Boss RulesBoss #8
Victoria Quinn
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this novel are fictitious or used fictitiously. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher or author, except in the case of a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.
Hartwick Publishing
Boss Rules
Copyright © 2018 by Victoria Quinn
All Rights Reserved
Chapter One
Titan
“How was your day?”
Diesel stepped out of the elevator with his tie already undone. It hung around his neck, one side slightly longer than the other. Fatigue was in his eyes, but the second he looked at me, that handsome smile came into his face. “Doesn’t matter. Your day is the only one that matters.” His muscular arms circled my waist and cradled me against him, his powerful chest pressing up against me just like a solid brick wall.
“Not true.”
He pressed his warm mouth against mine, his lips teasing me. “True.”
“It was boring. I watched reruns of I Love Lucy.”
“That sounds like a great day. Took all your medication?”
I rolled my eyes. “Like I would ever forget. I’m pretty much addicted to those painkillers.”
He moved his lips to my forehead and pressed a soft kiss against my skin. His scruff rubbed against me slightly, scratching me every time he moved. His fingers were much gentler than they used to be. Now that I carried a wound in my chest, he handled me as carefully as possible.
I missed the old days.
“You still haven’t told me about your day.” My fingers moved to the buttons of his collared shirt, and I undid each one slowly.
“I worked.”
I rolled my eyes. “I figured that much. What else?”
“And I worried about you.”
“That was a waste of time because I’m perfectly fine.”
“You’re perfect,” he said. “But not perfectly fine.” He kissed my cheek before he stepped away. “I’m going to shower. You better be naked and ready when I get out.” He turned his back as he walked away, commanding the room as he passed through it.
I’d missed that side of him.
After he got in the shower, the front doors of the elevator opened again and revealed Thorn. He stood with his hands in the pockets of his slacks, his navy blue suit complementing his bright eyes. Thorn had an appearance that qualified him to be a model, and he was perfectly aware of that. I hoped he wouldn’t waste that potential with a life of loneliness. “You’re looking good.” He stepped into the penthouse and walked up to me in the living room. He examined my face as well as my arms, looking for signs of healthy life. His eyes never undressed my body, not even when we were engaged. Diesel was the only man who had done that—and made it obvious. “But a little thin…”
“My medication kills my appetite.”
“You never had an appetite before, so it must be pretty strong,” he teased.
“Diesel isn’t happy about it. When I’m better, he says he’s going to stuff me like a pig.”
“I second that.” He smiled then took a seat on the couch. “Is he here?”
“In the shower.”
Thorn rested his elbows on his knees and rubbed his palms together.
“You want a drink?”
“No, thanks,” he blurted. “Sit.”
Both of my eyebrows shot up. “Excuse me?”
He hid his flustered expression as well as he could, but it wasn’t good enough. “This is serious. I’m not sure if I should tell you this now or when Diesel is in the room.”
Now that I understood this wasn’t just a casual visit, I sat beside him. Tension radiated off Thorn in waves, the kind that pierced through the skin like a hot summer day. I crossed my legs and regarded him with a stoic expression. Anytime I was in the face of adversity, I remained calm and accepted whatever would come to pass. Even when a gun was pointed at my face, I kept the same level of control. “Everything alright?”
“Yeah, I think so. I just had an interesting visitor at your office today…”
After Bruce acted on his vendetta against me, suspicious characters were alarming to me. I was a careful and paranoid person, but now I took suspicions even more seriously. “Who?”
“A woman. Should I wait for Diesel?”
I shared every aspect of my life with that man. I hadn’t married him yet, but my commitment to him was ironclad. There were no secrets, no lies. I’d completely opened up my world to him. “He’s been having nightmares lately…about me being shot. We talked about it and he seems to be better, but he’s not back to himself just yet either.”
Thorn continued to rub his palms back and forth, sliding his skin across skin. “Then what do you want to do?”
“I don’t know… I don’t want to lie to him. But I don’t want him to stop going to work either.”
Thorn waited for me to reach a response on my own.
No matter how many times I considered it, the answer didn’t come to me. “Just tell me, and I’ll think about telling him.”
“Alright.” He leaned back against the couch and rested his hands on his thighs. “This woman stopped by the office asking about you. She wanted to know why it was taking so long for you to recover. She was visibly upset, extremely concerned. She was acting like she knew you…like you were close. She said she’d been out of the country during the shooting and didn’t hear the news until a few days ago.”
I heard everything he said, but I didn’t know what to make of it. “Her name?”
“Bridget Creed. You know her?”
I shook my head. “Never heard of her…”
“That’s alarming. Because she obviously knows you.”
“If she did, she would have called me or emailed directly.”
“True. But the way she acted…I can’t explain it. If I’d told her you died, I know she would have sobbed right then and there.”
For a complete stranger to
