Page 113 of Rejected By My Shifter Billionaire

What had I done?

Chapter Seven

Ispent the entire next day in a state of panic that bordered on clinical.

Every time I closed my eyes, I could feel Nicolo’s hands in my hair, could taste him on my lips, could remember the way he’d made me fall apart with just two strokes of his fingers. And every time I opened them, I saw that note on my bedside table promising another “test” that I was absolutely not prepared for.

I’ll choose what you wear.

What did that even mean? Was he going to show up with some horrible formal dress that made me look like a rejected bridesmaid? Something so revealing I’d spend the entire evening trying not to flash supernatural dignitaries?

Or worse—something so perfect and beautiful that I’d have to admit he knew my body better than I did?

All three options were equally terrifying.

I was pacing around my office for the fifteenth time that afternoon when Ada knocked on my door.

“Your stepbrother is here,” she announced, poking her head inside with the expression of someone delivering bad news. “And he’s carrying a garment bag.”

My stomach dropped. “Tell him I’m not here.”

“I tried that. He said to tell you that hiding from protocol violations won’t make them go away.”

“Protocol violations?”

“His words, not mine.” Ada stepped inside and closed the door behind her. “Also, he looks really good today. Like, unfairly good. The kind of good that makes you forget you’re supposed to be a professional.”

“Ada.”

“I’m just saying, if my stepbrother looked like that, I’d—”

“Ada!”

“Right. Sorry. He’s waiting in Conference Room B.”

I took a deep breath and tried to channel some semblance of professional composure. I could do this. I could walk into that conference room, find out what fresh torture Nicolo had planned for tonight, and handle it like the mature businesswoman I was pretending to be.

I made it exactly three steps into Conference Room B before my brain short-circuited.

Nicolo was standing by the windows, dressed in another beautiful and beautifully expensive suit that just made him seem more lethally hot even without revealing any of his abs. His loosened tie and rolled-up sleeves, however, added a touch of roughness to his magnetism, and the way he—

Stop it, Maryah!

Because I had just noticed my stepbrother was smirking at me like he knew exactly what I was thinking about for the past fifteen seconds.

Ugh.

“Close the door, please.”

Since he said the magic word, I did as asked, but as soon as I turned around, I wished I hadn’t done it at all, seeing how he now had the garment bag in his hand.

“Um...” I cleared my throat. “About last night—”

“We should talk about tonight instead,” he suggested.

“But—”

“But yes, you’re right, you should change into this first.”