Beautiful Bastard (22 page)

“Well, let’s get started then,” Cheng said, leaning back in his chair.

I picked up my laser pointer and walked to the front of the room, feeling as though the floor were made of Jell-O. Two seats away from the head of the table, Bennett cleared his throat, catching my eye.

I’d need to ask him about that too. Because I was pretty sure that right before I began speaking he mouthed the words “I love you.”

Sneaky bastard.

They said my presentation would be one for the brochure, the Web site, the company newsletter.

They had me sign some papers, pose for some photos, shake a lot of hands.

They even offered me a job at JT Miller.

“She’s taken,” Bennett said, pulling me to the side. He stared down at me, wordless, while everyone eventually filtered out of the room.

“Yeah, about that,” I said, trying to sound angry. I was still on a crazy high from the presentation, from the discussion, from the entire day. Having Bennett within kissing distance didn’t hurt at all.

“Please don’t say no. I sort of stole Dad’s thunder. He was going to call you tonight.”

“Is he really going to offer me a job?”

“Are you going to take it?”

I shrugged, feeling giddy. “Who knows? Right now I just want to celebrate.”

“You were amazing up there.” He bent and kissed my cheek.

“Thank you. It was the most fun I’ve had in weeks.”

“The handouts were good, am I right?”

I rolled my eyes. “Yes, but you made one critical
error
.”

His face fell. “What?”

“You admitted that you know how to operate
PowerPoint
.”

With a laugh, he took my laptop bag from me and put it on a chair behind him, stalking closer with a dark smile. “I used to make slides for my boss. I was an intern once too, of course.”

Goose bumps broke out along my skin. “Did your boss yell?”

“Occasionally.” He ran his index finger up my arm.

“Criticize your handwriting?”

“Constantly.” He leaned down, kissed the corner of my mouth.

“Did your boss kiss you?”

“My father has always been more of a handshaker, really.”

I laughed, slipping my hands under his jacket so I could wrap my arms around him. “Well, I’m not your intern anymore.”

“No, you’re my colleague.”

I hummed, liking the sound of that.

“And my lover?”

“Yes.” My voice shook on the single syllable, and I understood very clearly the meaning of “drowning in relief.” I was positive Bennett could feel my heart pounding against him.

He bit my earlobe. “I’ll have to find new excuses to get you up to the boardroom and naked against the window.”

Steam filled my veins, thick and warm. “You don’t need excuses to take me home, though.”

Bennett kissed across my cheek and pressed a single, soft kiss to my mouth. “Chloe?”

“Yes, Bennett?”

“This flirting is all well and good, but I mean it when I tell you, I can’t have you leaving me again. It almost broke me.”

My ribs seemed to squeeze all of the air out of my lungs at the thought. “I don’t think I could. I don’t want to be away from you again either.”

“But you need to give me a chance to fix things when I screw up. You know I’m an ass sometimes.”

“Sometimes?”

Growling, he whispered, “And I tear lingerie.”

I pushed a curl off his forehead. “And hoard it. Don’t forget the creepy hoarding.”

“But I love you,” he said, looking at me with wide eyes. “And I’m on a first-name basis now with most of the sales staff at La Perla. I did a lot of in-store moping while you were gone. I also have it on good authority that I’m the best sex you’ve ever had. So, hopefully those things outweigh the bad.”

“Sold.” I pulled him down to me. “Come here.” I slid my mouth over his, nibbling his bottom lip. With my fists gripping his lapels, I turned and pressed him against the window, standing on my toes to get closer, as close as I possibly could.

“So demanding now that you’re all official.”

“Shut up and kiss me,” I laughed into his mouth.

“Yes, boss.”

Acknowledgments

Our first declaration of love has to be for Holly Root, our agent, our cheerleader, our adorable ninja, and the baddest badass out there. Remember that time we put on our big-girl pants and told you all of our secrets? You accepted our piglet side with as much enthusiasm as the rest of it. Thank you for letting us tick the
All of the Above
box. You are an amazing human.

The excited-fangirl kind of shoutycaps for Adam Wilson, our editor at Gallery, for immediately getting
BB,
for getting
us,
and for margin notes that had us laughing for (literally) days. Also, we’re happy to know at least one guy has read this story. We promise we’ll never use “vulva.”

To Dawn, for her unwavering friendship and her enthusiasm when we suggested making this into something new. Thank you to Rachel, for carefully beta’ing the original fanfic. Moi, you are an amazing friend, and the best head of Office R&D
BB
could ever ask for. And although a blanket, heartfelt thank-you to the fandom will never suffice, it’s the best we can do in this space. Rest assured, the space you can claim in our shared history is much more massive. Your love for this story, even after it’s been down for over three years, has kept it very much alive. We hope you enjoyed the reworked book as much as you did the original. May you all have your La Perlas ripped at least once.

Beautiful Bastard
prereaders—Martha, Erin,
Kellie
, Anne, Myra, and Gretchen: reworking this into a book with you all was The Most Fun, and we loved every comment, squee, edit and ::vowel sound:: Your excitement has kept us going even when we suspected we might be insane to do this, and especially when we were sure we were. Thank you for taking time to read every word, even the dirty ones we made you read a hundred times.

But perhaps most of all, we want to acknowledge the support of our families. SisterShoes, Cutest, Ninja, Bear, Blondie, and Dr. Mister Shoes—you give us more than encouragement; you indulge us with
time,
and love us even at the peaks of our silliest obsessions.Thank you for being the best part of every day, and the reason we embarked on this adventure in the first place.

We hope you enjoyed reading this Gallery Books eBook.

Sign up for our newsletter and receive special offers, access to bonus content, and info on the latest new releases and other great eBooks from Gallery Books and Simon & Schuster.

or visit us online to sign up at
eBookNews.SimonandSchuster.com

Gallery Books
A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
SimonandSchuster.com

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright
©
2013 by Lauren Billings and Christina Hobbs

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Gallery Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

First Gallery Books trade paperback edition February 2013

GALLERY BOOKS and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or
[email protected]

The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at
www.simonspeakers.com
.

Designed by Fine Design
Cover photograph by © Abel Mitja Varela/Getty Images

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file.

ISBN 978-1-4767-3009-7
ISBN 978-1-4767-3010-3 (ebook)