Page 5 of The Billionairess
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Selena silently fumedabout the unfortunate encounter with Hunter for hours. He had to be the most talented masseur in the world and now he had seen her half naked. She paced and tried to convince herself that maybe he had looked away before he saw anything. Deep down, she knew that she was kidding herself about that. He had seen her, and now their interactions would be impossiblyawkward.
Her body already craved another massage from him, but she couldn’t have another appointment with him after what just happened. He had been the epitome of professionalism and then she had flashed him and made thingsweird.
Unwilling to take all of the blame, she said to the empty room, “What was he doing sneaking back in here, anyway?” His table that still sat in the corner of her office answered herquestion.
Not caring that it was getting late, she called her assistant, Todd’s cell phone. Accustomed to getting calls from her at all hours and well-paid for the inconvenience, Todd answered the phone. “Girrrrl, what did you do to that poor massagetherapist?”
“Why, what did he say?” Selena’s hackles immediately wentup.
“He called me to see when it would be a good time for him to pick up his equipment when you arenotaround. Did you give it to him good?” Toddasked.
“I guess you could say that,” she deadpanned, before clarifying, “I showed him mygirls.”
“You did NOT!” Todd sounded utterly scandalized by herconfession.
“Not on purpose,” she told him. “He walked back in to get his stuff, and I was just getting up from the massagetable.”
“Were you naked?” Todd breathed into the phone, obviously enjoying this, wanting every lurid detail, and not feeling a bit sorry forher.
Her first instinct was to hang up on him for being so oblivious to her shame, but he was her only friend, and she needed to talk this through. “No, I had on myunderwear.”
“Huh,” Todd soundedperplexed.
His response was cryptic, so she asked him, “What?”
“Well, I know you’re my boss and I’m gay, but I have working eyeballs, and I know that you are hot. You must have looked amazing, so I’m shocked that he didn’t make a move. My gay-dar wasn’t raised at all by him.” His voice trailed off as he added, “I must be losing mytouch.”
She wasn’t sure whether to feel hopeful or disappointed. “You think he’sgay?”
“He must be,” Todd sounded confident. “Honey, seeing a rack like yours would make any man weak in the knees. Heck, I might even switch teams for the night. Make that fifteen minutes,” heamended.
She laughed at him, knowing that he was just saying that to make her feel better. Todd had never had any romantic interest in girls. He had known he was gay since early childhood. “I doubt that,” she teased him. “Besides, you don’t know… they might not be allthat.”
It was a ploy to get him to make her feel better. He knew it, but didn’t call her out on it. “They are fabulous, and you know it,” he teasedher.
She wasn’t sure how to respond, so he went on. “If you’re in doubt, you can show them to me, and I’ll give you an honest rating on a scale of one toten.”
“I’ll pass on that kind offer,” she grinned into the phone. Only Todd could make her feel better at a time when she should be feeling utterlymortified.
“Well, if you change your mind, I’m always willing to take a gander at them,” hequipped.
“Thanks.” She cut off his teasing before adding, “He’ll need to come in here to get his stuff as soon as possible. I don’t want to look at it and be reminded of thisfiasco.”
“I’ll take care of it,” he promised. “So, I guess I’ll cross him off the list of potential massage therapists. Did your headache go away atleast?”
“Oh, yes,” she practically moaned into the phone. “It was by far the best massage of my entire life. I relaxed completely and fell asleep. When I woke up, my headache was gone, and I had slept into the evening. I have so much work to catch up on,” she addeddistractedly.
“Wait,” Todd said, “You were in there sleeping all afternoon? You never do that. And there I was, out at my desk, working my fingers to the bone,” he added, obviously seeking praise fromher.
She wasn’t about to give it to him. “Speaking of that…” shestarted.
At her pause, he prompted her with a drawn out, “mm-hmm.”
“Where were you? Aren’t you supposed to be my first line of defense? Shouldn’t you have made sure I was up and getting the things on my agenda done? Why weren’t you there to stop Hunter from coming in and seeing metopless?”
“Hunter, huh? You’re on a first name basis with the hunky massage man who saw your boobies?” He teasedher.
“Out of all I said, my knowledge of his name is the only thing you comment on?” She tried to sound exasperated with her assistant, but she couldn’t help being amused by him. “It’s a good thing I like you,” she finally said. Before signing off she added, “Make sure I never have to face Hunteragain.”
“Don’t worry, I know exactly what I need to do,” he assuredher.
If she had been more on her game, without the leftover noodle-head feeling from her massage, she would have noted the subtle forewarning in his choice ofwords.
