Sleeping With My Boss: A Standalone Novel (An Alpha Billionaire Romance Love Story) (A Dirty Office Romance) (34 page)

Chapter
Twenty-Two

Emily

I
held my breath as I felt torn between wanting so badly to give in and go
wherever this moment would take us and my loyalty to a husband who didn't even
seem to know I was alive. It had been so long since Tommy had looked at me like
I was beautiful and attractive and now here was a man who had everything anyone
could possible want and he wanted
me
.

Austin leaned forward and brushed his lips
against mine, sending a shiver down my spine and causing an agonizing ache
between my legs. I knew what it meant, but I was loath to acknowledge that it
had been months since I'd felt anything even remotely like it. All I wanted was
to feel his lips on mine and his arms around me pulling me tightly against his
firm body as his hands stroked my skin. I wanted to feel
something
.

As he leaned in closer, I suddenly saw
Tommy standing in the garage at home looking at me with the saddest expression
– like I was letting him down. No, like I was letting us down. I raised my
hands and put both palms on Austin's chest and stammered, "Austin, no,
I...I...I can't."

He reacted the way I imagined he would,
that is, he was hurt and defensive. I tried to soothe his bruised ego by
telling him that he hadn't misread the signs, but I couldn't tell him why. I
didn't feel like he'd understand my dilemma, and why would he? He was a
gorgeous billionaire with a bevy of beauties vying for his attention and a huge
corporation to run. If I told him about my miserable marriage and my middle of
the road life, he'd simply smile and walk away.

"Oh, I see," he said backing
away with a look of disappointment on his face. "I'm sorry, I read the
signs wrong."

"No, no you didn't," I said as I
moved closer and softly placed my hand on his cheek. "No, you read the signs
exactly right. I just can't."

I looked up into his dark eyes and felt
myself fighting the urge to stand on tiptoes, wrap my arms around his neck, and
press my lips to his. I inhaled sharply as I touched him. I could feel the
electricity coursing through my body and I quickly pulled my hand back.

"I get it," he shrugged as he
looked away. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bother you when you're so
tired."

"Austin, look at me," I said. I
took a deep breath and in a hesitant voice tried to explain, “It’s not that I
don't want to, it's that..."

"It's that what?" he interrupted
impatiently. "Just tell me, I need to know what's going on."

I wanted nothing more than to blurt out
the whole tale of woe and find that he was a sympathetic listener, but I didn't
know him well enough and I wasn't willing to take the chance. My gut told me
that he would walk away, and I didn't want him to. And I especially didn't want
him to walk away because he pitied me.

"I can't because...it's just not
possible right now," I said. He stepped back and looked at me for a
moment.

"Then why did you lead me on?"
he asked defensively.

"I didn't," I said as I shook my
head. "I didn't lead you on."

"I get it," he shrugged again.
"No harm, no foul. I'm sorry I misread the signs."

"Austin," I whispered. "You
didn't misread the signs."

"Yeah, sure," he replied as he
rolled his eyes. He looked at me for a long moment, then turned and walked to
the elevator and pressed the button. When the doors slid open, he stepped
inside, pressed a button, and held my gaze until the doors slid shut.

I wanted to call out and stop him, but I
knew that if I did, I'd have to explain everything and I wasn't ready to paint
a picture of my life because I wasn't sure I wanted to see it myself.

Chapter
Twenty-Three

Austin

I
walked out of Emily's room and tried hard not to turn around and demand an
explanation. If she didn't want to tell me what was going on, I sure as hell
wasn't going to pressure her to tell me. Only a weak man would beg.

As I marched to the elevator and smashed
my finger against the button, I tried to figure out why she'd rejected me and
more importantly, how I'd misread the signals so completely. The doors quickly
slid open and I stepped on, pressed the ground floor button, and then looked up
at her and held her gaze until the doors slid shut.

I was quickly transported to the ground
floor where I walked across the lobby to the bar. The bartender on duty nodded
and brought me a glass of 12-year-old Balvenie without a word. I sat staring
into my glass until a woman sat down next to me and said, "I'll have what
he's having." She turned and looked at me for a long time, then looked
back at the bartender and said, "Would you be so good as to bring him
another one, Alec, and put it on my tab?"

"Oh you don't have to-" I
protested.

"Darlin'," she said with an
amused grin in a charming Southern U.S. accent. "When a woman offers to
buy you a drink, you should be gracious enough to accept it."

"Of course," I said as I tipped
my invisible hat to her. "Thank you, ma'am."

"Oh lord, do not even start with that
ma'am crap," she drawled as she rolled her eyes and took a sip from the
glass Alec set in front of her. "Do I look that old to you, mister?"

"No, ma-um, miss?" I chuckled as
I stumbled over the words trying to find something that wouldn’t offend her and
finally settling on, "What would you like me to call you?"

"Oh look, Alec," she called to
the bartender. "We've got a boy with manners down on this end of the bar!
What a hoot!"

I smiled and sipped my whiskey silently as
I waited for her to tell me what she'd like to be called. She sipped hers,
looking me up and down. She was a tall woman in her mid-forties with long honey
blonde hair and big blue eyes. She was wearing a Herve Leger dress that
probably just barely skimmed her thighs when she was standing and made me avert
my eyes while she was seated. She wore an enormous diamond wedding ring that
had to be at least five carats and a white ceramic Chanel watch that set off
her sun-kissed skin. She was a woman who had a lot of money – or had married
it. Either way, I immediately liked her.

"I'm Honey Beaufort," she said
holding out her hand. "Or Honey B to those who know and love me. You can
just call me Honey."

"It's nice to meet you, Honey,"
I said as I grasped her hand and shook it. "I'm Austin, and everyone just
calls me...Austin."

Her laugh caught me off guard. It was loud
and its richness filled the small room. I saw Alec grinning down at the other
end of the bar as I felt myself begin to chuckle despite my attempt to hold
back. I was grateful that the staff at all my hotels knew that I liked to
travel incognito rather than be identified as the billionaire boy who ran Marks
Enterprises. Most people with money already knew me thanks to my father, but if
they didn't know me, I liked to keep a low profile.

"Well, Austin who everyone calls
Austin," she laughed as she raised the glass to her lacquered red lips.
"It's good to meet you! I think we're going to have a mighty fine time
here tonight!"

"I don't know about that,
Honey," I said shaking my head. "I have a feeling that you are a
wild, wild woman with lots of tricks up her sleeve...er, in her clutch."

"Well, aren't you a charmer!"
she roared as she looked over at Alec and nodded her head. He immediately
poured two more whiskeys and delivered them to our end of the bar before
returning to his dishwashing post well out of earshot. I made a note to tip him
well later. "Darling, I'm a former Texas beauty queen," she said with
a mischievous grin. "Miss Galveston to be exact, and we all have tricks in
our clutches."

I couldn't help but laugh at her joke, and
as I did I thought about Emily. I wished she was down here with me laughing
with Honey and enjoying her American warmth and humor. I turned and looked at
Honey.

"Uh oh, someone's got a serious look
on his face," she drawled.

"Honey, can I ask you a
question?" I said.

"You just did, darlin'," she
grinned. "But I like you, so you can ask me another one."

"You're a tough woman," I
laughed, sipping my whiskey as I thought about the wisdom of asking a complete
stranger what I was about to ask her.

"Oh just spit it out, darlin',"
she laughed. "You're either going to ask me to go to bed with you, an offer
I will regrettably have to turn down, or you're going to ask me about another
lady and I will have to give you advice."

"How did you know?" I said only
partly stunned.

"Oh darlin', when you've been dealing
with Texas men as long as I have, you know that they either want you or they
want your best friend," she laughed. "And my Granny Vanny taught me
how to deal with both issues with manners and grace."

"Sheesh, you women," I said
shaking my head in amazement. "You always seem to know everything, don't
you?"

"Austin, who everyone calls Austin,
I'm going to assume that this means you aren't going to proposition me,"
she said seriously.

"No ma'am, I mean, Honey, I
mean..." I stammered as I tried to come up with the question I really
wanted to ask her. "Why are women so hard to understand?"

Honey slammed her hand on the bar and
laughed so loudly that the concierge began to walk over from the front desk to
check on everything. Alec waved him off with a grin as Honey continued
laughing.

"Oh darlin'," she choked out
between laughs. "If I had an answer to that question, I'd be so damn rich,
I wouldn't have any idea what to do with myself!"

"I'm serious," I grumbled as I
tried to hold back my own laughter. Something about Honey made me want to
lighten up and let loose instead of always being so guarded and wary.

"Oh, I know you are, darlin'"
she said sympathetically as she nodded at Alec and made two more whiskeys
appear. "Look, I don't know who the girl is or how she's gotten you so
riled up, but I will tell you one thing about women."

I leaned forward on my stool, listening
intently to the wisdom of a woman who obviously knew things.

"Here's what I'm guessing," she
said as she sipped from her glass. "You like a girl, you showed her that
you like her in your own special way, and then you made a move on her, but she
rejected you. Am I right so far?"

"Kind of," I muttered into my
drink, trying to hide the fact that she was dead on with her assessment.

"I'll take that as a yes," she
smiled as she slipped several well-manicured fingers under my chin and lifted
my head until I was looking her dead in the eye. "Darlin', you're a
handsome young man who seems to have a lot going for him, and don't take this
the wrong way, but you are still just a man. You boys think that the way you
approach women is going to make her a sure thing, but you are so often so far
off base it hurts."

"Then, tell me what I'm supposed to
do!" I said miserably.

"I can't," she replied, smiling
sympathetically. "That's the hard part. You can't take a one-size-fits-all
formula and apply it to every woman. You have to figure out what makes each
woman tick and then meet the need."

I stared at her like a deer caught in the
headlights of a speeding car.

"I know, darlin', my dear husband had
the same look when Granny Vanny told him the same exact thing," she
chuckled. "The lesson was that he needed to pay attention and learn. More
than anything, women want a man who pays attention, and if ya'll would figure
that out early on, things would go a lot smoother for everyone."

"I thought I was paying
attention," I grumbled.

"No darlin', you were listening to
your pecker," Honey laughed. "You men often take counsel from the
wrong adviser."

I couldn't help but laugh at her
assessment. Not because she was entirely right, but because she was so honest.
I wanted Emily, but I wanted her in a way that was different from all the other
women in my life. The problem was that I had tried to treat her the same way as
I'd treated all the others. Honey had shown me the error of my ways.

"But she said she doesn't want
me," I said.

"No, she didn't say that at
all," Honey shook her head as she grinned. "What she said was that
she's not ready to hop in the sack with you because you haven't proven that
you're anything but a handsome charmer, which you are, by the way."

"So, what do I do?" I asked.

"Darlin', if I knew the answer to
that question, I'd be a mind reader," she laughed. She leaned in and laid
her hand on mine as she spoke. "All I can tell you is that if you really
want this woman, you're going to have to pay close attention and figure out
what it is that she needs."

I nodded solemnly as I stared back at her.
My brain was full of ideas about what to do to impress Emily and get her
attention.

"Darlin'," Honey said as she
patted my cheek. "Stop thinking about yourself and start thinking about
her."

She got up off of her barstool, grabbed
her clutch, and waved at Alec before giving me a big wink and walking out the
door. I looked down at the end of the bar where Alec stood wiping glasses and
grinning like a fool.

"She's a force of nature, that
one," I said, chuckling as I slowly shook my head.

"That she is, Mr. Marks," Alec
affirmed. "That she is."