The Billionaire's Bitch

Pt. 2 Thirty-Four

Come Monday it was back to business as usual for Adrian and I. You would never even dream by the way he spoke to me that I was the love of Adrian Kingsley's life.

He spoke to me with crisp formality, just as he had at the beginning, and barely even looked me in the eye.

I was sent to his favorite bakery that morning, something he hadn't made me do in a while. It was a fairly nice day, though, with just the first hint of autumn making the air sharp and fresh.

The little trees caught in cement oasis had started to turn a dark umber in patches. Swirls of golden leaves would dance around my booted feet as I walked.

I checked my phone messages as I walked the five blocks down to the café. Adrian's phone had been left back at the office "by accident". He would just have to field his own calls for 30 minutes.

My sister and I were still hardly speaking, except for polite check-ins. Lyndsey wanted to know if I would be coming to our Mom's for Christmas this year, which was really her fishing to see if Adrian would be joining me this year, if I knew her at all.

When I read this message my stomach instantly clenched. I just didn't have the answer to that question; didn't even want to start thinking about the holidays yet.

How would Adrian and I be spending the holidays, now that we were together?

It certainly gave me a lot to stress about for the rest of my walk and I was so flustered I think I got Adrian's coffee order wrong.

Had he wanted a triple shot of espresso in his almond milk latte or just a double?

When I made it back to the office, I set his ham croissant sandwich down and waited anxiously for him to take a sip of his coffee.

He choked on it and I paled when he lifted his eyes to me. "You trying to keep me up all night?" He held my gaze steadily. "Again?"

I flushed all over. "Sorry, sir! N-no? Should I go get you another?"

He sighed and shook his head. "No, just try to listen more carefully next time, Eve."

He returned to his laptop and I slouched back to my desk. He had an informal meeting in his office a few minutes later and I kept myself busy organizing his email while he talked stock exchange and golf with Susan, one of the senior board members.

When she left, silence reigned thick and heavy in the office once more.

I felt more than saw Adrian flick me a glance.

"Why is my email still cluttered with this junk?" He asked me, practically in a hiss.

I looked up, my face draining of color once again. "Sorry, sir, I'm on it!"

One of my chief jobs throughout the day was keeping his inbox free of the emails he didn't want to see so that all he had to deal with were the ones he considered important.

It had certainly taken me a while to learn what that was. Some days, like today, it got away from me.

The man received about a hundred emails a day, some were just insipid requests or suggestions from people who considered themselves to be Adrian's peers. If it wasn't from someone working directly for or with the company, it got shipped off to Sebastian. Though lately I had been allowed to answer more and more of the "stupid" emails, and I liked to think I was getting better at that.

Basically, I was getting better at figuring out what people needed to hear.

"Something distracting you today?" Adrian asked me smoothly.