Stranded for Christmas with my Boss (Forbidden Billionaire Boss Daddies)

12. Jensen

Chapter twelve

Jensen

C onfusion strikes me as Alyssa takes off in the opposite direction from me, making me stop in the middle of the hallway.

She didn’t look happy. She looked…I can’t even place it. Concerned? Horrified?

I rub the back of my neck as I watch her essentially attack the down button until the elevator doors finally slide open. She doesn’t even look up at me before the doors shut.

This doesn’t seem good. At all.

“Shit,” I mutter beneath my breath, wondering what has her looking so upset.

I suppose I could’ve been kinder after I fucked her again in my office, instead of telling her to keep working, but I’m still trying to figure out how the hell to act around her. It’s not exactly a straightforward, completely professional relationship, even if it should be.

Maybe I should go after her or call her to make sure everything is okay.

Before I can do either of those things, I hear footsteps quickly approaching me from behind.

“We need to talk.”

I barely get a chance to turn around before Austin pushes me in the direction of my office, making me nearly stumble inside before he shuts the door behind us. “What the hell, man?”

Austin turns to face me, his arms crossing over his chest. He shoots me a glare that immediately tells me that I’m in trouble. It’s the same glare he gave me when I woke up hungover on one of my exam days in college. But more serious.

“Why did you take Alyssa into your office and shut the door? And why did she leave your office looking…flushed?” Austin questions me.

Oh, shit.

“Are you monitoring the hallway or something? I thought you were fixing that profile picture bug. People are going to be pissed if they can’t resize their photos.”

Austin steps closer to me, giving me a warning look. “Don’t play dumb with me, Jensen. What happened in your office when you shut the door?”

I hold his sharp stare for a few seconds, trying to think of any sort of excuse to give him so that he gets off my back. What else can I say other than the truth or for him to mind his business, though? And if I tell him to stay in his own damn lane, he’ll know that something happened in my office between us.

“All right, all right,” I mutter as I take a seat, a heavy sigh breaking from me. “Alyssa and I…we’ve slept together before.”

Shock fills his face as he stands there in tense silence. He blinks at me and shakes his head, beginning to pace the way he usually does when he’s overthinking or overwhelmed. He used to keep me up at night when he was stuck on whatever programming project he was working on, and he would pace and pace until he came up with a solution to try.

“You slept with your assistant? What the hell were you thinking?” Austin finally approaches my desk at lightning speed, his teeth gritting as he hisses out the words low enough that no one outside my office can hear them.

I sigh and lean back in my chair, expecting a barrage of chastising, which I deserve. I’m doing things that I shouldn’t be doing, but he has no idea how hard it is to stop. “I know. Everything you’re about to tell me are things that I’ve already told myself.”

Austin rubs his jaw, pacing once again. “Did you sleep with her earlier? Are you seriously doing this stuff where anyone can catch you?”

“I didn’t sleep with her,” I assure him before lowering my eyes. “We kissed and did stuff, but we didn’t have sex. That was only one time more than a week ago.”

Austin barks out an unamused laugh. “Did stuff. Really? And she started like a week ago!”

I rub my temple, knowing that this conversation isn’t going to lead anywhere good. I may as well get the truth off my chest now. “It was her first day…after we got stuck on the elevator together.”

Austin reaches back and holds his hands on the back of his head as he shakes it in disbelief. “Why are you doing these stupid things, Jensen? This isn’t like you! You don’t take risks like this. Not with the company.”

He’s right. I don’t do anything to jeopardize all our hard work, and that’s what makes me feel the guiltiest about all that I’ve done with Alyssa. My company is full of dedicated hard workers, and the last thing that I want to do is screw them over because of mistakes that I’ve made.

It’s not right. Even if I didn’t catch any backlash for my actions, it would still be a hit to company morale if we got caught. Bosses aren’t supposed to get involved with their assistants.

“I’m sorry, okay? I know I shouldn’t have done it. She just…” I trail off, unsure of how to finish that sentence. I can’t even finish it for myself because Alyssa twists my mind in multiple different directions. I can’t figure out myself around her.

That’s a bad thing, right?

Austin frowns in confusion and approaches me, walking around my desk to step in front of me. “She what?”

“I don’t know. She just gets in my head,” I say. That doesn’t even scratch the surface of what she does to me.

“You mean the lust gets in your head?” Austin questions me. “I get you haven’t gotten out in the dating world for a while now, but you can’t be settling for what’s easily accessible.”

My teeth clench as I narrow my eyes at him. “That’s not why I slept with her. She’s not easily accessible.”

Austin puts his hands up in an innocent manner. “All right, fine. This has to stop, though. What if you piss her off and she files a complaint against you? What if she goes public?”

I decide not to tell him about her odd behavior earlier. That’ll just freak him out, and if I can fix that issue in private, I will.

“I get it. I’ll back off,” I tell him.

I knew I should abide by my promise, but the thought of pulling away from her leaves a hollow ache in my chest. The logical part of me screams to stop this madness, to protect everything I’ve worked so hard for. But the rest of me, the part that had tasted her and wanted more, is willing to risk it all, even if it means watching everything I’ve built crumble to ash. It’s always hard to give up what you want the most, even if it’s forbidden. Honestly, that makes it even more tempting.

Austin narrows his eyes in a suspicious manner. “This isn’t like you, man. You haven’t slept with anyone else at the company, right?”

I shoot him a pointed look. At this point, he’s offending me. Like I’m constantly doing things to screw up the company and ruin all the hard work that we’ve put in over the years? “No, this is the first and last time.”

Austin sighs and drags a hand through his hair. “All right, I trust you. Take care of this before it spirals out of control.”

I silently nod, my eyes trailing him until he walks out of my office and leaves me alone with my thoughts. Dangerous move. My mind immediately darts back to Alyssa, wondering what’s going on and where she abruptly left to go to.

She left during work hours! It’s completely unlike her, which makes the situation even more worrying.

Fuck it. I’m calling her.

I grab my phone and dial her number after finding it in her employee profile, my knee bouncing as I listen to ring after ring until her voicemail pops up. I try again, only to get the same result.

She isn’t picking up the phone. Is it because she’s busy or because she’s actively ignoring me?

Footsteps outside of my office prompt my eyes to lift and catch sight of Maya just as she walks down the hallway. I pop out of my seat and hurry to my doorway. “Maya.”

Maya pauses and turns around, surprise lighting up her face. “Oh, Mr. Riley. Can I help you with something?”

I nod as she approaches me. “Alyssa took off not too long ago. Do you know where she went?”

Maya frowns and shakes her head. “She didn’t say anything to me about leaving work early. She didn’t say anything to you about having a doctor’s appointment or anything like that?”

I wrack my brain for any sort of memory of Alyssa telling me that she would have to take off in the middle of a workday, but nothing comes to mind. There was no reason for her to abruptly leave. No reason that I know of.

“I can’t think of anything. I’ll give her a call again and see,” I say before nodding my thanks to her.

Maya continues to frown. “I’ll keep an eye out for her. I’m sure she’ll come back.”

Maybe. Damn, what if she never does, though? What if that was her quitting her job?

“Yeah, thanks,” I reply before disappearing back into my office, not wanting Austin to catch wind that I’ve been asking around about her.

Now he’s going to watch us more closely, which is not where I need his attention to be focused right now. He needs to focus on rallying all of our tech people to make sure that our app is functional on New Year’s Day. If it’s not, this whole thing will be a disaster.

How can anyone enjoy our update if it doesn’t even work?

I sink down into my seat again, calling her one more time, only for the call to go right to voicemail. No explanation. No call. Not even a message.

A cold dread settles in my gut as I stare at my phone, her unanswered calls gnawing at my nerves. Had I pushed her too far? The thought of losing her, not just from my office but from my life entirely, hit me with a force that left me reeling. I had to find her, to make sure she was okay…before the damage became irreparable. My eyes then narrow as a surge of determination breaks through my concern. I’m going to figure out what’s going on with her one way or another. She has to show face eventually, right?

And when it happens, we’re going to straighten things out once and for all.