Chapter Ten
Would she turn up this morning?
Or would he never see her again? While he’d given her the choice, he’d already decided that wasn’t an option. If she didn’t turn up, he’d go and haul her ass in here. But he thought she would.
He closed his eyes and pictured her expression when he’d said he wanted to be friends. After he’d dropped that bombshell, he’d walked away, giving her time to think. He had an idea that she hadn’t had many friends in her life. Probably her lifestyle had precluded that.
Friends.
He didn’t have many friends himself. A lot of acquaintances, but real friends? They were hard to find.
He’d dreamed of her again last night. In the dream, they hadn’t been friends. They’d been lovers. He’d been deep inside her, and he’d woken up aroused and frustrated, his mind filled with the memory of how she felt wrapped around him, his cock pumping into her, her cries as she came…
Shit. Stop thinking about sex with Summer.
It wasn’t going to happen again.
They were going to be friends.
At eight thirty, a quiet knock sounded on his door and a second later, the door opened and Summer stood there. He couldn’t believe the cool wave of relief that washed over him. He kept his expression blank.
“You came,” he said. “I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t be making my own coffee today.”
“God forbid.” She stepped into the room and came to stand in front of his desk. She was wearing what he’d come to think of as her work uniform, a plain white shirt tucked into a gray skirt and low black heels. He had to stifle the almost overwhelming urge to take her out of them. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail and she wore no makeup. She was beautiful, and something twisted in his gut. He ignored the feeling.
“Did you mean it?” she asked. “You won’t give that file to the police?”
“I meant it.”
“And you want to be friends?” He nodded and she shook her head. “I don’t even know what that means.”
“We were friends when we first met. You talked to me. I talked to you. We can do it again.”
Her brow furrowed. “You want to share our innermost secrets or something?”
“Or something. Don’t make a big deal out of it. We work together. If you have any problems, come and talk to me.”
Her brow furrowed, a little line forming. “And will you tell me your problems?”
He grinned. “I’m a billionaire. We don’t have problems. Or if we do, we pay people to make them go away.”
“Nice.”
“Yeah.”
“But I don’t believe it.” She shifted. “Okay, I’ll get to work then.” She turned and headed for the door. Halfway there, she paused, turned, and marched back. Stood in front of his desk, her hands behind her back.
He raised an eyebrow. “What is it, Summer? You clearly have something you want to say.” He hoped she wasn’t about to change her mind and walk out on him. That wasn’t an option, but he didn’t know how he would keep her now that he’d told her he wouldn’t go to the police. A pay rise?
“Just…thank you.”
And she was gone.
…
The friend thing was weird. Though Nik wasn’t being particularly friendly—that would be hard when there was usually a few thousand miles between them. Still, she was feeling twitchy. Maybe because she couldn’t get the memory of him saying he wanted her “too much” out of her head. The words echoed in her ears, making her hot and bothered at the most inappropriate times.
Nik was in New York right now. According to his schedule, he was supposedly flying back tonight. But if the past few weeks were anything to go by, he wouldn’t be around for long. Though this time, he had to stay in London at least a few days. It was his mother’s birthday, and he was going to the party on Saturday. Alone, as far as she could tell, though it was possible he’d stopped adding his dates to his schedule. Maybe he thought it was none of her business. Or maybe he thought she might be upset.
She sniffed. As if.
“Hey, beautiful.” Sam came to a halt in front of her, a glass of white wine in one hand, a beer in the other. He held out the wine to her, and she took it with a slightly forced smile. “Darcy said you needed a drink,” he said. “You were looking far too serious all alone here in the corner.”
They were at one of the local pubs not far from home. Danny had arranged a get-together to celebrate the anniversary of his first date with Sherry, and Summer had thought it would be nice to get out. Now she wished she was at home. Sam was a complication she didn’t need right now. She was quite aware that Darcy was matchmaking. But while she liked Sam, her life was far too much of a mess to even contemplate a relationship. Besides, it didn’t seem right to lead Sam on when her dreams were full of hot sex with another man.
“Thank you,” she said, taking a sip of wine. “How’s the computing coming along?”
Danny and Sam had become friends. Sam was teaching Danny how to fight, and Danny was teaching Sam all about computer hacking.
“Total crap.” He sounded cheerful about it. He was such an easygoing guy. Things would be so much easier if she could fall for him instead of…
Stop thinking about him.
“How’s the job?” he asked.
She was betting Darcy had put him up to that. She was quite aware that both Regan and Darcy were curious about her job.
“Total crap,” she replied, and Sam grinned.
But that wasn’t true. She was actually enjoying the work. For the first time since she was fourteen, she felt almost normal, part of real life instead of just looking on. She was still a little wary about meeting people at work who might remember her, but as time passed, she relaxed more.
She’d even made friends with a couple of the other executive PAs and occasionally went to lunch with them. Like a normal person.
Unfortunately, though, she still spent way too much time thinking of her boss in an inappropriate manner. And she still woke up in the night, hot and sweaty and so turned on…
Friends!
Danny appeared at her side, Sherry close by. She didn’t look happy.
“Happy anniversary,” Summer said, reaching up to kiss Danny on the cheek. As she backed away, she caught the expression on Sherry’s face. Her lips were tight and her eyes narrowed.
“Thanks.” Danny wrapped his arms around her and gave her a huge hug. Probably not the best thing to do in front of his girlfriend. This wasn’t the first inkling she’d had that Sherry didn’t like her. In everything else, she seemed to be such a confident woman. So why didn’t she have the confidence to see how Danny felt about her? It was sad. Danny was crazy about her and seemed totally oblivious to the waves of resentment radiating off his girlfriend. Summer pushed herself away and straightened her clothes.
“Hey, you look great,” he said, and she almost rolled her eyes.
She was wearing some of the clothes she’d bought on her makeover day with Darcy. Tight black jeans and a silky purple tank top. She looked better than she ever had, not that Nik had noticed. He seemed oblivious to her change of image.
And why did she care?
Sam was talking to Sherry, but the other woman was merely pretending to pay attention, while casting her and Danny sharp little glances. Summer’s heart sank. The last thing she wanted was to drive a wedge between her best friend and the love of his life. Sherry had been good for Danny. She ensured he stayed totally legal, which took a weight off Summer’s mind.
Maybe she should back out of his life. But he was her best friend. She loved him…like a brother. Though Sherry didn’t believe that.
Time to give the other woman a little space. “I just need to ask Darcy something. I’ll see you all later.”
She found Darcy and Regan propping up the bar, drinking beer. Neither looked particularly happy, but then, Darcy was getting nowhere with her plans, and Regan was coping with a potentially disastrous love life. She’d made the mistake of falling for the detective who had led the case against her, and while she said she knew what she was doing, Summer didn’t see any way it could end well.
“Sherry doesn’t like me,” she said as she came to a halt in front of them.
“She’s jealous,” Darcy said.
“There’s nothing to be jealous of.” They both gave her a look. “There isn’t,” she protested, and Regan grinned.
“No smoke and all that. And I’ve got to say, if I were Danny’s girlfriend, I’d be a little concerned.”
“There’s nothing like that between us.”
“Maybe not now. But I’m guessing there was.”
“It’s over.”
“Who finished it?” Darcy asked. “You or Danny?”
Summer pursed her lips, not liking the direction this was going. Why couldn’t things be simple? “It was mutual.” But that wasn’t quite true. She’d had an on–off relationship with Danny for years. It had been fun but had never developed into anything serious. And after she’d met Nik, she’d not wanted that sort of relationship anymore. Best not to think of the reasons why.
“You know what you need,” Darcy said.
“No. But I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”
“You need a boyfriend. To show Sherry that you’re not after her man.”
And why did an image of Nik flash up in her mind? He so wasn’t boyfriend material. “Couldn’t I just tell her?”
“I doubt she’d believe you.” Regan considered her, head tilted to one side. “Do you want to stay friends with them both?”
She nodded. And it wasn’t merely their friendship she valued.
Sherry was a social worker, and she and Danny were working together on a project. It was an idea Summer had come up with while she was in prison, a mentoring program that got people high up in big companies involved in mentoring children in the foster system. A way of giving something back and offering the kids some much-needed encouragement and a view of an alternative life. Not only work placements but personal one-on-one contact. Eventually, Summer wanted to be involved—it had been her idea, after all—but that wasn’t going to happen if Sherry didn’t get over her jealousy.
“Then Darcy is right. You definitely need a boyfriend. Or at least a pretend boyfriend.”
“I don’t want a boyfriend.” She sounded whiny, but she couldn’t help it.
Darcy ignored her. “Sam would be perfect.”
“No, he wouldn’t.” Sam might help her, but she knew he wanted a real relationship, and she wasn’t going there.
If she wanted a fake relationship, then she had to look somewhere else. She needed someone who didn’t want to date her for real. She needed a friend.
But an impressive friend. Someone superrich and sexy as hell, so Sherry would be totally convinced.
Hmm, where would she find someone like that?