by Lana Dash
“Yes!” she cries out.
We both come together. Our bruising grips on one another leaving a temporary brand of this moment. But this is nothing temporary about how I feel. I’m was lost until Maren found me. I just need to make sure I don’t mess this up and lose her before it’s truly begun.
6
MAREN
Despite the late hour when I finally get home later, Willa catches my walk of shame into the apartment.
“What do you mean you slept with him?” Willa asks from the sofa.
I’d already called to tell her I was going to be late because I had to work, but I had no idea how late I’d be after Grayson and I hooked up. I sit down on the other end of the sectional.
“It happened so quickly. He confronted me with the letter and one thing led to another and we had sex on the conference table.”
She closes her laptop. “Did anyone see you?”
“No, of course not.”
“It’s a reasonable question.”
I know she’s right, but we were careful. “I asked about cameras and we didn’t leave together, in case anyone saw us walk out.”
Grayson was insistent that he walk me to my car, but I told him we couldn’t start acting differently. I didn’t want to give anyone a reason to think something might have happened.
“What about you, did your professor get his letter?
She shrugs. “I don’t know. I only realized the letters were missing when I went to get rid of them this morning.”
“Did you call Cassidy or Lucy?”
“Cassidy is on her way to her brother’s wedding, so I’m not sure how much time she will have checking her messages. But Lucy, hasn’t been answering my calls.”
“She’s got her family thing this week,” I remind her.
Willa pulls a face, suddenly realizing that Lucy’s silence may not be actually be guilt but family obligations that’s keeping her from answering.
“I don’t understand what happened,” Willa runs her fingers through her hair. “Why would any of us send those letters out?”
“Maybe we didn’t. Maybe the universe decided to take it upon itself to push our little baby bird asses out of the nest to see if we could fly.”
Willa does not look amused. “I’m not laughing at this, Maren. We all aren’t lucky enough to have the guy our letters were sent out to immediately jump our bones. Besides, you need to be careful. If anyone finds out about this, you are the one that people are going to look down on. The women in this type of situations are always the ones that get the reputation. And the guy is high-fived by his friends for banging the hot assistant.”
“You’re right.”
Even though this is not news to me, her words land right on target with me. The euphoria I was just feeling drops like a brick in my chest to my stomach. If anyone finds out, I’m going to look like I’m trying to sleep my way to the top—which isn’t true. I didn’t plan this. I didn’t seek him out. My plan was to work for Grayson until I paid off my school loans or found a job that I enjoyed doing. And before the mess of him confronting me with the letter and us hooking up in the conference room, I’d seriously been considering applying my degree to start some event planning business.
Did I just totally derail my future for guy that didn’t look at me twice before I spilled my feelings in a letter?
I spend the next few days making sure that I’m not alone with Grayson.
At work, I make sure to keep his schedule packed so that he doesn’t have time to try and pull me into his office alone during work hours. At home, He’s tried calling and texting my phone, but I keep giving him excuses that I’m busy making sure that all the last-minute arrangements are good to go for the party.
The night before the party, there’s a knock at the door. Willa is at the university working on some kind of research project and won’t be home until later. I peek through the peep hole and see the familiar, yet slightly distorted, face of Grayson. I didn’t even know he knew where I lived.
I look down at the pajamas I have on. A light pink tank top and pajama shorts with flying pigs in the clouds. I’m about to make a run for my room to change, but Grayson knocks again.
“Come on, Maren. I know you’re in there,” he calls through the door.
I sigh and unlock the door. Grayson is standing in the hallway of our building still in the suit he wore to work. His hands are in his pockets and he’s looking down.
“What are you doing here?” I ask.
He looks up, and for the first time, I see the dark circles under his eyes. I’ve barely been able to make eye contact with him for fear of losing myself to him.
“I need to speak with you,” he says, his tone much rougher than normal.
“Come in.” I step back out of the door frame to give him room to come in, but he doesn’t move.
“I can’t stay. I just wanted to give you this.” He reaches into his suit pocket and pulls out the worn teal envelope. “I figured since you’ve been avoiding me like the plague, you regret what happened between us. And I’m sure you want this back.”
I don’t want to take it from him. I don’t want this to end but I can’t see another way. I need this job, and I can’t get a reputation for sleeping with my boss. I take the envelope, ready to tell him everything, but he doesn’t wait around. He turns and takes the steps down two at a time to get away from me.
I knew from the beginning this couldn’t work between us, but I didn’t know that it would hurt so much when it ended.
7
MAREN
I didn’t get any sleep last night. I kept thinking about the look on Grayson’s face when he handed me back the letter. At first, I wanted to tear it up and toss it in the trash, but something told me not to do it. It was a stupid plan to begin with and I still don’t know who sent them out, but I guess it’s like they say, “It’s better to have loved and lost then never to have loved at all.” Although I’m not sure what jackass said that, but they clearly weren’t feeling the fresh sting of heartbreak at the time.
The party begins and I’m so busy running around trying to make sure everything I barely have time to notice Grayson. But when I do, he’s careful to keep his distance. And I have to keep myself from charging across the courtyard when I see some women flirting with him. He doesn’t look at all like he did last night. I guess returning the letter is all he needed to move on.
I reach into the pocket of my dress and feel the soft envelope. Despite my urge to tear it up last night, I couldn’t leave the house without it this morning.
“Are you Maren?” A female voice asks.
I turn and see a woman in her early sixties smiling at me. “Yes, that’s me.”
“I’m Abigail Hayes.” She holds out her hand to me. “I own Hayes Events and Catering.”
I know that name. I’m so sleep deprived that it takes me a moment to connect the dots. Gina’s face pops into my head and I realize that this must be her boss.
I take her hand and shake it. “I’m Maren.”
“I have to say, what you did here in just a week is nothing short of incredible,” she says looking around. “I stopped by to speak with Grayson about what happened with Gina. But when I saw all this, I also needed to talk to him about who put this together. You should know that he raved about your work and that’s no easy feet from Christopher Grayson.”
I smile, but I don’t feel it reach my eyes. It’s amazing to get this attention, but there is still a damp towel hanging over this situation.
“Thank you, that’s very kind of you to tell me.”
She reaches into her clutch and holds out a card to me. “I’m going to give my business card. I’d like to discuss your interest in joining my team as an event planner.”
Is she serious?
“Are you serious?”
“Very much so, darling. When I see talent, I don’t let it slip through my fingers.” She holds up her hands and gestures to everything going on around us. “And you have t
alent in abundance. Why don’t you call and make an appointment to come in and speak with me next week? I think you’ll like what I have to offer.”
“Okay, thank you. Thank you so much.”
I can barely believe that just happened. I watch Abigail Hayes walk across courtyard, and my first thought is to run and tell Grayson. But the memory of how things ended between us, pops the excitement bubble I’m floating in.
“I see Abigail found you.”
I turn and see Grayson standing behind me. “Did you call her here today?”
“She called me a few days ago, and I asked her to come today to see if she saw in your talents what I did.”
I hold up the business card. “She wants to talk to me next week. I think she might be offering me a job.”
I wonder if he’ll get mad, but a ghost of a smile crosses his face. “I figured she might after seeing all this.”
Realization hits me like a blow to the head and I feel sick.
“If you set this up, does that mean you’re firing me?”
Now it’s Grayson’s turn to look like he was struck by something.
“What? No.” He shakes his head. “Even if things didn’t go down between us the way that they did, I’d still have tried to help you further your career. You’re too talented to be my Executive Assistant. You always have been, but I was too greedy to want to let you go. But I also have to admit that I have ulterior motives for leading you to work for Abigail.”
“Like what?”
“I thought a lot about what happened over the last few days and I think I finally understand why you pulled away from me. It was selfish of me to expect you to take all the risks that being together would entail. You are nothing, if not professional, and I respect you all the more for it.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that if you were to work for Abigail, I wouldn’t be your boss. And if I’m not your boss, then maybe you’d consider taking me on as your boyfriend, your fiancé, your husband, forever and ever.”
I can’t help but laugh, feeling true joy for the first time in almost a week since the first moment he kissed me.
“I think you’re getting a little head of yourself there.”
He smiles. “Did you open the letter I returned?”
I feel my pocket and pull it out. Grayson smiles when he sees I’m holding onto it. I pull out the letter from the envelope and unfold it. My eyes move down the page but stop when I see that Grayson’s added something at the end.
P.S. I love you too.
Always and forever yours,
G
I look up at him in surprise. His smile is nearly as wide as his face. I don’t care that we are surrounded by people. I don’t care what people will think. I just know that it’s been way to long since our last kiss and I won’t ever let that much time pass between us before we kiss again.
Epilogue
GRAYSON
What started out as a one-time company party, has become a yearly tradition thanks to my wife. Each year that followed that first party, she’s outdone herself. Employee morale has steadily increased thanks in part to the anticipation of what each year will bring.
After Maren left to work for Abigail, I was eager to make sure that she and I made up for lost time. And despite asking her almost a month after the party to marry me, Maren wanted to make sure that she got her own career going with event planning and within eighteen months, Abigail made Maren a partner.
“Hon, where have you been hiding?” Maren asks, holding out a cone of blue cotton candy for me.
I grab a piece and stuff it in my mouth. “I just needed to grab something up in my office.”
“It’s not time for work.” She frowns playfully at me. “Look around you, it’s time to play like the rest of us.”
“I know.” I pull her into my arms. “But it’s important and it can’t wait.”
“What is it?”
“It’s a letter.”
“Please tell me your assistant didn’t send you a love letter by mistake too.”
I roll my eyes. “No, Sebastian has not sent me a love letter—yet.”
“You wish.” She laughs. “Have you seen his boyfriend?”
I pull out the letter from the adoption agency and hand it to her. Her eyes widen in surprise.
“Is that what I think it is?”
“Open it and find out.”
Despite our continued attempts to have a baby, the doctors said it wasn’t in our cards. But there are plenty of kids in the world looking for a loving home that Maren and I could give.
I watch Maren open the letter and read over the good news that we’ve been selected by a birth mother. Our baby will be born just before Christmas, giving us the best gift in the world.
“We’re having a baby.” She looks up at me, tearing brimming in her eyes.
“Yep.”
“It’s really happening this time?”
I nod. Maren throws her arms around my neck and I hold her tightly against me. I couldn’t have imagined one letter would change my life so drastically, but I guess it’s fitting that another letter will make our world complete.
Did you like DEAR BILLIONAIRE BOSS? Read more in the Sincerely Yours series!
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About the Author
LANA DASH is the author of short, sexy, and funny romances. When she isn’t dreaming up her latest sexy couple’s adventure, you can find her watching true crime documentaries, drinking Bloody Marys, and eating movie theater popcorn. Not necessarily at the same time. She loves to hear from readers!