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I steal that look of smug satisfaction from her. It’s mine now.

Just like Julianna is mine, whether I’m ready to handle her or not.

Chapter 8

Julianna

“What in the bloody hell are you up to?”

Presley is already in my office. I don’t recall inviting her in. I must have pissed her off because she’s speaking “bloody” to me.

She’s not even British. Come on.

“Right now?” I glance back at my computer monitor. “Trying to strategize our capitalistic attack on New Light Enigma Electronics.”

Presley approaches my desk with an uncharacteristically stern expression on her face. “First I find this memo on my desk. Then I hear from everyone in the office that you’ve hired Ms. Penrose as your new assistant. Oh, and you’re openly screwing her.” She chortles. “Excuse me, taking her to functions as your plus one.”

“I do love it when things work out like that. Killing two birds with one stone, and all.”

“Come off it.” Presley sits on the arm of one of my chairs, her body language so palpably rude that I am forced to sit back in my chair – lest she knocks me over, and we can’t have that. “You’re creating an HR shitstorm.”

“I’ve already cleared it with them. Alessa’s speaking to them right now.”

“I bet she is! Telling them about what happened Friday night, I’m sure.”

Presley has no idea, huh? “They already know. Well, not the details. They know enough, though. It’s been taken care of. Don’t worry about it.”

“Don’t worry about what? You randomly dating one of your employees after fucking her Friday night?” If Presley scoffs one more time, I’ll be tempted to smack the next one out of her mouth. “Is her pussy really that fantastic?”

I almost don’t deign that with an answer, but Presley is supposedly one of my best friends. If I can’t tell her, then who can I tell? “It’s up there.” I’ll tell her once I sleep with Alessa some more. Who knows? I might be over her within the week. In the meantime, however, I’ll enjoy as much of it as I can.

Ms. Penrose doesn’t know what she’s in for. I never thought I’d be so intrigued with dating a young virgin. Well, she’s not a virgin anymore… I took care of that.

Yet if she was a virgin to basic sapphic sex, then what else is she inexperienced with? What could I teach her to do? How could I mold her into the perfect lover? She’s like a blank slate. Whatever minimal experience she’s had before? Doesn’t matter. It wasn’t enough to support bad bedroom habits I must break for us to have fun. I can teach her how to do things the way I like. In the meantime? I’ll be opening her mind and body to new experiences she’s never had before. There’s something powerful in that.

“I hope you know what you’re doing.” Presley hops off the arm of the chair and goes to my window overlooking the heart of Downtown Portland. It’s another cloudy day in the city of rain. Not sure what she’s looking at out there. “This isn’t like you at all, Julianna. You’re neverthisimpulsive.”

“There’s a first time for everything.”

“I mean, I’m used to you going through girls like they’re only out to gnaw your tits off, but not publicly. What’s different about this intern?”

“Don’t know. I’ll get back to you when I figure that out.”

Presley slowly crosses her arms. Occasionally, I glance at the back of her head. Too bad I can’t read her mind. “Does this have to do with your brother getting married?”

I stop scrolling through the news. “Excuse me?”

Presley scrutinizes me. “You’ve always been jealous of what he has. He got the business, he gets the family property, and now he gets the marriage and kid along the way.”

My business partner is one of the few people to know that my brother has planned everything so perfectly that he’s having a baby and a new marriage only a few months apart. The marriage first, of course. He and Jordan decided that was the proper way to do things. As long as the baby’s Ted’s, my family doesn’t care. They’ll show up drunk to any wedding.

“The hell are you talking about? This has nothing to do with my brother.”

“Sure, honey. Tell yourself that. Your brother drops two bombs at Christmas, and you turn around and start openly dating an intern you’ve just met.”

“Would you judge me, even if that were true?”

“Judge you? Shit, as long as you don’t hurt the business, I don’t care if you marry a professional drag queen in Vegas tomorrow.”