Brazen Bossman: A Hero Club Novel, стр. 26
Piper,
Never let a man tell you what to do.
This is the twenty-first century. Unless he’s doing it in a kinky way, put him in his place.
Men tend to make us crazy, girl. That’s nothing new.
We just have to go along for the ride, because even though they make us contemplate playing for the other team day in and day out, we like having them around.
In my opinion, just talk to him. You want to or you wouldn’t be worrying about it, right?
Ida
Before I even finish reading her reply, another text message pops on my phone, this time from someone I didn’t really expect at all.
Ryan: I hope you had a great day. I’d like to take you to lunch on Friday. Are you in?
Ryan is a very nice man, and truly, I could see myself being friends with him, and what could lunch with a friend hurt?
Me: Sure. I’d like that. I take lunch at one.
Ryan: I’ll be there
We exchange a few more texts so he can get the address to our office, and the slight twinge of guilt starts to set in.
I think there may be part of me that hopes Nathanial gets jealous.
I toss my phone onto the nightstand and collapse onto my back on the bed with a heavy sigh. I run through a mental list in my head of all the reasons I shouldn’t want to do anything with him ever again.
He’s rude.
He’s arrogant.
He’s very mean sometimes to me, and the entire office.
But then I see him smile or watch him soften for a moment and I can see the man behind the CEO. That in and of itself is enough to keep me intrigued. I’m addicted to making him crack, making the façade disappear and the mask slip away.
I open the text message he sent to me and just stare at it.
Why do things have to be so annoyingly complicated?
Nathanial
Remember when I decided I wasn’t a stalker, even though I went to the same restaurant she was going to, on purpose, to see her on her date?
There is no explaining away the fact I just spent thirty minutes accessing her employee file on my laptop, found her address, and drove myself here to sit outside of her apartment until I can be sure she made it home safely.
Her apartment building is a three-story brick affair in Brooklyn, which leaves a lot to be desired on the outside, but I know that building owners go to great lengths to renovate the interior for rentals.
I watch each person closely that goes in and out of the building, and I have yet to see her. If I’ve done my math correctly, she would have already been here, so it’s possible I’ve missed her.
I check her address again and note she’s in apartment 301.
Third floor.
I look up and only one window on the third floor is illuminated by light, and the curtains are open, along with the shades.
The fire escape blocks my view just a bit, but I can see in enough to know that there is someone standing right there, looking out the window. A car making a turn onto her street moves in such a way that the headlights pass right over the window in question, and there is no denying that raven-colored hair.
My tinted windows ensure she won’t know that it’s me, and I’ve opted to drive a car she’s never seen at the office before, giving me complete anonymity.
I don’t want to scare her.
I just needed to know she was safe.
Because apparently, one taste of a vixen you’ve been enthralled with for months makes you a complete and total fucking lunatic.
Piper Kingston is special. She always has been.
Before I even began working at Lennox for my father, after he decided to step down, I’d heard so many things from my mother about his incredible admin Piper. About how she was the kindest spitfire who would do anything for anyone, and to top it off, she was damn good at her job.
It wasn’t until my first day in the office, after my father took the last of his things out, did I see how fucking special she actually was.
She was wearing a simple, casual maxi dress. It was black and grazed the tops of her toes. She had a white cardigan on over that, her black hair was smoothed into a ponytail, and she had this small, rose necklace on that lay perfectly on her chest.
I wanted her immediately, and when I realized she was fiery underneath all that beauty, pushing her buttons became a favorite pastime of mine.
I’d ask her to do things I knew weren’t her favorite, or force her to take the long way around certain tasks just so I could see her chest puff up in frustration, and if I was lucky, she’d feel brazen enough to sneak a retort in here and there. That was my favorite.
I think it’s my demented obsession with her attitude that was the nail in the coffin when I decided to track her down to her apartment tonight. I want to see her. Plain and simple. I can’t get enough of her. Not anymore.
I sneak another peek up to her window and can see she is still standing there, only this time… it looks like her eyes are trained directly at me.
Piper
Holy fucking shit.
There is no one around here who would be driving a car like that. This is a sensible car or no car at all type of area.
No one on this side of the city would be driving a Tesla. This screams Nathanial Lennox or a very well-off drug dealer with a knack for green energy. Not the soldier on the street. The Kingpin who pays the man, who pays the soldier, that’s who would be in a car like that.
Even with that knowledge in the back of my mind, I know, deep in my bones, it’s