as well, as your almost wife.” I tried to keep my tone even. “But God, Bishop, people screw up every day. Sometimes they want to take those mistakes back, and sometimes those mistakes lead them to something amazing.”
“What the hell about me?”
The desolate question made me slide my hands under his robe, gripping his thighs so he would look into my eyes as I summoned every ounce of my bravery. “Maybe she wasn’t meant for you.”
I figured he’d argue. He was so very good at it, after all. And clearly, I still wasn’t confident in my appeal. I’d probably never be awesome at trusting people. But he didn’t fight me.
“I know she wasn’t.”
Swallowing deeply, I tipped my forehead to his. “But he’s your brother. He will always be your brother.”
“Preston’s my brother.”
His stubborn response would’ve caused me to smile if there wasn’t so much on the line. “Is this where you slide in that you’re going to be my boss, after all?”
“I have to do this for him. He asked me because he knows Dex doesn’t have the dedication to manage a Foot Locker, never mind a multi-million dollar—hey.” His eyes narrowed. “Did you know he made Preston think he was sleeping with you?”
I rolled my eyes. “Yes. Before you ask, no, I didn’t sleep with him. We’ve never even flirted. He’s like an annoying cousin. Objectively, he’s attractive, but we have no sparks.”
“I have lots of sparks with him, because I wanted to pop his tires for even thinking about you and sex.”
It felt so good to laugh after all the epic revelations over the past hour. But I supposed we were way overdue. “To be fair, I think anyone would’ve been thinking of sex when confronted with the Debbie Does Dallas-level kiss between our best friends. It was hot, and I’m not typically aroused by Ryan or my boss.”
“What do you know about Debbie Does Dallas?”
“That I’d rather watch Boss Me, Daddy.”
He shifted toward me and tugged me into his lap. Despite the various aches and pains from my butt’s collision with that gutter, I wound my legs around his waist as if wrapping myself around him was the most natural thing in the world. “Is that a real movie?”
“Sure, once we make it.”
I’d never seen someone’s jaw drop before. In that moment, I couldn’t have been more delighted with myself—or with him.
Whether he was my boss-to-be or whether he’d almost married a seriously dumb cunt. I’d never used that word before, even in my vilest thoughts. But it applied here. And his brother was an even dumber one. If they didn’t grasp the kind of man Bishop was, they didn’t deserve to even breathe his air.
“April mine, you’re going to corrupt me.”
“I’d say you’re ahead on that score. But I do wish I could do one particular thing.”
Desire flickered to life in his gorgeous eyes. “What’s that?”
“I wish I could kiss your ex. With tongue.” He stiffened, but I kept going. “Know why?”
“No, I really don’t.”
“She gave you up.” I brushed my fingers through his hair, watching the wavy brown strands shot through with gold tumble over my skin. “And I won’t.”
His arms tightened around me. “That so?”
“Oh, yeah.” I pressed a kiss to each of his temples in turn. “Even if it’s hard. Or I’m scared. I’m sticking, Bishop.” My breath trembled out. “Bishop mine.”
