My Cheating Manager Watched His Billionaire Boss Choose Me

I grabbed the key card off his sofa without looking below his chin. It was the hardest thing I'd ever done.

The next night, I did something stupid on purpose.

I sprayed perfume on my wrists and behind my ears, the expensive bottle I'd been saving for an anniversary that never came. I put on the black dress I'd packed and never planned to wear. It was short, with thin straps, and the back dipped low.

Then I picked up a folder I didn't need to deliver and knocked on Callum's door.

He opened it in a white shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows. His eyes went to the folder, then the dress, and stayed there.

"The revised Ingram summary," I said.

"I didn't ask for a revised summary."

"I revised it anyway."

He stepped aside. I walked past him close enough that my shoulder brushed his chest.

He shut the door. "That's not what you wore to dinner."

"You noticed what I wore to dinner?"

"I notice a lot of things." He took the folder and set it on the desk without opening it. "Like how there's nothing in here I haven't already signed."

My pulse jumped. I sat on the arm of his sofa and crossed my legs slowly.

"Last night," I said, "when you opened the door in that towel. Did you want me to come in?"

He didn't answer. He leaned against the desk and folded his arms.

"Because I think you did," I went on. "I think you've been thinking about it all day."

"Maren."

"What?"

"You're testing me."

My cheeks went hot. "Maybe."

"Then stop circling." He pushed off the desk and sat down on the sofa beside me. His voice dropped. "If you want to know something, ask me."

I swallowed. "Do you want me?"

He hooked an arm around my waist and pulled me onto his lap.

I landed straddling him, my dress riding up my thighs. His slacks were thin. My panties were thinner. When I settled against him, I felt exactly how much he wanted me, hard and thick under my weight.

We both went still.

"Fuck," he muttered.

Then his mouth was on mine.

It wasn't gentle like his thumb on my cheek had been. He kissed me like he'd been holding it back for three years. His hand spread across the small of my back, then climbed my spine, over the bare skin where the dress dipped low. His fingers found the edge of the zipper and paused there.

I rocked my hips without meaning to. He groaned into my mouth and gripped the back of my neck.

He kissed along my jaw, then lower, his teeth grazing my throat. I tipped my head back and felt like the room was spinning.

He wanted me. He actually wanted me.

So I did what I'd always seen other women do. I played hard to get.

"Wait," I breathed, pressing a hand to his chest. I put a little smile in it. "We shouldn't."

His hands were gone instantly.

Off my back. Off my neck. He held them up and away, like I'd burned him.

"Okay," he said.

I blinked. "Okay?"

He lifted me by the waist and set me on my feet. Then he stood, stepped back, and put the coffee table between us.

"Go back to your room, Maren."

I stood there with my dress twisted and my lipstick smeared across my chin. My whole body was humming. And he was straightening his collar like he'd just finished a meeting.

The silence stretched until I wanted to scream.

"Are you serious?"

"You said wait."

"I didn't mean it like that!"

"Then you shouldn't have said it." His jaw was tight. "I don't guess with that word."

The heat in my face turned into something sharper. I yanked my strap back onto my shoulder.

"Don't act like you're above this. You wanted me. I felt how much you wanted me."

"I did." He met my eyes. "I still do."

"Then what—"

"Two days ago, you walked in on Nolan with another woman." His voice stayed level, but his hands had curled into fists at his sides. "Tonight you show up in a dress you've never worn to work, smelling like that, asking me questions you already know the answers to."

"So?"

"So who's it for?"

"You."

"Is it?" He tilted his head. "Or is it for the guy who'll hear about it tomorrow?"

My mouth opened. Nothing came out.

"I'm not going to be your revenge," he said quietly. "Not while you're still bleeding from him. When you come to me, I want it to be because you want me. Not because you want him to hurt."

My eyes stung. I hated that. I hated that he could see it.

"You don't know anything about what I want."

"Then prove me wrong. Some other night. Not this one."

I grabbed my shoes off the floor. I didn't bother putting them on. I walked out barefoot and let the door swing shut behind me, and I didn't cry until the elevator closed.

◇

The next morning, the office was too quiet when I walked in.

Conversations stopped mid-sentence. Two women from Accounting bent their heads together as I passed. Theo Pruitt glanced up from his desk, then quickly dropped his eyes to his screen.

My phone buzzed. Priya.

Have you seen the group chat?? Call me.

I opened it.

A photo filled the screen. Me, in the black dress, standing at Callum's door at eleven at night. My hand raised to knock. My bare back turned to the camera.

Underneath it, Nolan had written: Some of us knew what she was doing the whole time.

Forty-two replies. I didn't read them.

"Maren!" Sienna's voice rang across the floor, bright and sweet. She was perched on the edge of a desk near the copy machine, a little crowd around her. "Love the new look. Very executive."

A few people laughed.

"Is that how you get the good desk?" she asked. "I've been doing it all wrong. I've been using a résumé."

More laughter. Louder now.

Nolan stood at the coffee station with his mug. He didn't look at me. He talked to the guy beside him like I wasn't there.

"Honestly? I knew for a while," he said. "Late nights. Calls on weekends. She'd come home and say she was working." He shook his head sadly. "I wanted to believe her. Five years, you know?"

"Man, that's rough," the guy said.

"It's fine. I'm over it." Nolan sipped his coffee. "I just feel bad for whoever's up for promotion next. Hard to compete with that kind of dedication."

My hands were shaking. I set my bag down on my desk very carefully so no one would hear it.

"That's a lie," I said.

The floor went silent.

Nolan finally turned. He looked almost pleased.

"Which part?" he asked. "You weren't in his room last night?"

I couldn't answer that. And everyone saw that I couldn't.

Sienna slid off the desk and strolled over. She leaned close, her perfume cloying and sweet, and dropped her voice so only I could hear.

"Don't worry, sweetie. That was just the first picture."

She held up her phone, screen turned toward her chest.

Then she smiled.