Page 36 of Most Eligible Billionaire

Vicky goes over to inspect.

“Seriously?” I say.

She turns to me.

I shove my hands in my pants pockets. “You want to explain this?”

“Isn’t it self-explanatory?” she says. “Smuckers needs a place to sit, too. I mean, does it seem fair to you that every board member here has their own seat except Smuckers? Who ever heard of an individual who sits on the board of a major corporation having to sit on another person’s lap?”

I go over and inspect the image of Smuckers’s face in the chair-back portrait. “A bit redundant,” I observe. “His portrait, when he’s right here.”

“Smuckers likes people to know who’s in charge. Especially since there was some confusion about it at the last meeting,” she adds.

My gaze drops to her lips. Dimly I’m aware of Kaleb suggesting we call this meeting to order. She’s wearing some sort of a necklace—circles the size of quarters between bright pink metal beads. Smuckers’s face is on some of the circles. Others have cats and foxes, and some have words, likeMeowandmofo.

Of all the things she could’ve done with her time over the past week, she’s spent her time making custom jewelry to match the Smuckers throne. This is a move and a half, what she’s doing here.

So outrageous.

“Do you like it?” Her voice is husky. She lifts it a few inches off her chest for me to see better.

My knuckle brushes her throat as I take hold of one of the colorful disks, and I can’t focus for a moment, because the sense of her is overwhelming. My skin feels too tight for my body.

I turn a disk in my fingers. It’s cool and heavy and exquisitely made. On one side is the face of Smuckers. On the other it saysSmuck U.

I keep hold of it. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know what she is. My knuckles hover just above her chest, my fingers just under her chin.

“Pretty nice, huh?” she says.

My heart punches in my rib cage. It comes to me here that battling a person can be as intimate as fucking them.

“It’s as good a thing as any to wear while I take you down,” I whisper.

“You think you can take me and Smuckers down?” Those plump, kissable lips form into a smile. “’Cause in that badass throne? Look at him!”

I bite my tongue. I don’t give a crap about Smuckers.

Mandy clears her throat. “Should we get to it?”

I let go of the necklace. I turn and pull out her chair for her.

“Thank you.” She sits.

April has taken up her post as board secretary.

Kaleb clears his throat. “I didn’t dedicate my life to Locke Worldwide for a dog on a throne to preside in the boardroom,” he says unhelpfully.

I take my seat opposite Vicky. I meet her sparkling gaze. “Is Smuckers ready to proceed with the week’s business?”

“Very much so,” she says.

I shift in my chair and introduce today’s central agenda item, the authorization of funds for a software switchover. Mandy has been pushing for that, and she has a presentation.

Mandy puts the PowerPoint on the screen. I should be watching that, but I can’t stop staring at Vicky.

“Wait,” Vicky says. She moves Smuckers’s throne so that Smuckers can see the screen.

I exchange glances with Brett. From the way his phone is tilted, I can tell he’s filming for the competency hearing.

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