Sleeping With My Boss: A Standalone Novel (An Alpha Billionaire Romance Love Story) (A Dirty Office Romance) by Claire Adams Read Free Book Online Page B

morning, Asher,” she said in a very
business-like manner.
    A manner that definitely came across as a little awkward.
    “Hey, can you step into my office for a second?” I
asked.
    “Sure.”
    I stepped back behind my desk, where I took a seat.
    “So, uh,” I began as she sat down across from me,
“about last night…”
    “Um, yeah…” she stuttered.
    “How are you feeling?” I asked, not really knowing
what to say and hoping she’d give me something to go on.
    “I have a little bit of a wine hangover,” she replied.
“I've had a killer headache all day and I've been feeling a little sluggish.”
    “Me, too. At least you didn't have an hour long
training session with a former U.S. Marine Corps drill sergeant at five a.m.”
    She laughed and immediately some of the tension in the
air evaporated. It was a relief to hear her laughter.
    “That sounds like the absolute worst thing I could
have imagined doing at five a.m.!” she claimed. “I got up an hour later than I
usually do. I got here on time, but I’m usually half an hour early.”
    “But you did get here on time, and that's a sign of
commitment and discipline,” I encouraged. I knew I needed to stop beating
around the bush and get to the point, even though I really wasn’t looking
forward to it. I wasn’t sure how she was feeling about the events of the
previous evening.
    “So, about what happened last night, specifically at
the end of the evening…”
    “Yeah, that ,” she said, looking down at the
papers in her hands.
    “Look, we'd both had way too much to drink, and when
I've had a lot of alcohol, I sometimes…well, do things I wouldn't usually do.”
    “Yes, me, too,” she agreed. “We'd both had a few too
many glasses of wine.”
    “So, it just happened because we were both rather
intoxicated, right?” I tried not to sound like I was fishing for confirmation,
but I was.
    While I knew I likely wouldn’t have kissed Lilah had
we not been drinking, it wouldn’t have been because I didn’t want to. It would
have been because my logical side would have stopped me. The fact that she
paused before answering made me wonder if she was feeling the same way or if
she truly had no attraction to me unless there was alcohol involved.
    “Yes,” she responded. “I would definitely say it
happened because we were both fairly inebriated.”
    “I think so.” All I could do was agree.
    There was a drawn-out moment of uncomfortable silence.
I was about to flip the switch back into all-business mode when she looked up
from the papers in her hands and our eyes locked.
    “I'd like to have dinner with you again sometime,” I
said suddenly. It wasn’t at all what I had intended to say. I had intended to
steer our interactions back toward a strictly boss-employee mode, but
apparently my mouth had other ideas. “But no drinking. Or, uh, at least we
won't have nearly as much.”
    Her gaze searched mine for a moment, and I wished I
could read her thoughts. “That, uh, sure. I’d like that,” she replied. For a
brief moment, I saw the guard she’d been hiding behind since she’d walked into
my office fade. A soft smile brushed over her perfectly-shaped lips. Then, just
as quickly, it went back to full strength. “But for the moment, I think we both
really need to focus on the Harry Winston campaign. That comes before anything
else.”
    “Oh, of course, of course,” I agreed. “That is our
absolute top priority at this point in time. And there are a few new projects
coming up, as well, that could make or break us in the coming financial quarter.
Projects that I'm going to need you to be performing at your peak for. Projects
that we're all going to need to have absolute crystal clear focus for. So,
yeah, we shouldn't let…” Our eyes caught again and I had to refocus. “We
shouldn’t let anything distract us from that.” I said the words, but I didn’t
mean them. I wanted nothing more than to be distracted by this woman, and I
really