Page 392 of Tormented Billionaire Romance Series

“Well, Corinne, how do you know my old buddy Elijah, here? You know, Elijah and me, we go back for years.Years.” He eyed me and said, “Don’t we, pal?”

“Yeah,” I replied, careful of my tone in a public place. “Years.”

“Oh…really,” said Corinne, still unsure of how to react. I wanted so badly to tell her that her instinct to be suspicious of him was right on the money.

“So how did you two get together?” he asked us.

I couldn’t take another minute of this. I suddenly needed to leap to Corinne’s defense, even though she wasn’t in trouble — yet.

“She works for me,” I told him. “Corinne is one of the new interns at my company.” That was the politest way I knew to tell him she was off-limits.

“Is that right?” Giving her a look that was just this side of sleazy, he said, “Well, my old buddy sure knows how to pick some pretty-looking employees, doesn’t he?”

She gave a faint, feeble sort of laugh, taking the compliment, but still wary of him, and rightly so.

I realized I had just given myself the perfect out. I quickly said to Corinne, “You know, speaking of work, I just realized there was an important detail that I forgot to cover on something I was working on just before we stepped out. Do you mind if we wrap up lunch and take it back with us?”

Slightly confused, she said, “Um…I don’t think we’re supposed to take food with us back to the Call Center.”

I waved off her concern, having bigger concerns of my own. “It’s okay. You know, you can eat in the break area.” I reminded her of where she was sitting with those two other guys when we first saw each other, when she unwittingly shushed the boss. “Or you can even eat at your station just this once. If anyone gives you a problem, tell them the boss said it was okay for today.” Getting up, I offered her my hand. “Come on, let’s go to the counter and get some doggie bags.”

Bewildered, she stammered, “O-okay, sure.” She got up with me and shot a funny look at Kane. “Um…nice meeting you.”

He smiled at her the way she had smiled at her lunch. “Nice meeting you too, sweetheart. Hope to see you again real soon.” Then, to me, he said, “It’s good to be the boss, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, really good,” I told him. “See you later, Kane.”

As I hustled Corinne away from there, the truth of those last words sank grimly into me. Kane was going to keep turning up again and again, whenever I least expected him or wanted him. And, Ineverwanted him.

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I went tearing out of there with Corinne and our doggie bags, and as soon as we were safely back out on the street, she said, “Okay, that was a little weird. You didn’t seem too happy to see him, and I got a strange vibe from him. Exactly whowasthat?”

“Eh, just someone from my past,” I replied vaguely and hoped she would leave it at that as I kept her hand in mine and hurried her off back to work.

CHAPTER20

Corinne. Saturday

Leannalookedhappy for me on our video chat Saturday morning. But she looked happy in an unsure, qualified sort of way. I could see it in the strange, uneasy caution of her smile.

“You, um…went out…with yourboss?”

She didn’t mean to put me on the defensive, of course, but I felt the need to qualify what I’d told her. “No, I didn’tgo outwith him in the way you ‘go out’ with a guy. We just went out to eat the way you do during the day, and we went to eat together. It was two people who work in the same place having lunch, that’s all.”

“And, you were the only one there that he could have gone to lunch with?”

“Well, if he’d gone to lunch with someone else who worked there, wouldthathave been a date?”

Leanna and I both seemed to be struggling over terms and definitions, tripping over our own words. It was one of the clumsiest conversations that I could ever remember having.

“I don’t know if it would have been a date with someone else. Does helikeanyone else who works there?”

“I don’t know if Elijah likes anyone else who works there,” I answered. “We haven’t gotten that personal with each other.”

“It seems like you are getting pretty personal,” she pointed out, “if he’s invited you to his gym with him and then taken you to lunch. That’s looking kind of personal.”

What could I say to that?An answer was eluding me. “I kind of thought this was good news,” I replied. “I mean, I thought it shows how well I’m doing at the job, getting along with people that I work with.”

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