Nothing to It (Bombshells & Billionaires [Roxiverse] #15)

Chapter 1

ONE

“AND THEY LIVED happily ever after,” she murmured to herself.

Yeah, that could be the end of their tale. “Their” who? Her smarmy cheating ex and the peppy young woman, new to the office, who specialized in turning men’s heads. Not her fault, some men’s heads turned easy.

Would the traitorous couple get a HEA? It being true, fated love might make their betrayal easier to endure. If love was true, it was true, no matter how wrong it may be. Still, she doubted there was a fairytale wedding in Mason and Terra’s future.

Come on. Honestly? Who cared? They’d done her a favor. She’d wasted a year on that guy; now he was Terra’s problem.

Unfortunately, or not, she’d uncovered the deception right before this Brooker mixer. The one her boss said was compulsory. And didn’t she just blow a big, fat raspberry to that. Ha! No less than it deserved. She blew that big raspberry then, throat clear, showed up anyway.

What? She should’ve stuck to her morals? Her guns? Her convictions? Phooey to that, she needed the paycheck. And right now, she was hanging on to this job by one very thin, very frayed thread.

God, she had to learn not to complicate everything.

The mixer? Right. Yeah. The mixer.

Boston Rouge was a trendy hotspot, part of the flashy Crimson nightclub.

Many of her colleagues exaggerated their reverence in the face of its exclusivity.

Totally not her scene. By equal measure, she had no objection to alcohol or loud music, crowds on the other hand…

To tell the truth, she and crowds had agreed to take a break from each other. No hard feelings just… no.

In her assessment so far, the wine was okay.

Thankfully. It was the only thing keeping her going.

Not that she’d run out on the party early.

No siree. She wasn’t the one in the wrong.

What did she have to be ashamed of? In this particular situation?

Nothing. Elsewhere…? Less said about that, the better.

Others whispered about the torrid affair that went on under her oblivious nose.

Of course they did. Didn’t matter. There was no way she’d shrink in the face of humiliation.

Nope. She’d stick around as a sore thumb reminder to the new couple of their nefarious beginnings.

Still, despite that, she’d slunk away to find a quiet spot to breathe for a minute.

She wasn’t leaving, just pausing the carousel.

Sneaking past a plant on the patio, she descended a wooden stair and snuck around a corner. An adventure? Where would she end up? Checking over her shoulder to ensure she hadn’t been followed, she rounded an awkward angle jutting out at the back of the building and went down another wooden stair.

Kudos to her, this was it, her secret little—her proud grin dropped.

A guy occupied the private bolt hole. A guy?

Damnit. She hadn’t ordered company. The small concrete square had a hip high retaining wall around two perpendicular landscaped sides.

Other buildings blocked them from prying eyes.

Other prying eyes anyway. The guy’s eyes tainted the seclusion.

Or they would, if not buried in his phone.

He was texting… or emailing. Typing something into his phone. Sexting? Maybe. Ew, was that why he needed the privacy?

She could slip away. Disappear. He’d never know she’d been there… but that meant going back to the party.

“Pretend I’m not here,” he said without lifting his head.

Oh, ah, was that for her? Busted.

“Excuse me?” she asked, in case he wasn’t talking to her.

Just because she couldn’t see another person didn’t mean they weren’t there. Eyes and ears lurked everywhere. The most likely culprit? She couldn’t see the guy’s screen so maybe…

“You’re sneaking away from the party,” he said, still typing on his phone. “Wanted to disappear for a minute… Me too.”

“Oh,” she said, relaxing some. “In which case, I’ll ignore you.”

The retaining walls held dirt for the surrounding shrubs. Were they shrubs? Bushes. No idea. She chose the closest one, wall that was, as her perch, leaving him perpendicular, facing the building. Or he would be facing it if he wasn’t so enraptured by his phone.

Putting her clutch down next to her, she ran her fingers through the ends of her updo.

Okay. Sitting there. Doing nothing. Not talking to Sir Texts-A-Lot. Totally normal and comfortable… If he wasn’t there, she’d be on her phone… Would he think she was copying him if she took her phone out? Mocking him maybe?

“…that’s always the way, isn’t it?” she asked.

“Nobody looks at each other anymore. We just sit around, hunched, fiddling with our little devices. No one talks to each other. No chance meetings. No hello, how you doing? What do you do for a living? Wanna have sex in the shrubs? Nothing. Are they shrubs? Do you know anything about plants?”

His brow rose in time with his chin. Suddenly the device wasn’t as interesting. Nope, his attention fixed on her.

“Are you talking to me?” he asked doing a bad job of containing his smirk.

“Yes,” she said then bobbed her head in concession. “Not exactly you, it’s aimed at everyone. But you’re the only one here so…”

“I get the pleasure,” he asked, watching her retrieve the lollipop from her cleavage. “You keep a store of those in there?”

“They’re giving them out in the ladies’ room,” she said, unwrapping her lollipop and tucking the wrapper in her clutch. “Some marketing thing for a new cocktail.”

“That’s just wrong. Someone should complain to management. We don’t have them in the men’s room.”

“Have you been to the men’s room?”

“No.”

She smiled and pointed her lollipop at him. “Then you don’t know if they’re giving them out there or not.”

“Have you seen a guy with one?”

Raising her eyes to their top corners, she pondered. “No. But that isn’t conclusive. I’m not always the most observant.”

Sometimes. Her priorities adjusted at any given moment. Didn’t everyone’s?

“Lollipops are more of a girl thing anyway.”

“You think?” she asked, swirling the candy in her mouth before drawing it out slowly and circling the tip with her tongue.

His smirk became a laugh. “Okay.”

Back to his phone again.

“What?” she asked.

He laughed again, quieter, but it was definitely there. “Nothing. Forget it.”

She shuffled down the wall to get closer. “No, you can’t laugh at me and then not tell me why.”

“You know exactly why I’m laughing,” he said, little bit of side eye there.

“Why is that?” she asked, conceding her suggestive act was the provocation. “Why can’t a man look at a woman’s mouth without thinking about his cock?”

He locked his phone and slipped it into his jacket pocket. “You’re asking me?”

“You’re a guy. We have nothing invested in this. We’ll never see each other again. What do you have to lose?”

“An argument,” he said. “Because I’d say your judgment is flawed. I can’t speak for every guy on the planet, but I can look at a woman’s mouth without thinking about my cock.”

She swirled her tongue around and around the candy sphere. There were only so many ways to eat a lollipop, it wasn’t entirely on her. Okay, it was a little bit on her, she wasn’t that clueless.

“Are you gay?”

An exhaled laugh this time. “No.”

“You were thinking about it a minute ago.”

“You’re a beautiful woman,” he said, light in his eyes.

“I’m a stranger. Just sitting here eating my candy. All innocent like.”

He slid further back on the wall to reach behind for something. “Is that right?”

When he brought his hidden treat into the light, her eyes flared. “You have wine!”

“I do,” he said, pulling the stopper out to slug the liquid right out of the bottle. Why hadn’t she thought about bringing wine? This guy was smart. “You have your candy.”

Hopping off the wall, she went to thrust it toward him. “We could share.”

“Oh, we could, huh?” he asked, looking at the candy while she eyed his bottle. “What’s the biggest lie you ever told?”

“Uh… is this information in exchange for the wine or are we getting to know each other?”

“Whichever doesn’t end with you pissed at me,” he said, narrowing his eyes. “You get haughty fast.”

“I’m not haughty,” she said, waving her lollipop at him. “Okay, biggest lie…” She gestured around. “Everything is confidential in our little corner, right?”

“Sure is.”

“That I wasn’t having an affair with a married guy.”

“When you were?” he asked.

The emotional kind, not the physical. She’d been too young and na?ve to recognize it for what it was and that it still counted.

Gesturing at him with her lollipop again, she really needed the wine now. “It was a long time ago.”

“A long time ago? Can’t have been that long ago. How old are you?”

“One question. One drink.” Because the ones she’d already consumed had a lot to answer for. She never talked about Spencer with anyone. Ever. She opened her hand toward the wine. “Bottle.”

To keep the mood playful, light, she deliberately exaggerated the batting of her lashes.

He was nice enough to play along and laugh at her silliness. “Okay, Candy Girl,” he said, handing over the bottle.

It surprised her a little that he actually took the lollipop and stuck it in his cheek.

She nestled herself in the corner where the walls met to slurp the wine. “What about you?” she asked, noticing his long, slow lick on the candy.

Whoa, boy.

“Now who’s thinking with their cock?” he asked.

His teasing widened her smile. “I’ve been in an oral drought for a while.”

“Boyfriend no good at it?”

“Boyfriend cheated on me…” No one could say karma didn’t have a sense of humor. She drank more wine. “She can have him, I’m not missing much.”

“Ouch,” he said. “It doesn’t sting?”

“It’s humiliating, sure, but I’m happy I learned his true character before I did something crazy…”

“Like procreate?”

Disgust shuddered through her. “No, thank you, no.” Opening her mouth, she filled her lungs. “Freedom is all I need. I knew it before him. I need a wild phase.”