Boss With Benefits (Billion-Dollar Bet, #2)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

E LLA WAS CLIMBING out of the pool when she saw Adam bearing down on her like a thunderstorm. What could possibly be wrong? she wondered with a frown as she picked up a towel and wrapped it round herself. She’d left him in bed, limp, sated, with a huge smile on his face, but that was nowhere to be seen now.

He came to an abrupt stop in front of her, the tension radiating off him in waves that were so huge she felt buffeted. His jaw was set and his face was as dark as night, and great big fat alarm bells started ringing in her head because, whatever it was, it had to be serious.

‘I’ve just been sent a photo of us getting off the plane in Aruba,’ he said grimly and without preamble. ‘It was scheduled to appear in Blush magazine online. I don’t know who took it, but there’s enough detail to suggest that we’re more than just colleagues. Take a look.’

He thrust the phone in her direction. Stunned, unable to quite comprehend what he was telling her, Ella took the device from him and glanced down, her mind instantly spooling back to nearly three weeks ago. She recalled the moment only too well. The two of them had just stepped out of the plane and onto the steps. A second earlier he’d reminded her of what he was planning to do to her when they got to the house, and she was wearing a secretive sort of a smile that somehow managed to imply that she couldn’t wait to get her hands on him.

‘How did this happen?’ she said, her mouth dry, her heart thudding while she struggled to absorb its implications.

‘I don’t know, but I intend to find out,’ he said with such icy steel that for a second, she felt sorry for the perpetrator. ‘I’ve stopped it going public. However, it was an extremely close call. We got lucky this time, but I can’t risk it happening again and putting into jeopardy everything I’ve worked for. You know what that means to me.’

‘I do.’

‘This island is not as safe as I assumed. We could be discovered any moment now.’

As that observation hit her brain, Ella’s blood drained to her feet. No. God. That couldn’t happen. What if her colleagues found out what she’d been doing? The gossip would be unbearable. They’d never trust her again. And if the picture reached her boss? She’d be fired in an instant, because an auditor and a client in cahoots on a Caribbean island the day after winding up a job was about as big a conflict of interest as there could be. The audit would have to be redone. Her reputation would be trashed. She really would never work again.

Despite the heat of the morning, a rash of goose bumps broke out all over her skin and she found she was trembling. All right, so Adam had blocked the photo’s publication, but that wasn’t the point. The point was that she too had jeopardised everything she’d worked for—not to mention the promotion she’d literally just received—and for what? Sex. A man. Again.

So, what the hell had she been thinking? How could she have let desire once more hurl her off her path? Hadn’t she done enough damage to her career already? Had she learned nothing ?

Ella had never regretted agreeing to this affair, but she did now. She regretted it with every fibre of her being. It had been a mistake from the start. She shouldn’t have allowed Adam to persuade her into it. She should have been resolute. She couldn’t believe she’d let history repeat itself, despite telling herself over and over again that it mustn’t.

‘You need to leave,’ he said curtly, his voice slicing through the tumbling chaos in her head. ‘Now.’

He was right. She did. She needed to find her things, pack up and get out of here as fast as she could. Back to the city, back to the plan, with her fingers crossed that this one photo was it. Once there, she would revert to eating, sleeping and breathing work. She wouldn’t so much as talk to a man, let alone touch him, kiss him or lose her mind over him.

Yet, for some reason, she couldn’t move. Her feet seemed to be rooted to the spot. She couldn’t tear her gaze from his, and suddenly she was finding it almost impossible to breathe.

What was going on?

Why wasn’t she moving?

Why was her chest so tight?

More pressingly, why was the realisation that leaving here would mean never seeing him again now the only thought in her head?

Surely that shouldn’t matter. She’d been due to go home the day after tomorrow anyway, and she’d never had a problem with that. In fact, she’d relied on the time frame to keep her on the straight and narrow.

But it seemed it was a problem now because she didn’t want to go. She wanted to stay here. With him. And not because she still had to get him out of her system but because she simply couldn’t contemplate not staying.

Which meant what? she wondered, her head spinning and her stomach churning with confusion. That, despite her best efforts, she’d become emotionally involved with him? Well, she had. She’d known that days ago and had accepted it. Only she’d badly underestimated the effect it would have on her. She’d thought she’d be able to stay in control. But at some point she’d clearly lost it completely, and now she was in so deep she couldn’t get out. Worst of all, she didn’t want to get out.

The idea of leaving him cleaved her in two. It made every cell of her body rise up with denial. Was she truly never going to be able to touch him again? To kiss him? To close her eyes and inhale him? It didn’t seem fair. It made her heart physically hurt.

If she was being honest, these last few days, whenever she’d thought about returning home to the city she loved, alone, without him, her spirits had dipped. How would she fit back into her little life after this whirlwind of an experience? It was going to be like switching from Technicolor to black and white. Who would she talk to? Who would she laugh with?

And surely he couldn’t want her to go. He seemed as invested in this as she was. Look at the steps he’d taken to get her here. The control he lost in her arms. He’d opened up to her. He’d given her Aruba. This was no more purely physical for him than it was for her, she was certain of it.

So maybe they didn’t have to go nuclear.

Maybe there could be an alternative solution.

Straightening her spine and fighting the fog clouding her thoughts, Ella swallowed hard. She took a deep breath, summoned up every drop of courage she possessed and said, ‘I agree that we’ve had a lucky escape. And I understand the need to leave. But what if this doesn’t have to be the end?’

Adam went very still, not an inch of him moving, apart from the muscle that flickered in his cheek. ‘It does,’ he said flatly. ‘You know why it does.’

‘We could put this affair of ours on hold until Labor Day. You win the bet. I focus on my job and put some clear blue water between the audit and us. And then we start up again in September.’

He gave his head a sharp shake. ‘It’s out of the question.’

She frowned at the bluntness of his tone. Wasn’t he overreacting? ‘Why?’

‘That was never the deal. We said three weeks.’

‘I know. But am I out of your system? Because you’re not out of mine.’

‘You absolutely are. And there is no “us.”’

Ella inwardly flinched, as if she’d received a thump to the gut. But she wasn’t going to let this go when she believed him to be so wrong, when they didn’t have to destroy something this good. ‘Then, what have the last few days been about?’

‘Sex.’

‘Nothing more?’

‘No. Why? What have they been about for you?’

Falling in love.

She stilled at the thought that darted through her head, and her whole body froze. No. That couldn’t be right. She didn’t want to be in love, ever. Look at what had happened the last time she’d tried it. Not that that had been love, she’d realised when she’d fallen out of it so swiftly. But the real thing would be even more unacceptably distracting. It would mean having to consider someone else’s feelings and wishes. It would mean compromise, sacrifice and distraction. She’d never get to the top of her profession, ideally running one of the big four firms, without total single-mindedness. She couldn’t think of anything worse than constantly battling for control of her career as her private life got increasingly complicated.

Yet, was love the extra dimension to the affair that she’d noticed following the night the hammock? The warm fuzzy feeling she’d developed? It could be. And when she thought about it, the rest of the evidence was pretty damning too. She adored sleeping with him. She couldn’t get enough of his company and she was riveted by his conversation. The minute she was in his vicinity, every sense she possessed sharpened. He blew her away with his strength, his resolve and his determination to do the right thing. He made her feel safe and protected. He was steadfast and reliable. If she allowed him to, she had no doubt he would take on her ex and her firm, just as he’d been prepared to confront the lech in the bar who’d chatted her up the evening they’d met.

She’d always believed that she had to depend on herself and herself alone. She’d been let down so many times—by her parents, her employers, Drew—and had learned from an early age that she was her best and only champion. But she’d be able to depend on Adam. He would never let her down. He fought for the things he cared about, whether it was justice, his company or his sister. Would it really be such a bad thing to have him fight for her too? She’d been marching through life on her own for as long as she could remember, and it was exhausting. And lonely. So very, very lonely.

Perhaps she’d been ever so slightly overdramatic with the whole must-stay-single thing. Perhaps the key lay in choosing a partner who had similar values and an identical work ethic to her own. Similar drive and ambition. Someone who would totally understand when she had to stay late or work weekends because they did that too.

Adam was that man. He wouldn’t demand she make sacrifices to accommodate him. He wouldn’t feel threatened by her need for independence. He operated entirely on his own too and he wasn’t threatened by anything.

Okay, so he’d said he didn’t have time for a relationship, but everyone made time for the things they wanted to do and people they wanted to be with. She just had to show him she was one such person. They could figure out the details later. They could be great together, a power couple taking the city by storm. She could have everything she hadn’t even known she wanted.

‘I’ve been falling in love with you,’ she confessed giddily, her heart feeling too big for her chest, the wild jumble of emotions too great to contain.

Adam tensed and paled, which wasn’t very encouraging. But he had a habit of backing off when she got too close for comfort and, as he’d discovered repeatedly over the last few weeks, she was extremely tenacious, so there was no way she wasn’t going to add, ‘And I think you’ve been falling in love with me.’

He flinched as though winded and took a step back. He gave his head another sharp shake, his denial unequivocal. ‘You’re mistaken.’

‘Am I?’ she said, the image of the future they could have together so dazzlingly brilliant that she could see nothing else. ‘Do you talk about your mother with everyone? Do you resort to subterfuge and buy a private jet for all the women you sleep with? And what about the romantic dinner you arranged the night you brought Aruba to me? Is that standard practice?’

His body was now rigid with tension. His expression turned even stonier. ‘I warned you not to read more into this than there actually is, Ella.’

‘I don’t think I am.’

‘It wouldn’t be the first time you’ve made the mistake of thinking yourself in love, would it?’

At that, the dazzling future vanished. Ella stifled a gasp and reeled, his callow observation shredding her heart to ribbons. She couldn’t believe he’d said that. How dare he turn her confession on her like that? Who was this man? Where had the Adam of the past few days gone? How could she have forgotten how ruthless he could be?

‘That’s a low blow,’ she said hoarsely, her throat oddly tight. ‘And this is quite different.’

‘How?’

Well, quite. How? Her heart hammering, she mentally sifted through the last three weeks, her temperature steadily rising when she realised that it wasn’t different. He’d never promised her anything. She’d just assumed. She’d done what she’d sworn not to do. She hadn’t kept it casual. She’d allowed her starry-eyed self to be swept off her feet and ended up far more invested in their affair than him. Just as she had before.

‘Are you honestly saying you feel nothing for me?’ she said, her head spinning with confusion and despair.

‘That’s exactly what I’m saying.’

For a moment, she couldn’t breathe. The ground seemed to be shaking. She felt as though he’d reached in, pulled out her heart and then trampled all over it while she lay beside it, bleeding, dying.

But what could she do? She couldn’t force him to feel the same way about her as she did about him. No amount of tenacity would make him love her. She wasn’t wanted. And that meant she couldn’t be here any more. There was only so much humiliation she could take. Only so long before her strength drained away and she collapsed into a soggy heap on the tiles.

So she lifted her chin and pulled her shoulders back, and before she lost what was left of her dignity, she said, ‘I’ll get packing right away.’