Mag-log inShare
Book: chapter 23
Huling Na-update:
2025-04-23 02:35:29
Kaugnay na kabanata
In Bed With Daddy’s Best Friend Book 4: chapter 24
But despite the glowing good looks, there was something about him that I didn’t like. It was impossible to put my finger on it. Maybe it was the way he dropped into his chair at the head of the table, lounging and indolent like he was one of the big cats he loved so much. I loved cats and their don’t-give-a-damn attitude, too, but the attitude hit different in a human being.He bestowed a shiny white, toothy smile on each of us in turn, but his glacier blue gaze snagged on me. “Hello,” he said, drawing out the word. “Are you new here?”Maybe if it was high school, I would have giggled like he so obviously expected. Now, though, I just smiled and said, “Yes. I’m Layla Davis.”“Layla Davis.” He repeated my name, pronouncing each syllable with great care, like he was sounding it out. “Nice to meet you, Layla Davis.”The tension that had existed in Aiden from the moment he stepped into the conference room increased. It was nearly invisible, but I’d become an expert on Aiden in the past we
Huling Na-update : 2025-04-23In Bed With Daddy’s Best Friend Book 4: chapter 25
AIDENThe idle thoughts I’d had about firing Andrew suddenly felt quaint. I didn’t want to fire Blake–I wanted to dismantle him. It wouldn’t be murder because he wasn’t a real person. If I wasn’t seeing him in the flesh, I’d swear he was an AI bot. Dismantling was too much work. I wanted to just erase his code or pull the plug on the machine.But the problem was that Blakewasn’ta robot, AI or otherwise. He was real, and he was really looking at Layla like she was an ice cream cone and he’d just trekked across Death Valley. It would have been shitty if she’d returned the sentiment, but I could have handled it. What was worse was seeing her grow visibly more uncomfortable the longer the impromptu strategy session went on.“The nerve of the guy just showing up here,” I’d muttered to Maureen when I found out about his decision to drop by unannounced. I’d been irritated, but as the minutes ticked on, I was becoming closer to enraged.Blake was up out of his seat, circling the table. He was
Huling Na-update : 2025-04-23In Bed With Daddy’s Best Friend Book 4: chapter 26
Not to do what she was implying, though God knew I wanted that so much I could taste it. “I don’t want you on the Blake Morten account,” I said abruptly, deciding there was no good way to ease into that conversation. “I know Maureen wants this to be your trial run, but I think it’s a bad idea.”“My trial run?” Annoyance threaded Layla’s voice. She pushed her auburn hair back over her shoulder and frowned. “You do remember that I’ve already done this for two years in LA.”“I remember, but PR and Brand Development aren’t synonymous.”“Yeah, but it’s not about the work is it?” Now Layla sat down. She crossed her long legs. “It’s about Blake himself.”Following her lead, I lowered myself into my own chair. “Yeah, it is,” I said frankly. “I can tell by the way he acted with you in the meeting that he’s going to be a problem.”“And you think that in my two years in PR in LA, I didn’t learn to handle guys like Blake?” Layla’s voice was silky with confidence. She smiled privately, as if remem
Huling Na-update : 2025-04-23In Bed With Daddy’s Best Friend Book 4: chapter 27
LAYLAI didn’t have a plan exactly. More of an idea of a plan. An outline of an idea, anyway. Basically it was to put myself in Aiden’s way as often as possible until he gave in. Ironically, Blake made it easier for me. Aiden never followed through on his threat to take me off the account, and Blake never got the hint that we didn’t need to meet with him every other day, so I saw a lot of both of them.“I’m surprised Aiden is putting up with it,” Gloria mused one evening when it was just the core group of us staying late. We’d had to rearrange our schedule due to one of Blake’s unscheduled drop ins, so now the five of us were back in the conference room with our laptops, eating pizza.“It’s obvious why.” Joe rubbed his thumb against his other four fingers.Gloria scoffed. She and Joe were dating, or something like it, but they still never missed a chance to disagree with one another. “Cross Media isthego-to marketing firm in Boston these days. Local magazines are always doing profiles
Huling Na-update : 2025-04-24In Bed With Daddy’s Best Friend Book 4: chapter 28
“No, I’ve got it.” I took them from him. “I forgot something at my desk anyway.”“Do you want us to wait for you?”I hesitated. I couldn’t say yes because my plan was to dump these empty boxes in the break room trash can and then confront Aiden. But did it look suspicious if I said no? Would they suspect? “No, I might hang out for a minute. My roommate is coming to meet me for a drink at a bar nearby,” I lied.They accepted it without a flicker of skepticism. “A drink sounds good,” I heard Joe suggest to Gloria as they walked down the hallway toward the elevator with William.“I’m tired.”I felt a moment’s pity for Joe, then my heart kicked into overtime. I was about to be alone in the office with Aiden, which was something I’d tried to engineer before, but these weren’t ideal circumstances. I couldn’t focus on seducing him–I had to confront him over this Blake Morten situation first.As I walked through the office with the pizza boxes in hand, I heard him talking in his office. At fi
Huling Na-update : 2025-04-24In Bed With Daddy’s Best Friend Book 4: chapter 29
“Looking at each other?” His mouth hitched up in one corner. “I don’t want to just look at you, Layla.” My heart hammered in my ears. My blood hummed, every sense attune to him. “I don’t want to just look at you, Aiden.” He took a deep breath and I sensed the final battle was raging in his head. I held mine, waiting for the outcome. “Come over to my place,” he said, the words tearing out of his throat. “We can talk more.” I sensed that if I told him I didn’t want to talk, it might be pushing him too far. He might revert. So I nodded as though it were plausible that we might just talk. But I knew better. * * * I’d never been to Aiden’s old place, but I knew instantly that the two-bedroom condo on the twelfth floor of a nice high rise only a couple miles from work was new since the divorce. The packing boxes still stacked against a wall and the dearth of furniture was a dead giveaway. In the living room, he had exactly one place to sit, and that was a long, three-cushioned
Huling Na-update : 2025-04-24In Bed With Daddy’s Best Friend Book 4: chapter 30
“Because I can’t have you.”I set my beer on his barren dresser and put my hands on his shoulders. I’d barely had half of it, but I didn’t need liquid courage. Not for this. “I think you can.”Aiden’s eyes were hot, but he didn’t make a move to touch me, even as I felt his muscles tense. His voice was low and scratchy when he said, “I can’t keep you.”There it was again. That conviction that nothing could last. That nothing was really his. I slid my hands up to his face and pulled it gently down. Our foreheads brushed, and his eyes were glittering with need, but he still didn’t move. I wanted to kiss him so badly that my lips were tingling, but I had brought us this far. He had to meet me halfway.“You can keep me tonight,” I whispered.I saw the last of his resistance collapse, and his lips came down on mine. Triumph swelled in my chest, then was brushed away by overwhelming lust.I kissed him back fiercely, pulling his face down to mine and wrapping my arms around his neck. I could
Huling Na-update : 2025-04-24In Bed With Daddy’s Best Friend Book 4: chapter 31
AIDENI didn’t sleep that night. I had Layla curled up against me, her body warm and her breathing even as a metronome. The moonlight was streaming through my curtainless windows, and I caught the down notes of the band playing at the bar across the street. How many nights had I spent sleepless, staring at the ceiling, listening to that bar’s live music? More than I could count. I’d never needed much sleep, and since the company got so busy, I needed even less.I was tired now though. Bone deep weariness that came from being in an impossible situation. I’d crossed the line with Layla, but there was no way in hell I was going to cross back. It had been hard enough to resist her when I didn’t know what it would be like between us. Now I knew, and nothing was going to keep me from her.Not even Jack.The exhaustion moved into my bones. I’d have to tell him eventually. If this had been a one-time thing, maybe we could have gotten away with it, but it wasn’t going to be that.I turned my h
Huling Na-update : 2025-04-24
Pinakabagong kabanata
In Bed With Daddy’s Best Friend Book 4: chapter 36
Joe glanced at me, sensing for the first time that this news might not be as benign as he thought. “Um, yesterday?” He scratched his nose and eyed me, checking to see how that information went over. When my face darkened, he added, “Maybe. I don’t remember.”“Well I just talked to Maureen about it yesterday morning, so either it was yesterday or it was really early this morning,” I said evenly.“Yeah, it was probably yesterday.” Joe pulled an apologetic face. As if he were the one with something to apologize for. Then he wrapped up his uneaten egg sandwich and made a quick exit.I stayed in the break room for another few minutes, trying to get a handle on my anger. My tendency was to go with the emotion–let it swell and break and deal with the cause of it. I didn’t like to let things fester. This time, though, I really did try to tame it. I asked myself if I was being unreasonable–maybe this wasn’t actually Aiden treating me like a child. Maybe there was some way in which he could ask
In Bed With Daddy’s Best Friend Book 4: chapter 35
LAYLAI sensed Aiden’s mood even before I saw his face. It was the way he moved when he came out onto the balcony. A stiffness in the set of his shoulders that was echoed in his face when he turned around. He lowered himself into the chair beside mine without kissing me first.I closed my book, keeping my finger between the pages to save my spot. I had a pretty good idea what this was about.Aiden didn’t waste time getting to the point. “You went around me.”“I went up the chain of command,” I countered. “I report to Maureen.”“I don’t give a damn who you report to at work. You went aroundme.” He bit off the words. “Not as your boss, but as your–whatever the fuck we’re doing is called.”“I think that about describes it,” I drawled, hoping to tempt him out of this fight. I dogeared the corner of my page and set it down beside my chair.Aiden wasn’t tempted though. Or amused. If anything, his face grew stormier. “If that’s all it was, I wouldn’t bother.”I stood up and slid into his lap
In Bed With Daddy’s Best Friend Book 4: chapter 34
I swallowed uneasily, well aware I’d just made things worse. When this all came out–and it would all come out–Jack was going to remember that he’d sent me to New York City to protecthis daughter, when all along, I was the asshole he should have been worried about. But I’d painted myself into this corner, and when I did something, I did it well. There was no way out. “Then I’ll go, Jack.” I did my best to make my voice sound relaxed rather than placating. “No problem.”Finally, some of the tension eased out of his jaw. He picked up his beer again and took a long drink. When he set it back down, he looked like my old buddy Jack again. “Not like you have anything better to do, right?” he asked, half-joking, half-prying.“Nah, nothing better,” I agreed.“You don’t sound too worried about it.”“I got divorced for a reason, Jack.” I stretched my arms over my head and did my best to put off the impression of what I had been just a few months before–happily single, enjoying my bachelorhood. I
In Bed With Daddy’s Best Friend Book 4: chapter 33
AIDEN I was late meeting Jack because Blake Morten had invited Layla to a charity ball being held by a wealthy fan in order to raise money for his foundation. He wasn’t inviting her as his date, he swore. He knew she was new and this would be a good chance to see more of his brand. Or so he said. “His brand is YouTube,” I said when Maureen–not Layla–mentioned it on our way to get our second cup of coffee on Monday afternoon. “She can see all of his brand that she wants without leaving her house.” My heart was pounding an ugly rhythm. Electricity had shot into the palms of my hands, and I’d curled my free hand into a fist instinctively. Then I shoved it in my pocket because Blake Morten wasn’t here to punch. “ItwasYouTube. Then he hired us to expand on it,” Maureen reminded me. She seemed distracted. I shot her a sideways look. I didn’t expect Maureen to feel the same defensive rage at the idea of our client trying to move in on one of our team members as I did. She wasn’t secre
In Bed With Daddy’s Best Friend Book 4: chapter 32
LAYLA I got away with wearing Aiden’s t-shirt with my jeans and blazer that first day. After that, we were more careful. I went to my place first to get a change of clothes, and then after a couple weeks, I began keeping things at his place. We were careful in other ways, too. Careful not to be alone together at the office, careful not to let our gazes clash for too long. It was easy enough during the workday—it was the happy hours, working dinners, and the last baseball game of the season that made things tricky. Inhibitions lowered. Stolen glances lingered for too long. More than once, we found ourselves sneaking off to find a place to be alone. Still, we got away with it. Liv and Bran were the only other two souls in the world that knew about us, and even Aiden didn’t know about that. I wanted to tell him, but he had been so adamant that we had to keep this a secret just between the two of us that I didn’t know how to tell him it wasn’t. I’d never been a particularly secretive p
In Bed With Daddy’s Best Friend Book 4: chapter 31
AIDENI didn’t sleep that night. I had Layla curled up against me, her body warm and her breathing even as a metronome. The moonlight was streaming through my curtainless windows, and I caught the down notes of the band playing at the bar across the street. How many nights had I spent sleepless, staring at the ceiling, listening to that bar’s live music? More than I could count. I’d never needed much sleep, and since the company got so busy, I needed even less.I was tired now though. Bone deep weariness that came from being in an impossible situation. I’d crossed the line with Layla, but there was no way in hell I was going to cross back. It had been hard enough to resist her when I didn’t know what it would be like between us. Now I knew, and nothing was going to keep me from her.Not even Jack.The exhaustion moved into my bones. I’d have to tell him eventually. If this had been a one-time thing, maybe we could have gotten away with it, but it wasn’t going to be that.I turned my h
In Bed With Daddy’s Best Friend Book 4: chapter 30
“Because I can’t have you.”I set my beer on his barren dresser and put my hands on his shoulders. I’d barely had half of it, but I didn’t need liquid courage. Not for this. “I think you can.”Aiden’s eyes were hot, but he didn’t make a move to touch me, even as I felt his muscles tense. His voice was low and scratchy when he said, “I can’t keep you.”There it was again. That conviction that nothing could last. That nothing was really his. I slid my hands up to his face and pulled it gently down. Our foreheads brushed, and his eyes were glittering with need, but he still didn’t move. I wanted to kiss him so badly that my lips were tingling, but I had brought us this far. He had to meet me halfway.“You can keep me tonight,” I whispered.I saw the last of his resistance collapse, and his lips came down on mine. Triumph swelled in my chest, then was brushed away by overwhelming lust.I kissed him back fiercely, pulling his face down to mine and wrapping my arms around his neck. I could
In Bed With Daddy’s Best Friend Book 4: chapter 29
“Looking at each other?” His mouth hitched up in one corner. “I don’t want to just look at you, Layla.” My heart hammered in my ears. My blood hummed, every sense attune to him. “I don’t want to just look at you, Aiden.” He took a deep breath and I sensed the final battle was raging in his head. I held mine, waiting for the outcome. “Come over to my place,” he said, the words tearing out of his throat. “We can talk more.” I sensed that if I told him I didn’t want to talk, it might be pushing him too far. He might revert. So I nodded as though it were plausible that we might just talk. But I knew better. * * * I’d never been to Aiden’s old place, but I knew instantly that the two-bedroom condo on the twelfth floor of a nice high rise only a couple miles from work was new since the divorce. The packing boxes still stacked against a wall and the dearth of furniture was a dead giveaway. In the living room, he had exactly one place to sit, and that was a long, three-cushioned
In Bed With Daddy’s Best Friend Book 4: chapter 28
“No, I’ve got it.” I took them from him. “I forgot something at my desk anyway.”“Do you want us to wait for you?”I hesitated. I couldn’t say yes because my plan was to dump these empty boxes in the break room trash can and then confront Aiden. But did it look suspicious if I said no? Would they suspect? “No, I might hang out for a minute. My roommate is coming to meet me for a drink at a bar nearby,” I lied.They accepted it without a flicker of skepticism. “A drink sounds good,” I heard Joe suggest to Gloria as they walked down the hallway toward the elevator with William.“I’m tired.”I felt a moment’s pity for Joe, then my heart kicked into overtime. I was about to be alone in the office with Aiden, which was something I’d tried to engineer before, but these weren’t ideal circumstances. I couldn’t focus on seducing him–I had to confront him over this Blake Morten situation first.As I walked through the office with the pizza boxes in hand, I heard him talking in his office. At fi
