Freedom (Billionaire Secrets 2)

Chapter 1

“You really should get out of those clothes,” she said in a breathy voice.

Simon Diesel frowned. Actually, Heather had spoken in a disapproving tone. The huskiness in her voice was pure imagination on his part. Because nothing was ever innocent when it came to his personal assistant.

“The clothes again?” He furrowed his brow in frustration. “What is it with you and my clothes?”

And what was with her always wanting to get him out of them? He pushed that inappropriate thought away. Letting his personal feelings surface wasn’t going to help them. Not now that they were about to be summoned to an unexpected board meeting. His media relations officer, Linda, had managed to send him a warning text earlier in the morning to prepare him for the chaos that was in store for him.

Heather Hall reached for the zipped-up garment bag on his desk. She had dragged the bag into his office moments earlier, much to his annoyance. “Look, if what Linda told you is true, you and I need to look professional. We have to look like we take our work at Dover seriously.” She unzipped the bag and pulled out a dark suit.

“No,” he said firmly. Take our work seriously? He owned the company. Of course, he took it seriously.

“You haven’t even tried it on,” she scolded.

“Where did you get that thing anyway?” he demanded. “A funeral parlor?”

“Your old assistant always had extra clothes lying around here for you in case of emergency.” She sighed in exasperation. “Simon, it’s perfectly fine. The board might actually take you seriously.”

“They will. And it doesn’t matter what I’m wearing,” he said with a growl. “It’s my damn company, after all.”

“What I mean is, you have to look like you’re ready for them,” she said. “You can’t make it look like they’ve taken you by surprise.”

“You’re taking this very well,” he murmured. After he had shown Heather the text from Linda he’d expected his assistant to panic. Instead, she had sprung into action, and started coming up with a plan to deal with the board. That probably shouldn’t have surprised him. As messy as their personal lives had recently been, Heather was great at her job. She could buckle down and get through anything without looking even a little flustered.

Her lips thinned. “One of us has to. Besides, I’m your assistant. We can’t let personal indiscretions get in the way of our work.”

Personal indiscretions. That’s how she was describing their affair. Their almost relationship.

What he wouldn’t give to go back in time and stop Heather from closing her front door on him. Instead of walking away, he should have banged on the door and demanded she open it. Demanded she hear him out instead of giving in to her fears. After everything they’d been through, he knew they deserved a chance. A relationship with her would have been a huge risk, but she was worth it. And so much more.

But he hadn’t banged on the door.

He’d just walked away.

How could he demand anything from her? Heather had only just gotten her son back from her ex-husband. Forcing her to talk about taking their relationship to the next level under those circumstances wouldn’t have been fair. She’d gone through too much because of that asshole of an ex-husband. It was best to let her heal.

A month had gone by since she closed the door on them, and now it looked like the board had gotten wind of their affair. Simon was a little shaky on the details, but Linda had sent a text warning him that the board had somehow gotten information from accounting about a potential relationship with Heather. Apparently, they’d gotten wind of the booked single room on the business trip. Maybe they thought it had been done on purpose. It was the only excuse he could come up with.

The room booking has been a mistake, not done on purpose. A simple mistake from the hotel, not theirs. What happened behind closed doors... well, that was a different issue altogether. One that still made him loosen his tie when he thought about it.

“No, we can’t,” he said stiffly. “Our personal indiscretions are in no way related to our work.” He glanced down. “What’s wrong with what I’m wearing anyway?”