Boss: A Novel

by Lauren Love

  I take a breath and tears clog the back of my throat.

  Somewhere deep down I never really believed this moment would come, but now it’s here. And as the words are coming out of my mouth, I swear I can feel my heart breaking.

  “I’m done.”

  The words are final.

  I look at him and let him see the tears and the hurt.

  “This – whatever this is... it’s over.”

  I open the door and walk away.

  The taxi is waiting in the driveway and I whisper a silent thank you to the sky. At least this is one moment that will be quick. Like pulling off a strip of hot wax…

  Chapter 19

  After telling the driver to take me to the airport, I sit back and shut my eyes.

  I feel like I’ve run a marathon.

  Every muscle, every fiber of my being feels drained. All I want to do is curl up somewhere dark and quiet. Get away from the world and the people and everything, just for a little while.

  The driver steers around the circular driveway and heads down towards the road.

  I want to look back.

  Just one more look at the man I’m leaving behind, the man who left me behind a long time ago.

  Against my better judgment I turn and look.

  Kaden’s already got his back to the driveway.

  Towel around his waist and his phone to his ear.

  I watch him go back inside the mansion and shut the door, moments before the taxi reaches the road and my view of the mansion and the man I love are gone.

  It’s really over and he’s already moving on.

  “Are you okay, sweetheart?” the driver asks and I manage a weak smile.

  “I will be.”

  I use my phone to book the first flight back to New York then call Olivia.

  “What’s happened?” she asks. “Your voice sounds funny.”

  “I left Kaden.”

  She’s silent for a beat and I hear her breath hiss over the phone. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Me too.” I sniff and wipe my nose. “But it’s a good thing – I think. I’ve got the number of this new gaming company and I’ll give them a call tomorrow. I’ve been waiting on hold for long enough. It’s time for me to take control of my life.”

  “Good for you, Claire. I’m in California right now but you can stay at my place in New York if you want. I’ll tell Mrs. Gardner to give you the key. Do you want me to come home?”

  “No!” I reply, though honestly touched that she offered. “I’m fine. I just need a few days to get myself together.”

  “You stay as long as you want. It’ll give me an excuse to come home more often, and I miss my old roomie.”

  We say our goodbyes and I settle back in my seat. When I open my eyes again it’s to find the driver looking back at me.

  “We’re here.”

  Chapter 20

  As I’m walking through the airport, I can’t help darting my gaze around.

  My heart drops when all I see are strange faces.

  Stupid.

  Did I really think he would chase me?

  Try to stop me?

  I feel more tears stinging my eyes but I blink them back.

  I’ve done enough crying for one day. Kaden has probably already found a replacement for me. My leaving wasn’t even a blip on his radar.

  I collect my tickets and a couple of hours later, I’m boarding my flight.

  Sitting numbly, I watch as the plane slowly fills up with people taking their seats all around me. I just want to sleep and wake up back in New York, back where I belong.

  The two women in front of me are chatting in front of me, and a couple of seats over a man is complaining about the fact that he has to have his chair upright during takeoff.

  Suddenly the words start to grab my attention.

  It’s kind of like the two women in front are talking at each other or they’re having two separate conversations.

  Maybe they’re on their phones?

  Or maybe I’m just exhausted.

  I shut my eyes.

  “I’m so sorry,” one woman says.

  “I’m so blind sometimes,” the other woman replies.

  “And I know I made a huge mistake.”

  I open my eyes, frowning.

  Something feels off about how they’re talking.

  The first woman says, “I never meant to make you feel...”

  Then the second woman replies with, “Like you didn’t matter.”

  Suddenly the man who’d been complaining earlier starts talking on his phone. “Losing you is the worst thing I can imagine.”

  The flight attendant leans closer to the man as though to ask him to turn his phone off but instead she says, “Before you go, I had to try, one last time.”

  The man looks at the attendant as though telling her that he’ll just be another minute, but instead says, “To show you how much you mean to me.”

  The intercom beeps and the voice of the pilot says, “You’re my whole world, Claire.”

  I look up to see the attendant standing over me with an amused expression on her face. She holds out a mobile phone and I take it.

  Kaden’s deep, husky voice makes everything in my chest melt.

  “Claire,” his voice rasps through the tiny speaker. “I love you. I should have told you first, not last, that I was giving up everything for you. I followed you here, because I would follow you anywhere. You’re all I want and there’s nowhere else I need to be.”

  I laugh and I can feel the tears coming again. “This is possibly the creepiest romantic gesture ever.”

  He laughs too and I hear him sniff and cough. “It worked better in my head.”

  I look out the window and gasp when I see him standing out on the runway.

  He’s standing alone in jeans and a T-shirt.

  Just him.

  One man alone begging for me to give him another chance.

  “How did you even do this?”

  “A lot of money and a lot of begging. Your friend Damon sets up party flash mobs as a side business.”

  “I don’t need all this,” I say. “I don’t need expensive presents and huge gestures. I just need you.”

  “You have me,” he says and I can feel the truth in his words. “I’m yours, Claire. Body and soul. If you want I’ll strip naked right here.”

  I laugh and I see his shoulders shaking.

  “That also sounded more meaningful in my head.”

  As I look at him down there, alone and unprotected, I suddenly see him, the real him.

  Not the business man, not the billionaire, the man.

  He’s vulnerable and awkward and real.

  And he’s mine.

  I make my way off the plane to the sounds of cheers and calls of encouragement from the other passengers. I climb down the steps and run across the runway, into Kaden’s outstretched arms.

  He spins me around in a wide arch and I can’t stop kissing him.

  His mouth, his cheeks, his eyes.

  He puts me back on my feet and looks into my eyes.

  “I love you.” He grabs my hand and places it against his rapidly beating heart. “I’m yours. Forever.”

  “And I’m yours,” I reply, the words cracking as I say them. “Always.”

  He pulls me against him.

  “Always,” he whispers against my mouth before claiming my lips in a kiss that makes my knees buckle.

  Always…

  Part Three

  Chapter 1

  I wake with Kaden’s muscular warm body pressed against my back.

  His hand slides over my hip, up my waist, my belly, my ribs, until finally he’s cupping my breast and I purr when my nipple puckers against his palm.

  “Good morning,” he mumbles into my ear, his voice deep and husky with sleep. “I have the sneaking suspicion that I may have gotten lucky last night.”

  His hands slide over my quickly heating flesh and his mouth kisses a hot, wet trail across my shou
lders. His hands settle on my hips and pull me back against the hard length growing, settling between my thighs.

  “It feels like you’re hoping to get lucky again.” I giggle when he bites down gently on my shoulder and moan when he shifts and slides easily inside my waiting warmth.

  I don’t know how it’s even possible for either of us to still want sex. This was the first weekend we’ve had together in weeks and we spent pretty much the whole time in bed.

  I think I managed three hours total of sleep last night and my muscles ache in the best way.

  We make love slowly, languidly, the urgency of last night sated and we spend a long time kissing and speaking softly after.

  But too soon, it’s time for my flight and I roll out of bed and run to the shower, locking the door to block another exciting distraction.

  As the hot spray sooths my aches and pains, I let my mind drift over the last few wonderful years with Kaden.

  It still feels like a dream sometimes and part of me is a little afraid that one day I will wake up back where I was before I met him.

  Penniless, painfully self-conscious, and lonely.

  Kaden swept into my life like a whirlwind of passion and extravagance.

  In a heartbeat, I went from struggling to pay the rent to living in a mansion bigger than the whole apartment building and earning more in a week then I would have ever hoped to earn in a year. They weren’t all easy years and we had our barriers and struggles but we made it work.

  Now I work in L.A. as a film producer.

  I still can’t quite get my head around that.

  It’s a dream I never knew I had until it was thrown in my lap by the single best Fairy Godmother in the world!

  It all started when I scored a job with a small indie game company specializing on story-based fantasy. No more than three months after the glowing success of our first game, I was headhunted by a small TV production company in England.

  They wanted me to co-write and produce a six part series for the BBC and I must have done an impressive job because not long after, I was headhunted again by an international film production company based in L.A.

  I was sad to leave the small TV company in England.

  They were fun people and the show we produced is still being aired around the world.

  But the months living away from Kaden were difficult, so when I got a chance to return to America, I took it. We still don’t get to see each other as much as we’d both like, but a couple of times a month is better than once every three months.

  When I step out of the shower, I can smell the mouthwatering aroma of Kaden’s famous pancakes.

  He uses vanilla, nutmeg, and cinnamon and I actually moan at the smell. Yummy.

  After I emerge in a cloud of steam, a towel wrapped around my still damp body, he gives me a wide, knowing grin.

  “I can’t let you leave without a good breakfast,” he says, placing two plates on the table and another, loaded with pancakes in the middle. “Maple syrup or honey?”

  We talk and laugh easily, Kaden watching in amusement as I devour four pancakes, alternating between honey and maple syrup. We avoid the topic that’s most on our minds - my leaving.

  We wash the dishes together in silence but all too soon, I get the call from the driver letting me know that I have ten minutes.

  Kaden pulls me into his arms and I giggle as I hook my hands behind his neck, combing the sandy colored hair at his nape.

  “I’ll call you when I get to the apartment,” I say.

  “I’ll come up to L.A. and see you when I can. These next few weeks are going to be busy. I’ll miss you every day.”

  He kisses my mouth and I open to him willingly, sucking that plump lower lip between my teeth and biting just enough to make him groan.

  “I love you, Claire,” he says against my lips and I say it right back.

  The driver beeps his horn and I grab my bag, give my billionaire boyfriend one last kiss and leave my heart with him as I climb into the taxi and let it take me away.

  As I look back over my shoulder at the man I love, I feel a sudden rush of foreboding. I can’t explain it, the feeling is just there.

  An unfounded fear that this weekend might be the last.

  I shake my head and try to rein in my silly thoughts by focusing on the weeks ahead.

  There is a lot of work to be done if we wanted to get this film completed on schedule.

  Luke Hart was finally showing up to shoot his scenes.

  That had been a major stress both on set and behind the scenes. Luke Hart was known for being difficult and tended to show up in his own time.

  But he was a major audience draw card.

  It didn’t matter what the movie was, women lined up around the block to watch him.

  And with the highly erotic and dangerous role of Grey Bentley, you didn’t need to be a psychic to know that this movie was going to break records.

  I pull out my phone and text Kaden:

  I miss you already.

  Less than a minute later, my phone vibrates:

  If you come back here, I’m going to tie you to the bed.

  I swallow hard and have to bite my lip to stop myself from ordering the driver to turn us around and take me back.

  He has tied me up before and… yum.

  That was an experience I won’t forget.

  But I can’t go back.

  I have a job and a life that I now know I need as much as I need Kaden.

  But still, that feeling of foreboding creeps back into my chest and chills me to the bone.

  Chapter 2

  I’m so late!

  I can’t believe I’m late on my first day back at filming.

  After flying back to L.A last night, I hadn’t been able to sleep without Kaden by my side and when I’d finally managed to drift off, I completely slept through my alarm!

  I called the coffee place near the studio and ordered so it would be ready when I arrived.

  I’m late because I stopped to grab everyone coffee: that excuse never goes out of style.

  I pull into the lot, only about ten minutes late over all so I strut into the studio feeling confident, feeling cool.

  Totally not late.

  Totally didn’t sleep in.

  And I totally walk into a six-foot wall of hard chest!

  The sudden collision sends me reeling back onto my butt, hot coffee exploding over both me and the unlucky stranger in my way.

  Ouch.

  I give my arms a shake at my sides, and wonder if I should bother getting up or just wish for the ground to open up and swallow me.

  “Oh my, I’m so sorr…” I look up at him and my words dissolve. “You’re Luke Hart.”

  He’s even better looking in person and somehow even more imposing.

  His wavy brown hair is cut short but still manages to curl around his ears and fall into his eyes. Loose-fitting jeans hang off his narrow hips and the white shirt stretching over his wide, muscular chest is now stained a light brown.

  More coffee runs down his arms and drips from his fingertips.

  “Perceptive,” he says, his voice strained but still holding that quiet, dangerous strength that’s been making women swoon all over the world.

  This is easily the worst thing I’ve ever done.

  And, to my horror, I feel something fluttering in my chest.

  My shoulders start shaking.

  I can’t stop it!

  I slap a hand over my mouth but it only slightly muffles the laugh. I try to stop it but that just makes things worse.

  Luke glares down at me.

  “Exactly how is this funny?” he demands, signaling at his stained shirt as the coffee is still running down his arms.

  “It’s so not funny,” I squeak but my shoulders start shaking again and I have to slap that hand over my mouth to hold it in or at least make my laughing less loud.

  A snort sneaks through and I laugh even harder.

  His glare turns into a loo
k of incongruity then, clearly against his own better judgment his lips twitch, his shoulders start shuddering and suddenly he’s laughing too.

  I can’t even imagine how insane we must look. Me on my butt and both of us covered in coffee, laughing like hyenas.

  “What is going on over—” Wade, the director, cuts off abruptly when he sees us. “Claire?”

  After a giggle and a cough I manage a gruff, “Hi, Wade.”

  Luke holds out a hand and after only a brief hesitation, I take it and let him pull me to my feet.

  It’s sort of weird.

  I expected a zap of electricity—I mean, he’s Luke Hart.

  But though his hand is much larger than mine, the palms soft, dry, and cool, it just feels like any other normal guy’s hand.

  Which, of course, it is.

  Being a super celebrity and big screen heartthrob doesn’t make a man a demigod. He holds my hand for longer then he needs to.

  “Well,” Wade says, looking from me to Luke and back to me again, wrinkling his nose at the pool of coffee at our feet and dripping from our clothes. “It’s good to see you here, Luke. I was hoping we’d get a chance to speak before shooting starts. And I see you’ve met our producer, Claire Snow.”

  I have to stifle a sigh.

  I’d thought I’d left my klutzy days back with my tiny apartment but apparently they’re back.

  I waggle my fingers at him and smile ruefully. “I think first impressions are so important.”

  This sends him into another fit of chuckling.

  “Miss Snow, I will not forget this meeting any time soon.”

  Chapter 3

  Two weeks fly by in a blur of budget meetings, weather warnings, and actor tantrums.

  It’s only late at night, when I’m finally alone in my tiny apartment that I feel the time that’s passed since I last touched Kaden.