Page 44 of The CEO

Stepping outside his office a tall, dark, and handsome man stood by the desk with a quizzical look on his face. He turned toward us when he heard us coming out of the office.

“Ty, what are you doing here? I didn’t forget a meeting or anything did I?” King shook his hand with a boyish smile on his face.

“Nope, I came by to see if you wanted to get dinner.” His friend looked me up and down assessing me. “I don’t mean to be rude, but were you doing a threesome and piss the other girl off?”

What!

King and I turned to look at each other with confused faces. His brows and lips turned down. “What the hell are you talking about? This is Pria, my…” My breathing stopped as I waited for King’s next words. “She’s my girlfriend and we’re not into that sort of thing.”

“Okay. Cool, but it would be fine if you were. I saw a woman scurrying off from this direction and I didn’t know what to think.”

I knew what to think. There was no reason to be by King’s office unless it was to see him. There was literally nothing else around. I had a very bad feeling we’d been caught.

“It’s nice to meet you, Pria. I’m Ty, a long-time friend of King’s.” He held out his hand and I robotically shook it as I internally freaked out.

“Oh, I didn’t know he had any friends. You must be a good one.” King pulled me to his side. His green eyes twinkled as he took me in. “I think we’ve been made.” A somber expression fell over his face.

“So, what do you say to dinner? I can call Sadie and see if she wants to meet us. It can be a double date.” Ty’s face lit up with amusement. If I had to guess he’d never been on a double date in his life. Neither of them had.

“What do you say?” King squeezed my hip. “We can go to Luciano’s, eat good food, and have a couple of drinks to forget our troubles.”

“Problems already?” Ty laughed as he started to head for the elevator as if it was a foregone conclusion we were going.

“We’ll explain later. Maybe you can help us figure something out.” King’s tone held doubt as he ushered us to the elevator.

“So, let me get this straight,”Ty laughed before taking a sip of his scotch, “you’re dating not only someone in Human Resources, but the director and you have a no fraternization policy at your company? You’re fucked.”

“Don’t mind him.” Sadie, Ty’s beautiful wife smiled at us with ruby red lips from across the table. Her long brown hair wasdyed blue at the ends and her big brown eyes were bright with happiness. “He’s jaded to love in the workplace.”

“Do you have any ideas? I’m pretty sure his secretary caught us tonight. She’s been acting strange around me since I started back to work. Maybe she’s had her suspicions.” Looking over at King, I asked, “Did she act any different when you went back to work?” That could explain why she’d been an even bigger bitch.

“You took leave?” Ty’s eyes lit up as if he’d landed on a juicy detail.

“At King’s request. I was mugged two weeks ago and was pretty beat up.” I lifted my casted arm. “My makeup is covering the bruises. You don’t want to see what I look like underneath. I’m a walking?—”

“Still beautiful.” King kissed the top of my head.

“Hold up.” Ty sat his drink down and clasped his hands together. “You took a vacation?”

“I wouldn’t call it a vacation. I stayed home for a week to help Pria. Once she’s better and I’ve got a break in my schedule, I’ll go on a real vacation with her.”

“You stayed home?” Ty asked in disbelief.

Sadie nudged him. “Be nice. You’d do the same for me. Why are you giving him such a hard time?”

Ty’s eyes softened as he looked down at his wife. “Of course, I’d do the same for you. I’d be at your beck and call for as long as you needed, but you don’t know this guy. He’s never been in a relationship or dated.” His eyes got big as he looked back at King. “Ever.”

“Yes, okay, we all get it,” King deadpanned. “Why don’t we focus on the problem of my secretary finding out about us.”

“No one is going to take me seriously at my job if the person who’s supposed to enforce the rules is breaking them.” I buried my head in my hands. It wasn’t as effective when onewas covered with a cast, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t believe I’d already fucked this up.

“What if you said that if people did date they had to sign some form stating they were in a relationship and make rules about not dating someone who’s directly under you so there’s no nepotism?” Sadie shrugged.

“That’s not a bad idea.”

It wasn’t a great one either. Maybe if the policy had been in place beforehand, but now it was like we were making rules so we could do whatever we wanted.

“Now I probably can’t fire her, or she’ll sue me,” King growled out before he drained the rest of his drink.

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