Page 56 of Jealous Boss

But the truth is, yes. I do feel different.

Not in the way girls in movies say they do. I don’t feel “like a woman,” whatever that means. But I feelknown. Claimed, maybe. In a way that makes me ache and bloom at the same time.

Hesawme. He wanted me.

And now he’s lying here, propped up on one elbow, looking at me like I’m some kind of miracle he accidentally stumbled across and doesn’t quite know what to do with.

“How do you feel?” I dare.

He shrugs one shoulder. “Starving. Proud of you. Terrified. Mostly hungry, though.”

I laugh, but part of me tenses at the wordterrified.

I know he doesn’t mean it like that. Not that kind of fear. I may have only known Ethan Villiers a short time, but I know he’s a bold maverick, a daredevil in the boardroom who gets his way every single time.

Watching him land that Japanese deal last night had been so hot my panties were soaked by the time I got up to make the copies.

The ache it’d created was why I’d had the risqué thought of taking them off, then dropping my panties in his lap, making him break.

I don’t regret a single thing that brought us to this point.

But still, the word he just uttered slides in like a splinter under my skin.

Maybe becauseI’mscared, too.

Not of him. But of what happens next. Because I only planned things up to this point. And now I’m not sure what to do. Whathewill do.

I roll onto my back, staring up at the ceiling, his fingers still brushing lightly along my skin.

Right now, it’s just us. This bed. This moment that feels like it could stretch on forever if I don’t breathe too hard.

But we were living on borrowed time even before this thing started.

Eventually, Uncle Phil will return from St. Lucia.

Mother might eventually grow tired of her partying and remember she has a daughter whose life she can meddle in to alleviate her boredom.

Hell,I’llhave to decide what to do with my life now that I’ve graduated with a marketing degree in my back pocket.

My main immediate concern though is Uncle Phil.

He won’t need office gossip to know what’s going on between Ethan and me. He’ll only need to be in the same room to see the way Ethan looks at me like he can’t stop, like I’m the thing he didn’t know he needed and now can’t imagine doing without.

I’ve heard the whispers.

I know Ethan’s not just a name-partner-in-waiting. He’s the firm’s future. The firm Philip Hyde and Mason Tucker built. He’s everything Uncle Phil spent the last decade grooming to step into his shoes.

My uncle isn’t unreasonable, but he’s fiercely protective of his family and his reputation. It’s why he’s given Dad chance after chance to get clean.

So this—me and Ethan—I can’t see how he won’t take it badly.

But I don’t want this to end. I can’t.

I turn my head to look at Ethan again.

He’s still there, watching me, touching me like he doesn’t want to stop. And in that moment, I realize something with a quiet, terrifying certainty.

I’m falling for him.

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