Page 12 of Undeniably Corrupt (Boston’s Irresistible Billionaires #7)

My phone vibrates in my pocket, but with the baby in my arms and the crowd focused on me, I can’t check it. Which irritates me to no end. “The guy had it coming and is lucky I didn’t do worse. I’d have done that for any of you.”

“Fine,” Keegan concedes, holding her coffee mug in her hands before taking a sip. “I know you would have. But why do everything else?”

I shrug because sometimes it’s easier to admit to my crimes than the reason behind them. “She’s poorer than poor and a single mom.”

“And because you loved her.” Stone is loving this.

“I didn’t love her,” I lie. “We were just kids when I knew her.”

Keegan snorts and takes on a mocking tone. “Okay. If you say so.”

“How many women have you dated since?” Stone presses. “Or gotten tattoos for? As I recall, when you left for MIT, you were pretty banged up over her, and that didn’t just go away.”

I give him a look. “Just because you’re all married and in love doesn’t mean that’s what everyone is supposed to have or even want. It’s not for me. I was just trying to help her.”

“By hacking and getting her fired?” Owen deadpans, looking at something on his phone.

I smirk. “Probably not my best choice.”

Katy chokes out a laugh as she sets her soda down on the coffee table. “Ya think? But now you’re dating her too?”

I shake my head. “Not dating her. She’s my new Champagne. That’s all.”

“But you want to. It’s all over your face. ”

I shift Nolan so I can flip off his father. “I don’t want to date her, and I won’t date her. I don’t date. That’s such a ridiculous term for me, I can’t even wrap my head around it. Regardless, she needed help, and I helped her in my own fucked-up way, and that’s all there is to it.”

Mason smirks at me. “That’s not all there is to it, brother, but you keep telling yourself that.”

I will actually because it’s true. Yes, she’s beautiful and sexy, and the fact that I’ve seen her mostly naked and know what it feels like to have her grind on my dick isn’t ideal, but it doesn’t change the reality. She’s my new assistant and nothing more.

The reasons I left her then are as valid now. Her brother never wanted me near her. But more than that, I’m not right for her. And it’s as I said, I don’t date. I don’t have relationships. Hackers don’t get that. We do illegal shit and live in the shadows.

“What Lucas and Sadie did happened a very long time ago. You had feelings for Liora before. Why not again?”

At Owen mentioning Lucas and Sadie, my body seizes up reflexively.

Yes, it was a very long time ago. I was twenty and at MIT with them.

My best friend and roommate and the girl I was screwing around with, who was also screwing around with him.

I didn’t care so much about that. I wasn’t willing to be exclusive, and she wasn’t anything special to me.

But with them, I was careless and stupid.

They’re why I don’t trust people outside of this circle and why I don’t tell anyone anything about myself and why I don’t fucking date. Both of them ruined my life, or at least seriously tried to when they doxed me to the feds, and the reminder is almost a welcome one.

I went from losing Cassian and breaking Liora’s heart to them, so yeah, no thanks. I have no reason to trust Liora with anything and keeping her at a distance is how this has to go for me .

I stand and pass Nolan to Owen. “I’ll catch you all later.”

“Aww, come on,” Mason pouts. “You don’t have to go.”

“I do actually. But I’m glad to see you’ll miss me.” I blow him a kiss and throw a wave at everyone else and head out the door and down the elevator. I make it all the way to my car before I check my text.

Liora: Sounds good. I’ll see you when I get in a little before one.

Simple. Straightforward. Professional. I’m relieved it’s not flirty like our texts were the other day.

I spent most of yesterday ignoring her, and she didn’t seek me out.

Champagne spent the majority of the day training her on all the systems and things she’ll need to know, and I left them alone to do their thing.

She’s not someone I want to be tempted by.

And the sooner my dick and brain get that message, the better off all of us will be. Especially as I won’t have Champagne as my buffer soon.

The elevator ride up to my office feels especially slow, but it gives me a chance to catch up on the litany of emails that supposedly require my attention.

I love my mother and I love the company her father built, but I hate being the CEO.

It’s shareholders and board members and earnings reports and client glad-handing.

It’s business, and business isn’t my thing.

It’s likely why I spend so much time in my closet here, in my office at home, or with my friends and family. Otherwise, I’d go crazy.

Maybe that’s why I brought Liora here. To mix up my otherwise boring workspace.

Stepping off the elevator, I tap out a beat against my thigh as I head down the hall, keeping my head high and forcing hellos and smiles at the people I pass. That is until I get near my office and find my mother there chatting with Champagne .

My mother spots me, and a smile hits her face, her green eyes—the same shade as mine—sparkling. “And there he is. Late as usual.”

I roll my eyes. “I didn’t know you were coming today.”

“That’s because I like surprising you.”

“I’m not late. I was at Mason’s now that baby Nolan is home.”

“Now you know why I’m in town. Your father is with Asher, and I have a lunch date with Wynter to celebrate the fact that they’re now grandparents.

” Asher and Wynter Reyes are Mason’s parents and best friends with mine.

It’s why Mason is family more than anything else.

Same with everyone who was in that room this morning.

I hug her, and she kisses my cheek, wiping away some of her lipstick residue that was left behind.

“I couldn’t miss the chance to see my son. And Champagne, of course.” My mother winks at Champagne, and not for the first time in my life do I wish I had inherited some of my mother’s natural charm and charisma. Instead, I have a little too much of my father’s quiet, introverted side in me.

“Are you staying at the house or the condo?” I ask, leaning my hip against the barrier of Champagne’s desk. I live in my dad’s childhood house in Cambridge. It’s partially where I grew up, but when I took over as CEO, they gave the house to me and bought a condo downtown.

“In the city,” she tells me. “It’s just easier, and you don’t need your parents encroaching on your space.”

I’m almost disappointed by that. I wouldn’t mind a little hacking fun with my father or even playing the drums while he plays piano. I certainly could use the distraction from other things that have been occupying my thoughts for the last week.

“Georgia?!” a soft voice exclaims.

I grunt. Speak of the devil. Or angel in this case.

My mom’s head whips past my shoulder, and she stares at the woman heading our way. Her brows pinch and her head tilts as she studies Liora, trying to place her, and when she figures it out, a smile that’s a hell of a lot bigger and more excited than the one she gave me splits her face.

“Oh my gosh! Liora James? Is that you?”

I don’t turn to catch her response. I pull out my phone and pretend to ignore them so I don’t have to see as my mother embraces her. Champagne smirks at me. The woman sees too much, and I ignore her too.

One of the things I used to love about Liora was how my parents liked her when my parents—primarily my father—weren’t known for liking anyone.

Liora worked for my mother and would hang out in my dad’s shop with me when I was working there, and we could get away with it.

She was part of our lives for two years, and it’s tough not to fall back into old habits.

Obviously, since I got stupidly protective over her.

“I haven’t seen you in so long. How are you, sweetheart? You look beautiful. What are you doing here?”

Liora laughs. “I see your son hasn’t told you. I’m going to be replacing Champagne. I started on Monday.”

A smack lands on my shoulder. “No, my son didn’t tell me.” She gives me a motherly reprimand in the form of a glare before turning back to Liora. “But I can’t tell you how happy that makes me. I ran into your dad just last week at the coffee shop in Lavender Lake.”

Liora visibly stiffens, some of her smile slipping, and yeah, I need to know more about that. She’s got a secret she wants no one to know. She’s flirting with my curiosity, and my curiosity is like Baby. It doesn’t like being put in the corner.

“And you’re in scrubs,” my mother continues. “What’s all that about?”

And because I haven’t seen her in scrubs yet, I do the stupid thing and pull away from my phone to look at her. Blonde hair pulled up into a tight bun, face void of makeup and impossibly sweet, lips bow-shaped and kissable, and scrubs that match her bright blue eyes.

Christ, she really is an angel.

My cock twitches in her direction. It likes her in scrubs nearly as much as it likes her in nothing at all. Or that red pleather. Clearly it’s just pussy-deprived since it’s been… shit, a long time.

“Is this catch-up hour at the local salon, or do we actually do work here?” I smart brusquely, earning myself three sets of perturbed glares. Right then.

“No one’s stopping you from leaving to work.”

“I’m not standing here for my health. I needed to talk to you about something,” I tell Champagne, though it’s a lie. I had nothing to tell her. “And my mother is here.”

“Then you can wait.”

I sigh and return to my phone even if I’m not looking at what’s on my screen.

“I’m in nursing school,” Liora tells my mother as if I didn’t speak. “I’m hoping to become an OB-GYN nurse and eventually a midwife.”

My mother gasps, a hand going to her chest over her heart. “Are you really? Wow. I’m so proud of you. That’s incredible.” She hugs her again because my mother is a hugger. “How did you reconnect with Vander?”

“We didn’t reconnect. Why does everyone keep saying it like that? I ran into her?—”

“And he got me fired from my day job so I’d work here.”

I get a coy smile, and damn how I hate that smile.

My mother gives me a look that would make a lesser man wither. “Did he now? How interesting. He must have really wanted you to work here.”

I grunt. That’s not how it was. It’s not. But now she’s on the same bullshit ride as my friends. Great. My mother is like a bloodhound, and when she catches a scent, there’s no stopping her. Now you know why I didn’t tell her. She’d have jumped to ridiculous conclusions, same as everyone else.

“I can’t believe you accepted.”

Liora laughs, and I hate her laugh almost as much as I hate her smile. “I didn’t. I told him no at first, and then he found me and groveled.”

Christ, when she puts it that way…

“I didn’t grovel. I apologized .” I might have groveled. A moment of weakness I’m now regretting. Like hiring her.

“You apologized?” My mother is incredulous, and yeah, I don’t do that either. Shit.

And with that. “Mom, it was good to see you. I’ll text you and Dad later. Maybe we’ll meet up for dinner.” I give her a kiss, ignore my new assistant, and head down the hall to get some work done, determined now more than ever to focus on work and nothing else.

Definitely not the woman who’s already taking over more of my life than I want her to have.