I look down at Riley and I can feel my whole body vibrating with desire, but I keep it in check. She wants to be professional about this, and I’m going to do my best to give her what she wants.

The day after she made her big decision, she reports to a little-used conference room tucked away in a corner near my office. I’m already there and prepared for her, a small presentation loaded up and ready on the screen.

She arches an eyebrow at me. “Do you really need to dim the lights?”

I give her a serious look. “Of course I do, Miss Hollins,” I say.

She rolls her eyes. “How very professional of you.”

I grin and push ahead. Once the lights are down and the door is shut, I tap the spacebar on my laptop to flip to the first slide.

Up on the screen is a black background with big, bold white text right in the middle. “I’m Your Boss Now,” I read to her.

“Asshole,” she grumbles.

I raise an eyebrow. “I thought we were being professional, Miss Hollins.”

She gestures impatiently at the screen. “Go ahead, boss.”

I nod, smiling. “Very good, Miss Hollins. As we embark on this journey together, you need to understand one thing, and one thing only. I am your boss from now until we’re through, and if you want to be successful, you’d better do exactly as I say.”

She narrows her eyes. “Why are you in charge?”

“Because this is my project, and because Mitchell told me I am.”

“Maybe I should ask Mitchell myself,” she says.

“Be my guest, but before you do, there’s something you need to understand.”

“What?”

I hit the spacebar and read the next slide, still bold white text on a black background. “Mitchell Doesn’t Care What You Think, So Don’t Bother.”

She groans, shaking her head. “Are you serious? You knew I’d say that?”

“I guessed. Would’ve looked stupid if I was wrong.” I shrug, grinning at her.

“Can you be serious for, like, one second?”

“Of course, I can. This is serious stuff, Miss Hollins.”

“Stop calling me that,” she grates at me.

I hit the spacebar again and read the next slide. “Only If You Call Me Aaron.” I grin at her and shrug. “Close enough.”

She groans again. “Oh my god. How many of these did you do?”

“That’s the last one, I promise.”

“Seriously, Aaron. I’m rethinking my decision.”

“Don’t do that. You have a lot to lose now.”

“I don’t have anything to lose,” she grumbles.

“Look, I know you’re not happy about this, but you have to understand that all your money is dependent on listening to me.”

That gets her attention. “I thought I was getting my two percent no matter what.”

“No, you’re not,” I tell her. “You’re getting your two percent if we’re successful.”

“What the fuck, Aaron?” She half stands up. “You didn’t say that.”

“I fudged the truth a bit,” I say, shrugging. “I’m a slimeball, after all, right? But look, we are going to succeed.”

“What, exactly, do we have to do?”

“First, you have to…” I hit the spacebar and read. “Listen To Me.”

She crosses her arms and doesn’t smile. “And?”

I hit the spacebar again. “Work With Me.”

“I’m guessing there’s a third thing.”

I wink at her and hit the spacebar. “Obey Me.”

She sighs. “How much of this presentation is about how you’re in charge?”

“Most of it,” I admit. “I really wanted to hammer that point home.”

“Great.” She stands up. “I’m done with this bullshit.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” I say. “Hold on, Riley, look.” I skip ahead in the presentation, although there were some gems in there about how she must give me her complete and utter submission, and how I’ll bring her to new levels of pleasure if she’ll only get on her knees and beg me, etc., etc. Definitely not professional, but whatever, she would’ve loved it. I stop after half the slides, the background now shifted to blue.

“Okay, look at this,” I say as I hit the spacebar to populate the slide. “It’s a list of all the vendors and the locations we’re visiting. We have to sell to four companies, preferably big orders, or get verbal commitments from six. If we can do that, the money’s all yours.”

She squints at the slide, going over the venders listed and doing the math.

“You want us to hit… three places per day for two months?” Her eyes go wide. “Holy shit, Aaron.”

“Holy shit is right. We’re being sent to the Midwest, which doesn’t sound exciting, but those bastards love solar. I mean, they fucking love it. The Midwest has a ton of light and sun, and people like the environment out there, go figure. So we’re going to sell the shit out of this product.”

She’s quiet for a second, just staring at the screen. I can tell she’s trying to work this out for herself, and I have to admit, I’m a little nervous for what she’s thinking.

“We’re going to spend a lot of time together,” she says finally.

“Yes, we are,” I agree. “Lots of miles and lots of sales calls.”

“Lots of hotels and shitty food.”

“Lots of fun and late nights spent exploring each other’s—”

“Aaron,” she says, cutting me off. “It’s insane. That’s just too much.”

I soften my smile a bit. “We’ll do what we can. Honestly, I know it’s ambitious, but we can do this. We have two months to get three big sales. That can’t be hard, right?”

“We don’t even have a product to sell yet,” she says. “It’s not even a prototype. It’s just in the design phase.”

“I know.” I lean on the desk and look into her eyes. “But together, Riley, we can do this. I believe in you.”

She stares back at me and for a second, I think I’m going to kiss her. We’re alone in a small room, the lights are down, and she’s so fucking beautiful. She’s practically glowing, and not just because she’s pregnant, but because the reflection from the presentation is hitting her. I want to kiss those full, gorgeous lips and feel what I felt that night again so fucking bad it almost hurts.

Instead, she leans back and fixes a little half smile on me. “Okay then, boss,” she says. “Run me through the logistics.”

I straighten up with a serious face. “Okay, Miss Hollins,” I say, switching to the next slide. “Here are our objectives.”

Her eyebrows go straight up after reading the first objective. “Make sweet, sweet love every night?” she reads.

“Oh, ah, how’d that get in there.” I hit the spacebar and it disappears. “Whoops.”

She rolls her eyes. “You sure know how to ruin a moment.”

I watch her for a second, hit the spacebar again, and dive into my presentation. She’s leaning forward and hanging on my words now, and I can tell she’s getting into this, even if she doesn’t want to be.

I know it’s the prospect of potentially millions. I know she’s only doing this to secure her future and make sure her product succeeds. I know she doesn’t care about me, doesn’t care about being alone in hotels with me, alone in the car with me, close enough to touch for two whole, long months. I know she doesn’t care about that.

But it’s the reason I’m doing this. Sure, I want to sell some fucking solar panels and make her rich in the process, but it’s not about that. For me, it’s about being with the mother of my future baby and getting her to see that I’m not just some asshole, slimeball salesman.

I’m the man that’s going to make her feel fucking good.