Page 17 of Boss with Benefits (Boss of Seduction #6)

A week slipped by without incident. They didn’t hear from Jessica’s ex, his lawyers, or any private investigators.

Brady slowly settled down into a routine he could tolerate.

For the moment. Having two people living under his roof seemed unnatural to him.

Everywhere he looked, he saw evidence of his lost privacy.

Lacy undergarments hanging on the shower rod.

Tiny toys that got between the carpet and his unprotected feet.

Feminine products where they had no business being.

Jessica had added a few female touches without his prior knowledge or consent.

There were frilly pillows on his couch, a vase with flowers on the kitchen table, and probably a hundred and one other small changes to his decor that made him cringe.

When he complained, she reminded him the marriage had to look real.

What if the private investigator hired by her ex’s attorney peeked through a window?

Brady tried not to notice how enticing Jessica looked as she scurried about the kitchen, cooking them breakfast. She would make some guy a great wife someday.

Just not him. The image of her with another man brought a painful lump to his throat, which was ridiculous since he didn’t want her on a permanent basis.

He didn’t care if she found love. If she did, good for her.

He certainly didn’t want to stay married.

She hummed while she cooked. The happy sound made him smile.

.. until he remembered she was making herself too comfortable in his home.

In fact, she was wearing one of his shirts.

The hanging material covered the captivating curve of her toned bottom until she reached high for a bowl.

Then the shirt slowly rode up. His breath caught in his throat as he waited for the color of her panties to be revealed.

She was wearing shorts.

He rolled his eyes.

Her son entered the kitchen, and Brady realized she had put the shorts on because of Axl.

She was always thinking about her kid. How could anyone consider separating them?

Her ex had to be the biggest creep in the world.

He made a mental note to do some digging and find out why Randy suddenly wanted his son in his life.

It was on his list of things to do; he moved it to the top.

Axl climbed up on his booster seat and started babbling about dinosaurs for some reason. His mom put a glass of orange juice next to his plate. She kissed his forehead and asked what he wanted for breakfast.

Brady barely listened to the exchange. It was too intimate, too domestic for his peace of mind. He wasn’t sure why it bothered him until...

Axl flew a tiny toy plane over his plate. In his haste to get the imaginary passengers to their destination, he knocked over the glass. Orange juice raced across the table in Brady’s direction. Some of it splashed on his trousers before he could leap out of the way.

Brady jumped up from the table, and a slew of curse words flew out of his mouth.

“Brady!” Jessica shouted in warning.

She jerked her chin in the kid’s direction, obviously not wanting him to learn new words.

Eyes wide, Axl stared up at him.

A memory roared to the front of Brady’s mind, and a mess of tangled emotions hit him hard. In the vision, he was the child. He had knocked his glass off the table. The memory of his mother’s gasp returned like a gunshot, and he remembered how her worried gaze swung to his father.

Brady stormed from the room, trying to flee the past. He went to the master bedroom and changed his pants.

Normally, he would be in jeans, but he had a meeting with an important client in the early afternoon.

Again. He was getting tired of these meetings.

Maybe he should start delegating more, maybe pass the meetings off to his partner.

“Are you okay?” Jessica asked from the doorway.

He sank down on the edge of the bed. The urge to tell her to take her son and leave his home was almost too strong to resist. Half of him still wanted to save her from her ex, but the other half wanted her gone.

Both of them. It wasn’t the kid’s fault he had a troubled past that he didn’t want to deal with.

Maybe he should call Deacon and ask for an emergency shrink session.

His father’s voice intruded on the present. “I swear I wish you’d never been born, you useless runt!”

The verbal abuse had been worse than the physical beatings. Although, his younger self would have strongly disagreed. A child couldn’t understand physical pain was a temporary thing. Unfortunately, his father’s cruel words continued to haunt him more than two decades later.

Jessica took a step closer and repeated, “Are you okay, Brady?”

He slowly shook his head.

“Is there something I can do?” she asked.

He compressed his lips to keep from shouting at her to get the hell out of his house.

His childhood had nothing to do with her.

It wasn’t her fault, and it wasn’t Axl’s fault.

He put the reminder on repeat in his brain so he wouldn’t take his anger out on them.

“Finish breakfast,” he said. “I need to get to work.”

“We work at the same place. Remember? I know what you have on your docket for today, and you don’t need to rush off.”

When he refused to respond, she sat next to him on the bed. The woman couldn’t take a hint. He kept his mouth shut, afraid he might say something they would both regret later.

She put a hand on his leg and rested her head on his shoulder. “This marriage might not be the real thing, but I’m here for you. I hope you know that. We’re friends, and we’re partners. Can you tell me what’s got you so upset?”

He silently cursed a blue streak beneath his breath. Why couldn’t she go back to the kitchen and leave him alone?

“I know you aren’t mad Axl spilled orange juice. Did you explode because we’ve invaded your home and you want it back? Do you want us to leave?”

That was exactly what he wanted.

Well, it was what he thought he wanted, but he knew if she walked out the door, he would miss her like crazy. He still wasn’t bored with her. If anything, their sex life had become more exciting since exchanging vows. More enticing. He could barely keep his hands off her.

“Please, talk to me.” She moved a few inches over and turned sideways, facing him. “Even if I can’t help, talking will make you feel better. I promise.”

“You’re not going to leave me alone about this, are you?”

She shook her head. “I’m not leaving until you talk to me. Bridget is coming for Axl to take him to school, so we can sit here all day if you want. We aren’t leaving this house until you tell me why you hit the ceiling over nothing. Something is weighing on you. What is it?”

Brady couldn’t sit still another second.

He paced in front of her and tried to think of something to say, something that would satisfy her curiosity without giving her too many gory details.

No one in his present knew about his past except for Deacon, and his best friend didn’t even know everything.

“My father wasn’t the nicest guy in the world,” he said. “Can we just leave it at that?”

“What does your father have to do with anything?”

“The spilled orange juice brought up some bad memories.”

Jessica met him in the center of the room before he realized she had moved off the bed.

She blocked his way. He folded his arms in defiance, determined not to tell her more than he already had.

She put her hands on top of his arms, and her tender touch almost broke him.

Her wide eyes were filled with concern. For him.

He couldn’t remember having anyone care about him like that before.

He didn’t want to upset her, but maybe keeping quiet was making things worse.

If she knew the problem was in the past, perhaps she’d feel better.

He bent a few inches and kissed her soundly on the mouth.

Desire stirred in his heart. It was too bad they had an afternoon meeting.

If they didn’t, he would take her back to bed for the entire day.

“I try not to think about my childhood,” he said. “Axl brought a bad memory up that I don’t want to dwell on. Can we go to work and forget this morning ever happened?”

Her eyes narrowed. “We can if you tell me one true thing about your past. Open up to me. Please.”

He rubbed the back of his neck and groaned. “What one true thing? What do you want to know?”

Would she ask him about the beatings? He wasn’t sure he could take it if she knew the truth. She might see him as weak for putting up with an abusive father and not fighting back. Or worse. She might pity him.

“Is Brady your first or your last name?” she asked out of the blue.

Relief flooded his system. “When I was born, my mother named me Michael. Brady was the last name of the man who raised me after my parents died. I had it legally changed to Brady after I moved away and started a new life. That’s it.

I don’t have a first name or a last name anymore. It’s just Brady.”

Her brows drew together in a deep scowl. “So what does that make me? I mean, technically we’re married. I thought my last name would change to whatever your last name is, but you don’t have one. What is a girl to do?”

His lips twitched, itching to smile.

The thought of her taking his last name, if he still had one, filled him with an odd sense of warmth. “Guess you’ll have to keep your name the way it is.” He shrugged. “Sorry.”

She continued to frown. “Weird. How do you go through life with just one name?”

Her question tickled him.

In fact, he laughed all the way to his car. The motorcycle needed to stay home today. He only rode it to work when he was wearing jeans. Since he had a lot to do today, he left for work before Bridget showed up for Axl. Jessica needed to finish feeding the kid breakfast anyway.