The Hot Daddy Box Set Read online

  Morgan again nodded slowly but didn’t say anything.

  Not wanting any extra chit-chat myself, I left. It was time to hit the club and work out some tension.

  Though most people came to the club for the restaurant, golf course, or spa, I came for a very different reason.

  I smiled to myself as I hefted my bat. There weren’t many decent clubs in town with batting cages. I understood why. Batting cages weren’t normally associated with wealthy men trying to network.

  The ball sailed toward me. My bat connected with a crack, sending it sailing into the sky and then into the net on the far end.

  The pitching machine fired off another ball. Another nice hit sent it flying.

  I’d played a lot of baseball when I was younger, and for a time, even entertained the idea of going into the pros. I knew I had the talent and dedication to do it.

  Nothing ever came of it, though. By the time I hit college, I’d decided to focus on business, a path I thought was more stable for success. It turned out to be a good thing in the long run. There are countless billionaire businessmen, but not even the best baseball stars end up billionaires.

  Another ball flew at me. This time I connected, but it was a line drive.

  My parents had both passed away years before, my father from a heart attack and my mother from a stroke. I was convinced she had all but willed herself to die since it wasn’t that long after my father had gone. Neither of them had been all that old.

  The early deaths of my parents left me with a sister who wasn’t even an adult yet. Maybe that’s why I felt so responsible for her, even now. If my parents had been alive, perhaps my sister wouldn’t be such a self-centered screw-up.

  A ball whizzed by me, and I grunted. I couldn’t be certain if I had failed Daisy or if she had failed me. Perhaps our parents hadn’t done enough to make sure Daisy would grow into a mature woman. All I knew is that she was only twenty-two, she was pregnant, and had no real concept of personal responsibility. She was a woman who cared more about her whims than anyone else.

  The thoughts helped move my muscles over the next few dozen balls. My irritation faded with each hit until finally I was left with nothing but sore muscles and a calm heart.

  Time to hit the showers.

  Chapter 4

  Morgan

  My first two weeks at my new job had gone well enough, and it was Friday afternoon, so I had no complaints. While Daniel seemed to work on the weekends fairly often, he didn’t seem to expect that I would, which surprised me, as my old boss made it clear I’d be putting in a lot of weekend hours, and did.

  I was glad that I’d be heading out soon because Daniel was in another of his moods. I’d learned rather quickly that this was an issue, though I could tell he was trying not to take it out on me. Not that he always succeeded, however.

  Of course, I also understood where the moods came from now, as it all became clearer when he formally introduced Daisy to me during her next visit. While he hadn’t gone into details, I understood that it was hard on him having a pregnant, unmarried sister who was constantly coming to him for money.

  I sighed and started closing the programs on my computer. I didn’t want to judge her, but it was hard not to do so, especially with what she represented to me—someone being gifted with a child who didn’t even seem to care about it beyond the bargaining power it gave her for dragging money out of her brother.

  Several deep breaths followed as I tried to calm my thumping heart. Again, I tried to remind myself that all pregnant women couldn’t be blamed for my loss, even a selfish woman like Daisy.

  None of that mattered for the moment. Tonight, I was eager to get off work because my best friend Jacy was back in town after being overseas for few weeks on business.

  My workspace secured, I headed toward Daniel’s office and stood at the door for a second, watching him.

  He sat at his desk, his hands folded in front of him, wearing a pensive expression. It was a classic post-Daisy face.

  The sad part was that when he wasn’t frowning, Daniel was a handsome man. The classic tall, dark, and handsome sort, he obviously worked out and kept fit, even if his suits concealed his muscles. Every once in a while, when he moved or bent a certain way, I’d get a hint of what he might look like underneath the fabric, and then I’d wondered.

  Not that I cared much about that sort of thing. Not anymore. My gaze dropped to my ring. I’d thought I’d found happiness, but then I’d lost my baby, and soon my marriage was over, in reality if not in name. Sometimes I thought the only reason we hadn’t actually gotten divorced was that Blaine thought it would be too much trouble.

  Then again, I was the one still wearing a ring. Why? Maybe to remind myself that when you need people to be there for you, they might not be.

  Is that why I was suddenly checking out my new boss? A man who was ten years older than me? Maybe deep down I dreamed of a man coming in to sweep me off my feet and save me from my own sad past.

  I knocked lightly on the door. The last thing I wanted to do was startle Daniel when he was in an annoyed mood.

  He looked up at me. “Yes?”

  “I wanted to let you know I was heading out.”

  “Thanks for all your hard work today.” A slight frown appeared on his face. “Remember about the day trip I have coming up.”

  I nodded, “I have it in my calendar.”

  “Good, good,” he said, still looking distracted. He offered me a wave, and I took it as a dismissal.

  After leaving his office, I grabbed my coat and headed toward the elevator. All of my own concerns and Daniel’s stresses would soon be shoved aside for a fun ladies’ night with my best friend.

  I pushed in the door of the gastropub, looking around. Not even bothering to go home, I’d arranged to meet Jacy there and didn’t want to waste time. Light jazz played in the background, as a din from various conversations filled the room. Well-dressed men and women stood around, sipping on their drinks and eating.

  The place was a little higher class than I typically visited, but Jacy loved it, and there was no way I was denying my best friend her favorite gastropub after she’d been overseas for several weeks on a company trip.

  I scanned the crowd, looking for the familiar blonde. I finally spotted her in a red dress, waving from a booth. I hurried over to the booth and pulled Jacy into a hug.

  “How was Singapore?” I asked.

  “All right, but I’m glad to be back.” Jacy rubbed the back of her neck. “It’s fun to travel on the company’s dime, but it’s also exhausting. Though I wouldn’t mind if they wanted to send me to Hawaii for a few weeks,” she waggled her eyebrows and sat in the booth.

  I slipped into the booth across from her. “I’m glad you’re back.”

  “Yeah, a lot has changed for you. When I left, you were still in-between jobs, and now you’re working again. How is everything going at your new place?”

  “It’s okay. Nothing that different, really. I’m still a personal assistant to a wealthy man,” I shrugged. “He’s okay. He’s got his issues like anyone else, but I can’t complain about the benefits or the pay.”

  A waitress stopped by, and we both put in an order for margaritas. I ordered a salad and sushi, and Jacy ordered the salmon cakes.

  “Do you have any more business trips coming up?” I asked.

  “Not for a bit, so we can get in some serious hang-out time.” Jacy shot me a bright grin. “Especially since I’m uh—shall we say—between men at the moment, so nothing’s distracting me.” She surveyed the crowd like a lioness on the hunt. “Though that is a problem I hope to solve sooner than later.”

  I laughed. Some people never changed. In this case, it was a good thing. Jacy always had a way of pulling me out a funk.

  She narrowed her eyes, her gaze dipping for a second.

  “What?” I asked. “Do I have something on my shirt?”

  “You’re still wearing it. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I wasn’t gon
e that long.”

  “Wearing what? My shirt? I’m not drunk. I haven’t even had anything to drink yet.”

  Jacy snickered. “No, you’re still wearing your ring.”

  I averted my gaze. “What about it?”

  She nodded once. “It’s been two years. Don’t you think it’s time to take it off?”

  “It’s a wedding ring, and we’re not divorced, just separated.”

  Jacy sighed and shook her head. “And you’re never getting back together with Blaine. We both know that. It’s not like the law says you have to wear the ring until you’re officially divorced. That marriage is over, and maybe wearing the ring is keeping you from moving on.”

  I lifted my hand and stared at the ring. “Maybe. I don’t know. I can never bring myself to take it off.”

  “Why?”

  I tilted the ring, watching the diamond catch light in its facets. “Because I always want a reminder of how things were and the nature of trust.”

  “Sometimes it’s not a good thing to spend too much time remembering the past.” Jacy brightened and nodded to herself, a satisfied look on her face. “Isn’t there some hot mailroom guy you can screw at your new job? That’s a good way to make new memories. Much nicer memories.”

  My cheeks heated. “Jacy! I can’t believe you said that.”

  She shot me a playful grin. “Just saying you should keep your eyes open for opportunities.” She shook her head. “But I think you should take the ring off.”

  “I can’t.”

  “You won’t.”

  “But—” I sighed.

  Jacy reached over to pat my hand. “Take it off, right now. Prove that you’re ready to move forward. You’ll feel better in the morning.”

  I hesitated for a long moment, my friend staring right at me. Finally, I reached down and gently slid the ring off my finger and dropped it into my purse.

  My heart thundered. It was such a simple thing, just removing a ring, but so much meaning suffused the act.

  The waitress returned with our margaritas. It was time to let alcohol wash away my problems for the night.

  Two hours later, and more than a few margaritas, warmth filled my body, and I found I didn’t care much about anything other than laughing at Jacy’s silly jokes.

  “So, I told him, ‘No, that’s not my boyfriend. It’s a giraffe,’” she said.

  I laughed hard, taking a few moments to recover. “You actually said that to the guy? And he didn’t throw a fit?”

  She waggled a finger. “That’s why my company has that contract now, because that man found me funny. That’s what we call ‘lateral thinking’ in the business.”

  “That’s what I call just getting lucky.”

  Jacy grinned. “Semantics.”

  I swayed a bit and shook my head. “Oof. I don’t think I should have any more drinks. It’s been a while since I’ve had that much.”

  “I’m gonna have one more,” Jacy said, her words slurring a bit. “Just one. I couldn’t find a decent margarita in Singapore for some reason.”

  All that drinking was catching up with me. “I need to go the ladies’ room.”

  “Need me to come with you?”

  “No, I’m fine,” I said, waving a hand. “I’ll be right back.”

  I rose and steadied myself on the table. After a few steps, I felt a lot steadier on my feet. I weaved through the tables and various people toward the hallway leading to the restrooms.

  The room swayed with each step. Okay, maybe not so steady after all. I wasn’t normally such a drinker, so I was already paying the price. Though I wasn’t that worried because I was there with a good friend to keep an eye on me. Even if I ended up with a hangover, I had the entire weekend to recover before having to face my boss, and it’s not like I was going to run into him on my way to the bathroom.

  I stumbled into the hallway, the fluorescent light strips above pushing back the darkness. For such a nice place, their restroom hallway definitely had a creepy vibe.

  A light flickered above, and I looked up. I didn’t stop moving, which is probably why I crashed into something. It took me a few seconds to realize it was a firm chest.

  “Ack,” I said, stumbling. If I’d been a little more sober, my balance might have kept from me falling. My hands shot out, looking for purchase. I found it on a muscular arm and a man’s shirt covering what I could feel was a very muscular chest.

  Heat shot through me. It had been a long time since my hands had been on a man’s body, let alone a man with such a fit body. Even my pseudo-ex Blaine wasn’t so fit. I blamed the alcohol.

  I sighed and lifted my head, “I’m sorr—”

  My eyes widened as I stared into rather familiar dark eyes.

  “Daniel?” I whispered.

  His own wide-eyed look told me he was just as surprised to see me as I was to see him.

  “What are you doing here?” I said.

  “Uh, I was going to the bathroom.”

  I leaped back and shook my head. “Sorry,” I said as I rushed past him toward the ladies’ room.

  Lingered inside for several minutes, I desperately hoped my boss would move on. It’d be one thing to face him in a couple of days when sober, but tonight when I was obviously drunk.

  When I finally dared to look out into the hallway, Daniel was gone. I crept along the hallway, still looking for him until hurrying back to my booth.

  “I was about to go on a rescue mission,” Jacy said. “Or was there just a big line?”

  “No—my boss was there, I ran right into him. I mean literally.”

  Jacy blinked. “In the ladies’ room?”

  I shook my head. “No, no. In the hallway. I bumped into him, and I started falling, then I grabbed his arm and chest.”

  “So you’re saying you felt up your boss?”

  I groaned and dropped my head to the table. “That’s probably what it came off like to him.”

  Jacy cackled. “Oh, that’s just too perfect.”

  Alcohol. That could be my salvation. I was drunk. Maybe Daniel was too. Come Monday he might not even remember that he bumped into me.

  Chapter 5

  Daniel

  Monday morning, as I rode the elevator up toward my office, my heart pounded. I was grateful for the small miracle of being alone. The last thing I was prepared to deal with was being trapped in a small, enclosed space with Morgan.

  I’d honestly thought about taking the stairs, but going up forty flights seemed a bit extreme, just to avoid running into my assistant. Even if I’d chosen that route, it would only delay the inevitable.

  Morgan wasn’t some random employee in the mail room. She was my personal assistant. Her desk was right next to my office. There was no way in hell I could avoid her all day even if I wanted to. I couldn’t even do my job properly without her.

  Damn it. If only Hunter had chosen some other place on Friday, then none of this would have been a problem.

  Such a small incident when I thought about it logically, but that didn’t change what I’d felt.

  I couldn’t help but remember Morgan’s wide eyes as she touched me in that dark hallway Friday night. I’d been trying all weekend to convince myself that there wasn’t a spark when she’d touched me. Too bad I hadn’t succeeded.

  It’d been a while since I’d felt that way, since I’d experienced such heat, such pure attraction, even a good old ‘stirring of the loins’ as they say. While I’d taken more than a few women to bed in recent years, that wasn’t the same thing as the raw, primal longing I’d felt when my assistant touched me at the gastropub.

  Of course, her obvious beauty hadn’t escaped my notice from the beginning, but that admiration had been more detached, even clinical, like looking at a beautiful painting. Now it was different. That beauty sat not all that far from my desk.

  It was hard not to think about the nice body she had. Even though she wore professional clothes, the skirts hugged her nice legs, and it was obvious she had ample enoug
h breasts. I was desperate to see her in something more revealing.

  I shook my head, trying to shake the lust out. It was a bad idea to even think back to what I’d felt on Friday, let alone these newer thoughts. Morgan was my assistant, and she was married for God’s sake. She wasn’t a woman I could have, no matter what I thought I felt.

  It’d been a while since I’d slept with a woman. I’d been too busy with the company the last few months, so I’d let dating fall by the wayside. My sister’s pregnancy had only complicated things more, and I didn’t want to have to worry about more than one needy woman at a time.

  The more I thought about it, the more I wondered if I was just overreacting because I’d not had sex in a while. That wasn’t necessarily the simplest fix, considering I didn’t think of myself as a one-night stand kind of man. I obviously did need to consider finding myself a woman, though, so I’d stop lusting after my assistant.

  The elevator dinged, and the doors slid open. I headed down the hallway toward my office, I tried to think about the best way to approach the situation and Morgan. There was no way to get into my office without her noticing.

  If luck were on my side, she’d not be at her desk, and I could slip into my office and close the door. She knew to leave me alone when the door was closed. That would buy me time, hours, if not the whole day.

  I gritted my teeth, self-loathing boiling up. No. I couldn’t hide, not from Morgan, not if I wanted to look myself in the mirror without disgust.

  Cowardice was not how I became a billionaire, achieved my success, or defined my company, and it also needed to define me.

  Now filled with my confidence, I marched right toward her desk. Morgan already was sitting there, sipping on some coffee. She set down her cup and looked up at me, a curious look on her face. I wondered if she was struggling as much as I was with how to start the conversation.

  I wasn’t there to hit on her. I was there to smooth things over. Whatever I’d felt and whatever she’d perceived on Friday, that didn’t change the fact that I needed a good working relationship with my assistant, and I had too many things coming up to go looking for a new assistant anytime soon.