Page 54 of The Bad Girl

“They estimate he has two weeks max.”

“Will your siblings give you anything?”

He chuckles, looking at me like I’m crazy. “My dear Nadine, you really don’t understand the ways of people with money. They won’t give me a dime—not a red cent.”

Silence settles between us, and I realize we’ve had our first meaningful moment together. In his own way, Harry tried to offer me advice, and afterward, he opened up to me. No matter the insults he slings my way from here on out, we will always have this moment.

Maxwell walks into the room in the boating outfit I laid out for him Monday, and Harry jumps up from the desk, casting me a look of distaste.

It’s not normal for Maxwell to be up this early, and after our sexting last night, I find myself blushing shades of red.

“Nadine, would you mind coming in for a moment? There are some things we need to discuss.”

Oh, no! You really did it. You went too far!

As I get up from my seat, I trip over my chair, falling forward, and to my horror, a rogue boob makes an escape from my orange tunic.

Harry lets out a piercing laugh. Just another reason for him to make fun of me. Maxwell just stands there, slack-jawed, and unable to take his eyes from my offending tit.

Somehow, instead of dying, I manage a snarky remark. “I’ll be right with you, just let me put my wayward tit away!”

The room breaks out into laughter, myself included. For the first time since I started working at InStryde, I feel like I’m with family—which should feel utterly wrong, having sexted with Maxwell last night.

“Take your time,” Maxwell finally says, disappearing into his penthouse.

?

Maxwell

I hadn’t expected to walk into the office to an eyeful of Nadine, especially with what I’m about to tell her, but it happened, and it makes what I’m about to do that much harder.

Nadine enters my penthouse timidly, closing the door behind her. I lead her into my personal office, and she takes a seat.

She avoids eye contact, and I suspect it’s due to regrets about last night. I have regrets too, for entirely different reasons.

I take a seat adjacent to hers, trying to remember my words. “Nadine, what happened last night—”

“Was a mistake!” she finishes.

Despair settles over me, both unexpected and confusing. It’s not a feeling I’m used to, and the context of it has me perplexed. Nadine is just another woman, or at least that’s what I tell myself. Clearly, she’s something more.

“I’m sorry,” she says, “for last night. It was—”

I take her wrists into my hands, look deeply into her eyes, and say, “It’s alright. What happened last night, it was wrong, and that’s on me.”

“Actually,” she replies meekly, “ I sent the first pic.”

Every part of me wants every part of her, and it takes every bit of restraint I can muster not to pull her into a kiss. And damn Stacey for picking out that orange number. It would be so easy to slide the fabric aside and gaze at those delectable breasts.

I feel an uncomfortable tightness in my pants, and I immediately start thinking of the gentleman helicoptering his penis at the nursing home. It does the trick, and I can focus again.

Nadine’s phone pings with a notification, and as soon as she looks at the screen, her eyes widen.

“It’s Tom!”

It breaks my heart to see her so excited for another man.

I take the phone, setting it on my desk. “You’re not going to look at that. Not until tonight.”

Her gaze darts to the phone, and I can tell the unread message is going to weigh on her, so I offer a solution.

“I’m going to take you out boating today, and that phone will be the last thing on your mind.”

Nadine’s eyes light in fear. “You can’t! Prince Harry will—”

“Carry a vendetta against you until the day he dies. Yes, I’m aware, and it’s a price I’m willing to take to get you out there boating.”

“Please!”

I hold up a hand to silence her. “It’s done. He already knows. I have five bathing suits for you to choose from waiting in the car, now follow me.”