Page 144 of His Good Girl
He stepped between my knees and set both hands on the desk on either side of me, caging me without touching. “Avery.”
The seriousness in his voice wiped the joke from me.
“I felt watched outside the tower last week,” I admitted. “And maybe outside my apartment. Twice. And maybe again yesterday. But I don’t know. It’s the city. Everyone has a phone. Everyone looks suspicious when you’re already worried.”
His gaze had gone still in the way I was beginning to understand meant anger held under discipline.
“You tell me anyway,” he said.
“Okay.”
“Every time.”
“Okay.”
“Andyoudo not decide what is important beforeIhave the facts.”
I looked at him. “That sounds like boss voice.”
“It is. This is about your safety.”
Something in me softened at that. “You’re worried.”
“Yes.”
The simple honesty of it made my throat tighten. “About the company?”
“About you.”
I looked away first.
He caught my chin gently and brought my gaze back to his. “The company can defend itself. It has lawyers, insurance, and Benjamin’s deep reservoir of spite. You are more important than that.”
“I don’t want to be the thing that hurts you.”
“You are not the threat.”
“But I could be the weapon they use against you.”
He said nothing, which was answer enough.
I swallowed. Then, because fear and desire had become tangled in me beyond reasonable separation, I looked up at him and said, “If a billionaire can’t have the girl he wants, who can?”
It was meant to be a joke. A little reckless, a little ridiculous. Jules would have said it with jazz hands and a criminal lack of shame, but Callum did not laugh. Instead, he leaned closer, and my breath caught in the back of my throat.
“A billionaire can have almost anything,” he said quietly. “That is why he has to be careful with the things that can choose him back.”
My heart stopped for a second.
“You say things like that and expect me to go back to work?”
“Yes.”
“You’re being cruel again.”
“I’m invested in your professional development.”
“You are invested in several things.”
