Page 448 of His Virgin Romance Series

SETH

Brie was still sleeping when I snuck out of bed. I tiptoed around the bed where my clothes were lying in a scattered heap on the floor. I dressed quickly, hoping she wouldn’t wake up and catch me. The moment I had my pants on, I decided to slip out into the living room and finish dressing in there, but I found myself pausing over Brie’s sleeping form.

She was lying on her stomach with her face pressed to the side. The sheets were draped over the lower half of her body so that I could see the smooth curve of her back. Golden curls snaked across her naked skin and half of the pillow, and the part of her face that I could see looked peaceful and content. I resisted the urge to touch her. As lovely as she looked, I knew that the magic of the night before had been replaced by cold, hard reality.

I tiptoed out and finished dressing in the living room. I knew I shouldn’t be leaving like this, Brie deserved better, but I didn’t want to have to face a conversation. She would want to know where we stood, and I had no idea what to tell her. My life was fast-paced, my job was demanding, and I didn’t know when I would have the time to devote to her. I tried not to think about Jason as I slipped out of the suite.

I decided to head straight to my office in an attempt to distract myself with work. But somehow, I knew that no matter how busy I got, I would have a hard time avoiding thinking about Brie and what had happened between us last night.

I remembered more than I had expected to after drinking so much. I remembered how she had stood before me, proud and intoxicatingly feminine as she had undressed without any sense of self-consciousness. I remembered the way her mouth had tasted when I kissed her. I remembered the way it had felt to have her naked body pressed against mine. I remembered the moment she had told me her secret.

“Fuck,” I whispered under my breath.

I should have stopped it then. But the alcohol had put my better judgment on hold. That and the fact that I was already horny and too turned on to have stopped myself at that point. When I walked into my office, Ben was already there, leafing through files that had been piled high on top of my desk.

“Morning,” I said brusquely.

“Morning,” he replied. “You look like you need a cup of coffee.”

I ignored that and sat down behind my desk. “What have you got for me?”

“A couple of disputes that need settling.”

“Fuck. Who is it this time?”

“Tycho and Chan.”

“They have separate fucking kitchens,” I complained. “What is there to fight about?”

“Something to do with the produce man,” Ben explained. “Apparently, they both ordered the same ingredients, and now they’re fighting over who gets what.”

I groaned. “Can’t you handle it?”

“They want to speak to you,” he said with a shrug.

“Tell them I told you to handle it.”

“Don’t you think I’ve already done that?” he asked. “I’m not the boss, and they know that.”

“Don’t we have someone specific who can handle this?”

“You still haven’t hired a human resources manager yet,” he told me.

“Fuck,” I said, remembering that I had all but promised the job to Brie. I put my head in my hands and cursed at my own short-sighted behavior. “This morning sucks,” I complained.

“Does your bad mood have something to do with the fact that you’re wearing the same clothes from last night?”

I looked down at my untucked white shirt and my blue suit. “Maybe,” I admitted at last.

I looked up at Ben, contemplating how much to tell him. He was my assistant, and even though I considered him a friend, our friendship didn’t really extend to personal conversations about our lives. It was strictly business. But I was realizing that I didn’t have very many people I could talk to.

Jason was definitely off limits in this particular situation and given Gregory’s history with Brie, I didn’t want to go to him, either.

“Have you ever slept with a virgin?” I blurted out before I could stop myself.

Ben’s eyebrows rose high on his forehead. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me,” I said, unwilling to repeat myself.

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