Total pages in book: 22
Estimated words: 20736 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 104(@200wpm)___ 83(@250wpm)___ 69(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 20736 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 104(@200wpm)___ 83(@250wpm)___ 69(@300wpm)
He purses his lips and narrows his eyes. “Banks? He wasn’t supposed to be here. I don’t like that sly bastard. Some people are not worth doing business with, you know. Anyway, I hope your day is going okay and she’s not teaching you ways to sneak in extra breaks.”
“Not yet. I usually wait until you both are at meetings before I make my escape,” Cynthia says, rolling her eyes.
He smiles at her instead of getting pissed like Sawyer would. “I’m going to miss you, kiddo.”
“It’s for the best. Do you need anything else?” What does that mean?
“No. That’s good for now, and don’t forget to take your lunch on time.”
She wags her finger at him. “You, too.” There doesn’t seem to be any hard feelings between them, so I wonder if it’s between Sawyer and Cynthia. Then, I recall the way she didn’t seem at all jealous of me, so that probably isn’t the case either.
“I won’t.” He rubs his stomach and walks off happily.
I remember they could definitely eat when they got a chance. Money was tight, but they worked to the bone until they were exhausted, so they chowed down at barbecues.
Sawyer and Lennox have worked hard as hell to get out of the neighborhood, and now they’re both billionaires. It makes sense that Sawyer doesn’t want anything to do with me. Before, we were ages apart—now, we’re worlds apart.
Chapter Four
Sawyer
I could have wrapped my hands around Banks’s throat this morning and choked the life out of him. For years, every time a man attempted to pursue Jillian, I’d hit the gym, letting the jealous rage out. Shit, I added an extra twenty pounds of muscle with all the fuckers that vied for her attention. Banks was lucky that I didn’t put him on his ass right in my office for trespassing, and then he had to make a pass at the one person in the world who was untouchable to all men. Jillian is mine.
I thought I could contain myself, act civilized for at least a day, but no, that wasn’t going to work. Lennox and I were going to spar. How could he have hired the one person I want underneath me?
We have kept our noses clean in every damn way, and he had to hire the only person who I dream of as my wife. Now it looks as if I planned to fuck my new assistant. If word spreads to the companies that we attempt to buy out, my reputation will be ruined.
Also, the thought of firing her isn’t appealing either. Still, the past four years have been unbearable. I let her grow, become an even more incredibly talented, amazing woman than the one I remembered, and I’m obsessed.
Jillian has no idea how much time I’ve devoted to watching her, stalking my sweet Jilly Bean. The amount of money and manpower that has gone into protecting her at all hours of the day was for nothing because Lennox has fucked up my plan.
I expected to go after her when I closed the last deal with Banks. I wanted to claim my little Jillian and get her to marry me.
My phone buzzes in my pocket and I dig it out, hoping it’s Thorne, but it’s Lennox. I need that asshole, too. “Hey, what’s going on? What’s up with Banks?”
“I’m dropping the contract.”
“What? Are you sure you want to do that?”
He’s lucky I didn’t kill him. Dropping the contract is the least I can do. “Yes, he fucking came to the building and flirted with Jillian.”
“So are you ever going to ask her to marry you?” he teases.
“If you didn’t fucking hire her, I would have.”
“What? I was kidding.” His surprise would almost be laughable if I were in a better mood, but I’ve been waiting for way too long, and I’ve been foiled at the last damn moment.
“I wasn’t. I don’t need a scandal, Nox. We’ve kept ourselves completely clean all these years, only for you to hire my future wife as my assistant. How is that going to look?”
“Like favoritism.” I can see him just shrugging it off like it’s no big deal, but it is to me. “If you marry her right away, it will look like it’s been in the works since she graduated.”
“Yeah, but how is it going to look when they learn that we’ve known her for years?”
“Calm down. You’re not a fucking pedo, Sawyer. You didn’t groom her. Hell, we went to college before she even turned fourteen. Now she’s an adult, and you haven’t touched her. Hell, you haven’t touched any woman. Give it a break. She’s twenty-two now, and you’re twenty-six. Maybe if you finally give in, you won’t be such an asshole.”
“But others won’t see it that way.”
“Who gives a fuck? We’re billionaires, and we won’t go bankrupt over it. I promise you that there are pricks twice our age out there dating girls her age or younger, and they’re making deals left and right. Calm down. This isn’t the start of our career anymore. We’re established. So tomorrow, you take care of business and settle this nonsense between you and Jillian. Trust me, the years apart haven’t changed a damn thing for her.” So he’d been lying to me earlier. Asshole was just trying to piss me off. Although I know she still has feelings for me, I’m not sure they’re more than lustful ones.