My Cheating Manager Watched His Billionaire Boss Choose Me

The robe was the resort's fault.

Every guest at Hollow Pines got the same one. Charcoal silk, a sash at the waist, cut close enough that it hugged everything I usually hid under blazers.

I stepped out of the changing room, and the lounge went quiet.

"Wow," someone from Accounting said. "Maren?"

"Don't," I said. "It's a bathrobe."

"That is not a bathrobe," Priya from Legal whispered, handing me a cup of cucumber water. "That's a statement."

Across the lounge, Nolan stood by the fireplace. Sienna was tucked under his arm, her robe loose at the collar. When he caught me looking, he bent and kissed her neck. Slowly. Right there, in front of half the company.

Sienna giggled and waved at me with two fingers.

I turned my back on them.

"Hey. Maren, right?" Theo Pruitt from Finance came over, smiling, a little shy. "I'm grabbing a seat for the cedar pool. Want to join?"

"Sure. Why not?"

"Great. I'll save you a spot by the—"

"She's busy."

Nolan was suddenly beside us. Sienna was gone. His jaw was locked tight.

Theo blinked. "Sorry, man, I didn't know you two were still—"

"We're not," I said.

"Give us a minute," Nolan told him.

Theo looked at me. I gave him a small nod. He backed away, and I regretted it the second he was gone.

◇

Nolan didn't wait for privacy. He walked me backward into the corridor toward the hot springs, where the steam fogged the windows and the lights were low.

"Cute trick," he said.

"What trick?"

"The robe. The Finance guy. The ring on the table." He laughed through his nose. "You want me to propose. That's what this is."

I stared at him. "You had your hand up Sienna's skirt."

"And you walked out instead of fighting for it. Because you knew I'd come after you." He grabbed my wrist. Hard. "Five years, Maren. You paid my rent. You wrote my proposals. You don't walk away from that kind of investment."

"Let go of my arm."

"You're not leaving me." His thumb pressed into the soft inside of my wrist. "You'd be nothing. You know that, right? You'd go home to that sad little apartment and—"

"Nolan. Let her go."

The voice came from behind him. Calm. Very cold.

Callum stood at the end of the corridor in a resort robe, a towel over one shoulder. He didn't move closer. He didn't need to.

Nolan's grip loosened, but he didn't drop my hand. "Mr. Ardmore. This is personal. Just a disagreement between me and my girlfriend."

"Ex," I said.

"I heard her ask you to let go," Callum said. "Twice."

Nolan finally released me. My skin throbbed where his fingers had been.

"With respect," Nolan said, "this isn't company business."

"Anything that happens to my employees on a company trip is company business." Callum's eyes didn't leave him. "So let me be clear. Anyone who harasses a female employee will face the consequences. Anyone. Including managers."

Nolan's face went red, then white.

"Understood," he muttered, and walked off.

I rubbed my wrist. Then, for no reason at all, I started to laugh.

Callum frowned. "That's funny?"

"No. It's just—he thinks I want him to propose."

"Do you?"

"God, no."

Something in his shoulders relaxed. "Good," he said. Then, after a beat, "Your wrist. Let me see."

"It's fine."

"Maren."

I held it out. He turned it toward the light, gently, and studied the red marks. His jaw flexed once.

"Ice," he said. "Tonight. That's an order."

◇

The cedar pool was steaming when I slid in. Theo had wisely chosen a different pool.

Then Callum came out of the changing area and dropped his robe on a bench.

I had seen him in suits for three years. I had never seen this.

His shoulders were broad and heavy with muscle. His back tapered down into a narrow waist. When he stepped into the water, it rose over his stomach, his chest, and a few drops slid down the center of him, slow, catching the light.

I jerked my eyes to the trees so fast my neck hurt.

"Water too hot?" he asked, settling across from me.

"Nope. Perfect. Very… wet."

He raised one eyebrow.

I sank until the water reached my chin.

◇

That night I lay in bed and could not stop seeing it.

The water on his chest. His thumb on my wrist. His voice saying Maren like it was the only word that mattered.

I told myself to sleep. My hand slid under the waistband of my shorts anyway.

I was already wet. Embarrassingly wet. I found my clit and rubbed it in small, tight circles, and I pictured him across that pool, pulling me onto his lap.

Fuck. I pressed harder.

In my head, he said, "Look at me, Maren." In my head, his fingers were the ones between my legs, thick and sure, pushing into me while his mouth was on my neck.

"Callum," I whispered to the empty room. "Fuck, Callum, please—"

I pinched my clit and my hips lifted off the mattress. The sheets under me were soaked through. I was so close, my thighs shaking, my heels digging into the bed—

My phone rang.

I nearly fell off the mattress.

The screen read Callum Ardmore.

I stared at it for two full rings before I answered. "H-hello?"

"Sorry to call late." His voice was low, rough with tiredness. "The Ingram numbers need sign-off before the board call at eight. Can you bring the file to my suite?"

"Now?"

"If you're awake. Are you awake?"

My hand was still wet.

"Very," I said. "Give me five minutes."

◇

I washed my hands twice, pulled on jeans, and twisted my hair into a knot. It didn't help. My face in the elevator mirror was pink from my hairline to my collar.

He opened the door in a T-shirt and sweatpants. His gaze stopped on my face.

"You're flushed," he said. "Are you sick?"

"No."

"You sure? You're really red."

"Hot springs," I said. "Delayed reaction."

"That's not a thing."

"It's a thing now."

He let me in. I sat on the edge of his sofa and opened the file, and he leaned over my shoulder to point at a column. He smelled like cedar and soap.

"Q3 projection," he said.

"Four-point-two million."

"It's two-point-four."

"Right. Sorry. Two-point-four." I cleared my throat. "And the margin is eighteen percent."

"Eighty-one."

I shut my eyes. "Eighty-one."

He was quiet for a moment. "Maren. Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm great. I'm amazing. I'm leaving." I signed, stood, and practically ran to the door. "Goodnight, Mr. Ardmore."

"Goodnight," he said, and I swear I heard him smile.

◇

I made it all the way to my door before I reached into my pocket.

No key card.

I pictured it clearly: slipping out of my jeans when I sat down, lying on his gray sofa cushion.

"No," I told the hallway. "No, no, no."

I walked back. I knocked. Nothing. I knocked again.

The lock clicked.

The door swung open, and steam rolled out around him.

Callum stood there with water still running down his chest, his hair dripping, and nothing on but a white towel slung low on his hips.

His eyes moved over my burning face.

"Forget something?" he asked.