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Lily

*Consider It Done*

I honestly did not go to Wes’s house with the intention of riding his leg like a child having a temper tantrum on a rocking horse.

I truly do intend to be a professional adult who behaves like a lady and doesn’t cross boundaries.

But!

No one can be a professional adult all the time.

Especially around that much beefcake.

Boundaries get blurred and crossed.

Angry words get spoken.

Hostile feelings get had.

Sometimes the only way to keep from saying anything you’ll really regret is to lick your opponent’s gorgeous sexy face.

Whatever. I can’t be expected to have intelligent thoughts after having that much hot, tight flesh and hard muscle pressed up against me.

It’s not like this kind of thing hasn’t happened between us before. We’ll get past it, just as we always have. We can totally act like nothing happened when we’re working together.

Sure, we’ve never kissed each other when we were both legal adults before.

Yeah, he’s twice the man he was five years ago.

Okay, so we’ve got nine years of repressed sexual tension between us now instead of four.

And we’ve never spent so much time together in close quarters day after day.

But my dad will be in the same building as us, most of the time.

If that doesn’t keep our boners in check, then I don’t know what will.

I cannot go home yet. My dad had a dinner meeting, but I do not want to risk running into him when I’m feeling like this. And I don’t much want to talk to him after he totally gave me the brush-off at work. In front of everyone. I mean, it’s one thing to not flaunt your nepotism, but it’s the Barnes Group. I’m a Barnes. Say “hi” to your fucking daughter in public once in a while.

Add to that the envelope he’d left for me in the kitchen this morning, filled with cash and a note that said:This will have to tide you over until your first paycheck. Assuming you stick with the job until Friday. --JB

Thanks, JB! When you sign my trust fund over to me, I will definitely pay back the two hundo. In an envelope. On the counter. Signed “LB.”

I wish I didn’t care so much what he thought of me, but now I’m even more determined to show him and everyone else that I can do this job.

What am I going to let drive me—my hormones or my pride and my right to my family legacy?

No contest.

At least when Wes isn’t around.

I just need to keep busy. Give more attention to my female friends. Like Alecia. She gets me in ways that neither Wes nor my father ever could.

I pull over, into the parking lot of a coffee shop, so I can use my phone.

Alecia was my best friend through middle and high school. We were inseparable. We wereLilecia.

When we were thirteen, we used to have sleepovers and stay up all night talking about what it would be like when we were in state college together. We’d be roommates and we’d date best friends and we’d have a double wedding and live next door to each other in Belford forever. After my mother died, this no longer felt like home for me. Alecia and I both knew I would leave as soon as I could. From then on, until we were seventeen, we talked about what it would be like when we were in NYC together. I’d study acting, and she’d be writing. We’d live together, date best friends, have a double wedding in the Bahamas, and live next door to each other in Connecticut forever. After she fell in love with Neal, we both knew that he would never leave Belford and she would never leave him.