Page 11 of How to Belong with a Billionaire

“I was?”

“Mmmhmm.” She gave a velvety chuckle. “Getting an interview out of him. Mara’s going to be so proud of you.”

Okay, thatwasfairly consoling. “Yay.”

“You’ve got good instincts. Keep this up, and you’ll go far.”

For some reason, a brief intermission of feeling less than awful made me tear up again.

“Don’t you dare,” George growled. “Or I really will insist on fucking you.”

Separating one of the napkins from the pile, I blew my nose, suddenly very conscious about how red and damp it was. “I’m not exactly at my best right now.”

“And I’m still into you. Isn’t that flattering?”

It was…kinda. Maybe. Definitely. “But I’m in love with Caspian.”

That only made her laugh. “Why do you think I’m offering? I’m too old for romantic entanglements. Especially with presumptuous little poppets.”

“I didn’t—”

“Yes you did, and it’s adorable.”

I cringed in my chair, half tempted to slither out of it and hide under the table for the rest of my life. “Well, what about me? I’m all vulnerable.”

“In some ways, perhaps, but not in others. You’re in no danger of falling for me, and rebound sex has much to recommend it in terms of pure, unfettered carnality.”

“I can’t just…not go back to work.”

“After the morning you’ve had, I think it’s the least you’re owed.”

“Oh, right. I’ll just tell that to Mara, shall I?”

“All she’ll care about is the interview.” George leaned back, propping an ankle on the opposite knee, a pose that made her look even more rakish than usual. “So the only thing that matters is this: What do you want? I can take you back to the office, or home if you’d rather. Or you can come back to my place, where you can drink hot chocolate in a fluffy blanket, and cry about your ex some more. Or…”

“Or?”

“We can have the kind of sex you’ll remember for the rest of your life.”

“I find people who boast about their prowess really hot.”

But she only grinned. “That’s not a boast, poppet. It’s anamuse bouche.”

From the way an answering smile kept tugging at my lips, myboucheseemed pretty amused. I finished my muffin, trying to corral my feelings and make a sensible decision. I mean, I was only human. Of course I wanted to sleep with George. But I couldn’t figure out whether I wanted to sleep with her for the right reasons (because she was hot and it would be awesome) or the wrong ones (because I was hurt and she wanted me). Or, even, if the wrong reasons were actually all that wrong. If it was okay to bang someone for love or pleasure, it was okay to bang them for comfort, wasn’t it?

I hadn’t been with anyone since breaking up with Caspian. I’d been too sad…I mean focused on my career. Okay, sad. And right now, the possibility that I could get laid, and that it could be fun and easy and harmless, was unbelievably tempting. After all, we were both adults. Consenting. Going into it with our eyes open. Dammit, I deserved this. I needed it. I was going to do it. But if my time with Caspian had taught me anything (and honestly, he’d taught me a lot, most of it good), I was done with…denial and uncertainty and shame. I’d seen firsthand what that could do to someone.

“Okay,” I said. “Yes. I want to. But there’s something I have to tell you first.”

One of George’s eyebrows twitched curiously. “Oh?”

“The thing is. You should know.” I took a deep, only slightly shaky breath. “I’m pretty kinky.”

“Well, then you’re in trouble,” she murmured. “Because you see, poppet, I’mverykinky. Shall we go?”

***

Ten minutes later, Mara was in the loop, I wasn’t fired, and we were in George’s car heading east. Because it turned out she didn’t live in London.

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