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Something about the way he asks that tells me exactly who is calling and what they’re calling about. My heart skips a beat and my stomach clenches with anxiety.
Bella was so sure that Xavier wouldn’t be mad about the charges to his card, but now that I’m standing in front of him while he’s finding out… I’m not so sure.
I spent an absurd amount of money. The kind of money that could buy someone a house or pay their rent for a long time. More money than I’ve ever seen in my life. No matter what Bella said, I brace myself for Xavier to be furious with me.
Maybe I can take it all back once stuff gets delivered. Do rich people do returns? At least I could try if he’s really mad, and that might?—
“Approve the charges,” Xavier says, his voice calm.
I blink in shock. “You know that was pretty damned near a million dollars, right?” I blurt out, unable to help myself.
Xavier just grins at me. “Yes, thank you,” he says to the person on the phone and then hangs up. He gives me his full attention again, and he still seems completely unbothered. “I gave you that card so you would use it, shortcake,” he says. “And you’re finally doing what you should have been doing this whole time.”
“What’s that?”
“Letting us spoil you. Acting like the fucking queen you are.”
Chapter 24
Xavier
Penelope’s eyes widen, and she’s clearly taken aback by me saying that. I search her face, and there’s a mixture of surprise and guilt there, like she really did expect me to be mad about her buying so much on my credit card, even though I gave it to her and told her to use it.
It doesn’t sit right with me that she’s so stunned that I’d want to treat her well. I don’t like that apparently life has taught her to have low expectations.
A woman like her should know what’s she’s worth.
I push back from the desk and come around it to stand in front of her.
“I wanted to talk about what happened earlier,” I say.
“You don’t?—”
I cut her off before she can argue. “I do because I don’t want you to be upset about it. I’m sorry about what happened with Sienna. It wasn’t anything like it looked, I promise. She’s just always been a bit extra about doing her job, and she noticed that my tie was crooked and wanted to fix it. The image of the company is important to her.”
Penelope’s expression softens a bit, which is a relief, but then she shakes her head. “Is that really what you think?”
“What do you mean?”
“That she just cares about the business.”
I shrug, caught off guard. “What else could it be?”
“Xavier, she’s way more conniving than that. It’s not about the company, it’s about her wanting to be close to you. She was like that when I started working here, tripping all over herself to do whatever you needed her to do while talking down to everyone else, and it’s gotten worse since we got married.”
This is news to me, but I guess I haven’t really been watching the assistants interact. And Penelope hasn’t said anything about it until now.
“What do you mean?” I ask her. “What has she been doing?”
Penelope takes a breath and looks like she’s coming to a decision. “Right after we all got married, she practically cornered me in the office. Said all this stuff about how she knows what I’m doing and she’s not going to fall for it. She basically implied that I only got a nice office and the attention of you three because I’m sleeping my way to the top.”
“What?” I ask, my tone dropping into something angrier.
“I mean, she didn’t use those words exactly, but I knew what she meant. Anyone who might have overheard would have known what she meant.”
I blink, shocked and caught off guard to hear this. Sienna’s always been a bit intense, but I didn’t think she was acting like this when my back was turned. “Why didn’t you tell me?” I ask.
Penelope shrugs. “It didn’t matter. She was just talking, and it’s not like she can do anything to me. I didn’t want to be the person who goes running to her husbands every time someone’s catty.”