by Lia Lee
Finally, Brent pulled out of me and I gasped, raw and satisfied. He climbed off the bed and turned away from me. I closed my eyes and arched my back, trying to stretch out my body. The mattress dipped as Brent climbed onto the bed.
I smiled, thinking about this whole image before I started giggling. It bubbled up in my throat. Brent looked at me like I was crazy, but I couldn’t help it. I lay on the bed laughing, naked and well-done.
Chapter 12
Brent
I had no idea what had gotten into Rena. I’d experienced a lot of weird things with the women I fucked, but giggling after sex was a new one. Even though I didn’t know what to make of it, I had to admit it was cute. She lay there in all her naked glory, laughing, her skin still flushed and glistening between her legs after the sex we’d had. I shook my head. She was beautiful and strange, and I had no idea what to make of this woman.
Innocent and naughty at the same time, confident and seemingly shy, logical and crazy. She was a bucket of opposites, and I didn’t have a clue who she really was. I found that I wanted to get to know her the more time we spent together. It wasn’t only because we were fucking, either. I wanted to find out who Rena was. I wanted to know who this woman who’d been working for me for so long. I hadn’t found out anything about her other than the necessary details to get her paid and to be sure she would be in the office when I needed her.
She had never mattered before. But now? Everything was changing.
It was because we were fucking, I told myself. I didn’t want to see her as some whore, so getting to know her a little was the next logical step. That was all. I didn’t give a shit about who she was other than that, and I didn’t care about her emotions at all. That didn’t matter. Even as I watched her giggling on the bed, I knew I wasn’t being completely honest with myself, but I was going to stick to my story.
Rena finally stopped giggling and sat up.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
“Doesn’t this seem like a porno to you?”
I frowned, shaking my head slowly.
“Think about it. My hot billionaire boss flies me out to Boston specially to fuck me. It sounds like a porn movie.”
I grinned when she called me hot. I would take that. And she was right, the whole thing was amusing when she put it that way. It did seem a little like a porn movie. I leaned forward and kissed her, pushing her back so she lay on the bed again.
“Come on,” I said when I broke the kiss. I rolled her to the side and patted her ass. “We have a meeting soon. I need to prepare.”
“Right,” she said. “The work part of why I’m here.” She was smiling, teasing. I chuckled and climbed off the bed, then put on my suit again. It wasn’t too wrinkled after lying on the floor.
“I’ll be right back,” I said and took the key card that lay on the table. I walked to my room and retrieved my laptop before going back to Rena’s room. I had booked a room for her because it had seemed too intimate to have her stay with me. We weren’t dating by a long shot.
When I returned to the room, Rena was getting dressed. She opened her blouse for me, revealing her bra. I grinned, loving the view. I walked to the table and opened my laptop.
“Can we order room service?” I asked. “For lunch.”
She nodded and picked up the menu. She chose food for us and called the front desk before she joined me at the table. She sat opposite me but lifted her foot and put it on the chair between my legs, dangerously low to my crotch. She wasn’t touching me, but I was aware of her foot, and even though I’d started working, Rena effectively managed to distract me.
It was the small things like this that made Rena irresistible. She was innocent and sweet, and she was a good employee. But she had little streaks of naughty that shimmered through now and then. It was such a turn-on.
We sat in silence together, the sound of my fingers punching my keyboard the only sound in the room. A knock on the door told us room service had brought up our food, and Rena walked to the door to collect it. She’d ordered chicken wraps for both of us with fries and coffee. A light lunch was just what I needed after a good fuck.
We ate together, talking about the meeting we had to go to. When I was finished, I opened my laptop again to finalize a document. Rena stood up and walked to her carry-on. She took an envelope out and opened it, reading over the contents. Her face was serious, and I wanted to ask what that was all about.
But it wasn’t work, as far as I could tell. And if it was personal, it was none of my business. So, instead of asking about it like I wanted to, I let her sit down with her letter and carried on with my work. Rena’s mood visibly changed. She became pensive and serious. After she’d stared at the letter for a long time, she turned her head to the window and gazed out of it, lost in thought.
We headed out to the meeting, not more than an hour later.
“Are you ready for this?” I asked. Rena still seemed a little distracted, and I wanted to be sure she had her head in the game. The meetings I had to wrap up here in Boston before going back were important.
“I’m ready,” she said.
I nodded, taking her word for it. I didn’t want to ask her if she was sure. When Rena told me she was ready for something or she had done something, I trusted her. She had never given me a reason to doubt her. She was the best secretary I’d ever had. I had offered her a lot of money when I’d hired her a year ago because her personality had been so damn attractive I hadn’t been able to stay away. She had been magnetic, and a person like that could only be good for my company. I had learned a long time ago that a company was only as successful as the mindset of the people behind it. Because of that, I took a lot of time finding the right people to work for me, and I made sure they had every reason to stay.
Everything was different between Rena and me now. We’d taken a step in a direction I had never anticipated when I’d first hired her. She was still the same person she’d been from the start when it came down to the work we had to do together, and I was positive that our sexual relationship now wouldn’t affect our work in the long run.
I had to bank on that after I’d taken such a big risk and broken all the rules about fraternizing in the office.
We arrived at the building where our meetings were scheduled and waited in the lobby for only a second before we were escorted up. Mr. Harold Rose was a shareholder in the company, and he had brought a few possible investors with him. It was important that we made a good impression.
When I walked in, I knew it was going to be a hard day. The men sitting around the table all looked skeptical and bored, with stiff upper lips. They shuffled and tapped as Rose introduced me to them. I was hoping the meeting would have a good outcome.
As the day dragged on, things looked grim for me. The men didn’t look like they were paying attention.
“I don’t think we’re going to get anywhere with them,” I said to Rena when we had a short break. “They’re practically falling asleep.”
Rena looked at them. “Let me take over the presentation.”
“You’re my secretary.”
“And I’m a woman.” She leaned a little closer to me, dropping her voice as low as she could. “If I could charm you, I can do anything.”
She smiled sweetly at me, and I grinned. Her confidence and arrogance were hot.
“Okay,” I said. I was taking a chance.
When everyone was seated again, Rena stepped forward. She stood in front of the men and started talking, and I watched as they all perked up and watched her with interest. They were as drawn to her as I had been. I should have let her take over from the start. Rena was amazing.
As the presentation continued, I watched her charm every single one of the investors, including Rose himself. And Rose was already on board, so that was saying something.
I was starting to think she was in the wrong position. She was a great secretary, but she could do so much more for the company. When I’d hired her, she’d been overqualified fo
r the position, but I had taken her even though I hadn’t needed someone with a business degree at the time. Maybe that needed to change.
We arrived back at the hotel. I told Rena to change into something nice. I wanted to take her out to celebrate our success and to show her how grateful I was for what she’d done. She had saved my ass in there. When she emerged from the room, she was dressed in the classic little black dress, but it was so sexy. Her height and her slender figure made the dress look a hundred times better than it would have looked on anyone else. I had been with plenty of women, and few of them dressed according to their body type. Rena seemed to have it down to an exact science.
She had combed her hair back so it was pulled away from her face, and the result was sophisticated and classy.
I chose an expensive restaurant. It was the kind of place Rena deserved to be in. I was starting to realize her true worth.
“The meeting today was exceptional,” I said. “Every investor today came to me and said they were interested in being involved in the future of my company. That’s all thanks to you.”
Rena looked surprised. “That’s amazing,” she said.
“You’re amazing.”
She smiled but didn’t blush, which was what I had hoped to achieve.
“You don’t have to compliment me like this,” she said.
“What?”
“We both know what our arrangement is. I’ve wanted to sleep with you for a long time, but this isn’t about attachment. You said so yourself. You don’t have to charm me.”
I shook my head, unsure of what to say. I had told her that it wasn’t about attachment, and she was taking it seriously. I should have been happy. Instead, her distant behavior stung.
What the hell was wrong with me? Why did I care so much about her feelings, complimenting her, and making her feel better?
It was because she was my secretary, I told myself. If I was a dick to her now, it would put a strain on our working relationship in the future. It wasn’t about anything else. I cared about her as a person, but it wasn’t about anything deeper than that.
Right?
Chapter 13
Rena
Our tickets were booked to head back to Chicago on Thursday evening, so I had the day to take care of my business with the private investigator. If I wanted to make it happen, it had to be today. I was running out of time, but I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to meet my sister. I wasn’t sure I was ready.
Still, when I woke up on Thursday, the time limit pressed on me. I could always talk to the PI and see how things worked out. I didn’t have to decide right away if I wanted to meet my sister. I didn’t have to meet her at all if I didn’t want to. Making contact with the PI would be a good idea, and I had questions I needed answered.
I emailed Morgan Taylor, asking if it was possible to set up a meeting. It was short notice, but it was worth a shot. If it didn’t work, I wouldn’t try again. If it did, it was a sign that I was doing the right thing.
After I sent the email, I sat in front of my laptop, hitting the Refresh button over and over, anxious to get a reply. This would determine whether I was going to meet my sister or not, after all.
Morgan Taylor replied only ten minutes later and told me he was happy to meet me for lunch. My stomach tightened. I was suddenly nervous. This was really happening. At the back of my mind, I had prepared myself for a rejection, or no response at best. I had prepared myself to be turned down.
But now it was happening.
A knock on my door startled me. I opened it and Brent stood in front of me. He was handsome, dressed in khaki pants and a cream-colored collared shirt that made him look put together and in charge, even though he wasn’t wearing a suit.
“I want to take you out to lunch today,” he said. “And a bit of sightseeing afterward for our last day in Boston.”
I shook my head. “I’m sorry, but I already have plans.”
Brent frowned. “What plans?”
What was I going to say to him? Was I going to tell him the truth about my past, or was I going to lie to him? I had to go to this meeting.
“It’s nothing serious,” I said.
“So, tell me.”
He was pushing this. Why was he so interested? He’d never come across as the clingy type before. Not that this was clingy at all. He only wanted to know what I was doing because I was rejecting him for lunch. I took a deep breath and sighed.
“I’m going to meet a private investigator.”
Brent raised his eyebrows, and I knew I had to tell him the full story now. I opened the door so he could step into my room. He sat down on one of the love seats in the corner and looked at me intently.
“I’m adopted. A private investigator contacted my mom and let her know I had a sister who’s looking for me. I’m here to meet with him to find out more about what’s going on.”
“That’s a lot to take in,” he said.
“Sorry.”
“No, I mean for you. I didn’t know you were adopted, obviously, but it must be hard to find out you have a sister.”
I was surprised by his reaction; Brent understood it without even knowing the full story. I had only told him a small part of it, summarizing it in the simplest way I could so he knew where I was headed. I felt bad that I’d come to Boston with ulterior motives, but Brent didn’t seem to mind at all.
“Let me come with you,” Brent said.
“What? Why?”
“Because this is tough. This PI is a stranger, and it’s always good to have support.”
He was right. I didn’t know Morgan Taylor at all, and this was going to be hard. Having Brent there could help.
“Okay,” I said after thinking about it for a moment. “But let me handle it. And don’t go all alpha male on the guy.”
The last part had been a joke. Everything was so tense right now, I needed that comic relief.
Brent seemed to understand it because he said with a wink, “I can’t make any promises. ”
I had agreed with Morgan to meet him at the Dunkin’ Donuts in town instead of going for a full lunch. I didn’t want to spend that much time with the guy, and I wanted to be able to run away if it was too much for me. I was more nervous than I thought I would be, and I was glad Brent was with me.
“What does he look like?” Brent asked when we stepped into the store.
“He didn’t say,” I said. The store had tables and chairs for customers who wanted to sit down with their loot after paying. There was no one that fit the description of PI I had in my mind, no private-eye-looking men with trench coats. There wasn’t even a man in a business suit. There was a group of teenagers, a couple, and a woman sitting at the back, neatly dressed, dark hair pulled into a bun, and flipping through a file. She looked up and waved at me. I frowned.
“She looks like she’s trying to get your attention,” Brent said.
I nodded and moved toward the woman, unsure.
“You’re Rena,” she said. “I’m Morgan Taylor.”
“Oh,” I said, taking the hand she was offering me.
“I’m glad you guessed it was me.”
“Oh, I wasn’t guessing,” Morgan said. “You’re a spitting image of your sister.”
That was unnerving. Brent introduced himself in my stunned silence, and we sat down around the little table.
“Coffee?” Morgan asked.
“I’ll get it,” Brent offered and left us alone to line up at the counter.
“You must have a lot of questions,” Morgan said.
“I don’t even know where to start,” I admitted. “How did this happen?”
Morgan nodded. “Of course, let’s start there. You and your sisters were separated shortly after birth for adoption. It’s not every day someone is willing to take on triplets.”
I stared at Morgan. “Triplets? I have another sister?”
Morgan nodded slowly. “You had more than one. Unfortunately, one of the three girls passed away due to medical compl
ications. It was soon after the initial adoption, and the case had been investigated. There was no foul play.”
I couldn’t believe it. I had barely wrapped my mind around the idea that I wasn’t an only child; adding in another sister and a death was making me numb.
“I know this is a horrible way to find out. The adoptions were closed, so the information shouldn’t have come out at all.”
“Then why did it?” I asked.
“That’s a great question. You sister invested a considerable amount of money into this investigation. She wanted to find her birth parents, and then all the other facts came to light. She has the right contacts. Money talks, even in this world, and she managed to break the rules.”
She broke the rules even though it hurt to find these things out. It wasn’t very considerate of her to put this on me. What if I’d never wanted to know?
But the more I thought about it, the more I doubted I wouldn’t want to know. If I had tried to find my birth parents and realized I had a sister, would I have been able to walk about without knowing who they were? I wasn’t so sure.
“This is so much to take in,” I said.
Morgan nodded, sympathetic. “In my line of work, I see everything. I can only imagine what you’re going through.”
It was the second time today someone had said that to me, but I doubted it. I doubted anyone would understand what it was like if they had been adopted and put through this.
Brent returned to the table with coffee in a Styrofoam cup, and I took it from him, wrapping my fingers around its warmth. With Brent next to me again, I felt a little more stable.
“Your sister’s name is Zoe Franklin. She wants to meet you.”
I shook my head. I wasn’t ready for this.
“I don’t think I can do that,” I said. “Not yet.”
Morgan nodded.
“You can tell Zoe”—the name was foreign on my tongue—“that you found me. But I can’t meet her.”