Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 65489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 262(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 262(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
Carter laughed. “Does he knit?”
“I’ve got no fucking idea, but he’ll go. He won’t risk offending her.”
“Such a good little employee.”
I grabbed the front of Worth’s shirt and jerked him out of his seat. “Don’t. Go. There.”
“Jesus, Miles,” Ford yelled.
“Benjamin is under my protection. No one says anything against him, not even you guys.”
Carter sighed. “You know you’re making my job much harder.”
I scowled at him. “If you can’t take it—”
Carter held up a hand. “You know that’s not what I’m saying.”
I blew out a long breath. “Yeah, I do, I just…I can’t stand thinking about seeing Medford with his hands on Ben. And I can’t stand thinking about his family putting pressure on him.”
“So your gut is really telling you he’s not guilty?” Carter asked. “You’re not just thinking with your dick?”
I might’ve been thinking with my dick last night—and damn had it been good—but I knew Ben wasn’t selling our secrets. “No, it’s not just because I want him.”
I knew he might be getting pressure from his family, but I also knew he was scared. His father had probably pushed him into applying for this job. If Ben came here under false pretenses, that should make me angry, but it only made me angry on Ben’s behalf. I needed to get him to talk to me.
“When do you plan to tell him you did a thorough background check on him?” Carter asked. “When are you going to tell him you’ve been closely monitoring him?”
My heart rate accelerated. I felt sick, but I glared at Carter. Anger was something I knew how to handle. “I don’t know.” I never wanted to tell Ben, but I knew eventually if I didn’t, he would find out on his own and that wouldn’t go over well. Yet did he honestly think I wouldn’t do a thorough background check? That it wouldn’t reveal the potential for him to betray me?
You’re going to hurt him. The thought made me nauseous.
“Are you okay?” Worth asked.
“I’m fine. There’s just a lot going on, and you aren’t making it any better.”
“We’re trying to help,” Ford said. “We want to make sure you haven’t gone off the deep end.”
Had I? Possibly. Maybe all of this bullshit and focusing so hard on pushing to bring profits back up had me losing my mind. But it had felt so good to kiss Ben, better than anything had felt in ages.
“Really, I’m fine. I just want to know why the hell things don’t add up with our profits and losses, and what Ben’s family is after. It’s all making me crazy.”
“And when that’s done, what’s going to happen with Ben?” Ford asked. He’d been the shyest one of us in school, but he’d never been afraid to ask a hard question.
“I don’t know. I can’t predict how I’ll feel.”
“What about how he’s going to feel?” Carter asked. “If he’s not betraying you, then….”
“I did a background check on an employee. I made sure he wasn’t selling secrets. That’s just good business.” I couldn’t admit how bad I was fucking up to myself so I sure as hell wasn’t going to admit it to my friends.
Worth snorted. “Even I know better than to think he’d see it that way, and everybody says I don’t understand relationships at all.”
“You don’t,” Carter and Ford said together.
He rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”
I needed to refocus the conversation. “I don’t have a plan for a long-term relationship.”
“If you care about him, and it sounds like you do, you need to think about it,” Ford said.
I did care. I cared about Ben a lot. I cared about keeping him safe and making sure no one else touched him. I wanted to ensure no one else belittled him the way April had tried to, and I wanted to make sure he understood that he was mine. But what did that mean beyond some primitive need for possession?
It means you’re in love with him.
No. That was crazy. We’d only known each for a few weeks, it couldn’t be love. I’d sworn I wasn’t going to fall in love with anyone. I never wanted to need someone as badly as I needed Ben, but when I thought of letting him go…. I couldn’t just do what I always did and send him off with a great bonus. It drove me crazy knowing he’d end up with someone else, knowing his family would come for him.
“So, what? You think I should just let him go?”
“That doesn’t sound like a feasible plan,” Carter said. “He’s in a great position to already know a lot about the company. You don’t want him seeking revenge.”
“Is he doing a good job?” Worth asked.
“Yes. He’s fantastic at his job.”
“Then why the hell would you fire somebody who was hot as hell and good at their job?”
“This,” Ford said, “is why you’re better off on a yacht than trying to run a company. If only your mother could see that.”