Sleeping With My Boss: A Standalone Novel (An Alpha Billionaire Romance Love Story) (A Dirty Office Romance) (119 page)

She smiled. “Don’t count on that being any
time soon.” Once again, rage hissed through my body. I took a step toward her,
but caught myself and instead turned back toward the hallway and went to my
room. I closed and locked the door behind me before ripping off my tie and
jacket. I pulled my phone out of my pocket then and called Alicia. She was the
only thing that could calm me down where Marjorie was concerned.

“Hi, baby. What are you doing?” I was
practically whispering. I was feeling paranoid like Marjorie was listening at
the door. I didn’t want her being any part of my conversation with Alicia.

“Hi, I’m taking a bath. I wish you were
here.” My mind pictured that and I groaned and then it dawned on me that she
was headed home to take a bath hours ago.

“What took you so long to get your bubble
bath?”

“Why are you whispering?”

I sighed. “Marjorie’s in the other room. I
don’t want her overhearing us – she doesn’t need any more ammunition to torture
us with.”

I could hear the change in Alicia’s voice
at the mention of Marjorie’s name, but she was supportive anyways as she said,
“I’m sorry, baby. Maybe Monday it will be all over, huh?”

“God, I hope so. It has to be. Let’s not
talk about her any more though, please. Tell me about your evening and why
you’re getting your bath so late.”

“I went shopping. I realized I haven’t
even decorated for Christmas yet or started my gift shopping. While I was out,
I bumped into Jack Grant, my friend from the U.K.” I felt a tightening in my
chest. I counted to ten in my head before saying,

“He seems to have a knack for bumping into
you when you’re alone.”

“He was Christmas shopping, Adam. No evil
intentions there, I assure you.”

I felt like a jealous ass. “I’m sorry,
baby. Everything that’s been going on lately has given me the eerie feeling
that there are evil intentions all around us.”

“I suppose I can’t blame you there,” she
said. “We just can’t let all of this change the way we think about people.
Everyone is not like Marjorie, or the Brigham’s, for that matter.”

“Thank God,” I said, wearily. “I think I
should turn in for the night, so that we can deal with people such as Marjorie
and the Brigham’s again bright and early tomorrow morning.”

“I love you, Adam,” she said. It’s funny
how much better I feel hearing her say that in her cute little British accent.
“Everything will be okay, soon.”

“I wish you knew how much I appreciate
you.”

“I do know, love. I do believe it will be
better soon. It has to get better, right?”

“I suppose it can’t get much worse.” It
could, though. She could leave me. Now that this guy “Jack” was sneaking
around, that could even be another nail in my coffin. Shit! I was getting way
too paranoid. I needed to get some sleep. “I love you, too,” I told her before
hanging up the call. I undressed down to my boxers and collapsed on my bed. It
was only seconds before I slipped into a deep, dreamless sleep.

CHAPTER
FOUR

ALICIA

  
I
put the phone back down on the side of the tub after I talked to Adam and
sighed as I dipped back down into the sudsy, warm bubbles. I felt horrible for
him, but I also felt bad for me. He should be here or I should be there and
Marjorie shouldn’t be anywhere in our solar system.

I closed my eyes and heard the sound of
his voice when he said Jack had been “bumping into me” a lot lately. I wasn’t
happy that he was jealous per se, but at least maybe it gave him just a taste
of how I have to feel every time he was with Marjorie, only ten times worse,
considering he was still married to her. Jack and I had really only bumped into
each other again, just this time not literally.

  
On
the way home, I’d decided I still had too much nervous energy after the run in
with Marjorie to relax. Instead, I headed down to Times Square where the shops
were all still open late for holiday preparations and began my Christmas
shopping.

I walked from shop to shop, picking out
things that I thought my mom and dad would like. I found a gorgeous pashmina
for Kyla, and bought several small holiday baskets for assorted people from the
office. By the time I reached the last shop, my arms were so full of packages
that I could hardly carry them all. The last shop was a jewelry store that
offered custom designed items. I found exactly what I was looking for as a gift
for Adam. I placed an order for a watch and inscribed it with the words,

“My
boss, my mentor, my lover, my friend. Always, Alicia”

After I left there, I stopped in to a quaint
little coffee shop on my way back to the garage where I left my car and ordered
an extra-large latte. As I sat down at the nearest table to the counter and
relieved myself of the weight of the packages, I slipped off my heels, too, and
for the first time since seeing Marjorie in the parking garage at work, I began
to relax.

“Wow, I hope you have a sleigh outside to
carry all of that home in.” The voice startled me until I looked up and
realized it was Jack. He was standing next to the table dressed in a pair of
blue jeans and a black polo shirt, wearing that sexy lopsided grin that used to
take my breath away.

I laughed and said, “That would be nice,
actually, because maybe there would be a few elves out there to help me carry
it all.”

“Well then, tonight is your lucky night,”
he said as he sat down without an invitation,

 
“My
other persona is an elf, and I was born to be a helper and a giver.”

I smiled, and asked him, “Do you have a
crystal ball that helped you to find me this evening or were you just out
shopping, as well?”

“Shopping,” he said, grinning again.
“Unfortunately. That crystal ball thing would have been really cool.” We sat
for a while, sipping our coffee and talking again, like hardly any time had
passed between us. By the time we were ready to leave, I had laughed so much
that my cheeks hurt and I had hardly allowed Marjorie to enter my thoughts
once.

“Thank you, Jack. I needed this.”

“What? Coffee with an elf?” he asked
playfully.

“Yes, an elf that can make me laugh and
forget my problems for a bit was exactly what I needed.”

“Well then,” he said with a mock bow, “I
am so glad I could be of service to you.”

Jack helped me gather up my bags and
insisted on carrying most of them to my car. I gave him a hug and a kiss on the
cheek before getting into the car. “Thank you again. I had a wonderful
evening,”

“You’re welcome, again,” he said. “So did
I. Do you need me to follow you home and help you get this stuff up to your
apartment?”

“No, thank you. The doorman will help me.
He’s a very nice man.”

Jack looked disappointed, but said, “Okay,
be safe and have a good night. I am looking forward to our dinner on Friday
night.”

“Me, too,” I said as I got in the car.

Jack had stood there and watched me drive
away. As I glanced in the rearview mirror before I pulled out of the lot I
found it a little strange that he was still rooted to the spot I had left him
in and watching me. I wasn’t going to admit that to Adam, though, especially
since my imagination was probably simply going crazy because of all of the
stress.

********

Adam and I didn’t see each other outside
of the office again until Friday afternoon. He had sent a message to me through
Mary inviting me out to lunch. He had been in meetings all morning outside of
the office, so we decided to meet at a café we both liked in Manhattan. Adam
met me out in front and gave me a long, sweet kiss.

“God, I missed you,” he told me when he
had finally let me go.

“I missed you, too.” We went inside and
were seated at a table near a big window. While we waited for our lunch, I
asked him about his meetings and then finally addressed the elephant standing
between us.

“How have things been with Marjorie?"

Adam made a face like he had tasted
something sour. “The good news is, I’ve been so busy with work, I’ve hardly had
to see her. The bad news is, I did have to see her a few times coming and
going. I can hardly stomach looking at that woman. I can’t imagine what I ever
saw in her to begin with.”

 
“Well, I wasn’t going to ask, but…”

Adam laughed and shrugged his shoulders.
“It will forever be one of those ‘what was I thinking’ moments I guess.”

“I would probably understand it better if
you had told me you were smoking crack when you proposed,” I said with a
giggle.

“Me, too, actually,” Adam admitted. He
turned serious then. I was glad when our lunch came and he was at least
distracted for a time while we ate. Feeling bad about bringing Marjorie up, I
changed the subject to Christmas and what I planned on making for dinner
Christmas Eve.

“Do you think you’ll have any time next
week to go and buy a tree with me?”

“I will do my absolute best,” he said. “I
haven’t bought a Christmas tree in years.” I was about to ask about his and
Marjorie’s Christmases, but caught myself. He was looking at his watch anyways,
and I knew he was on the verge of leaving.

“Time flies, huh?”

He smiled. “Unfortunately, only when I’m
with you. I do have to get back, babe. Miles’ trial begins right after the New
Year. There are so damn many witnesses to interview. Each time I think we’re
close to finishing up, someone else gets added to the list.”

“I have a lot to do at the office this
afternoon, too,” I told him.

“And, your date with the old flame
tonight, right?” Adam asked. He was smiling, but it was a tight one.

“Adam, you aren’t truly upset that I’m
having dinner with Jack, are you?”

“No,” he said as he signed the credit card
receipt the waitress had brought him. “I’m just jealous that he gets to spend
the time out with you and not me, and honestly, baby, I’m still a little uneasy
about how he seems to keep turning up everywhere you go.”

We walked outside arm in arm and stopped
on the sidewalk. I rose up on my toes so I could look into his eyes and said,
“He’s only ‘turned up’ twice, actually. And, if it helps to know this at all,
I’d rather be with you, than anyone, anytime.”

Adam tipped my chin up further, and
parting my lips with his tongue, he gave me a deep, passionate kiss that I
never wanted to end. It did so suddenly, however, as we both felt and saw a flash
of light at the same time. We turned simultaneously towards the source.
Standing about three feet away on the sidewalk was Rose Dugan, and some young
kid with pimples on his face and a professional-looking camera draped around
his neck.

Rose, with the over confidence that we had
both seen upon meeting her on separate occasions, waved at us with three
fingers and smiled like she was in on a private joke that neither of us knew
about before getting back in a van that was adorned with the
Post
logo on the side and driving away.

We stood there stunned for a moment. We
weren’t celebrities, but somehow representing a billionaire oil baron had
brought us both smack dab into the middle of the media circus. We both had a
few choice words to say about the young and exceedingly arrogant Ms. Dugan on
the way back to our cars. Once there, Adam kissed me again and said,

“I actually hope that picture gets put on
the front page, that way the whole world will finally know how I feel about
you.” That simple statement sent me back to work with a smile on my lips and
hope in my heart.

I spent the afternoon working hard,
leaving a little later than I had hoped. When I got home, I showered and
dressed in a white angora sweater dress and boots. I was putting the final
touches on my hair and make-up when Jack called. “I just wanted to make sure we
were still on.”

“Yes, of course. I was just getting
ready.”

“Great! I’ll be there about seven.”

“Perfect. Do you need directions to pick
me up?”

“No, I have you on GPS,” he said, and then
added, “I just pulled it up now, as we were talking so that you wouldn’t have
to bother trying to tell me how to get there.”

That was odd and gave me a little creepy
feeling. Maybe I did need to talk to him about my relationship with Adam. I
thought again about what Adam was implying about Jack running into me “too
often.” I decided I’d talk to him at dinner and said, “Okay then, I’ll see you
at seven.”

Jack rang the bell exactly at seven
o’clock. I had known he was there already, thanks to the phone call that I had
received from my doorman Luis, asking if I was expecting him before sending him
up. I opened the door, and there stood Jack in a black suit with very small
dark green pin stripes that perfectly matched his eyes. He was holding a
bouquet of fragrant pink and white roses in one hand.

“You look beautiful,” he said as he held
out the roses. “For you.”