Counting On You (Counting the Billions 2)

But it seemed like she was really ready to try and make things work.

I was still going to have to be careful, I knew. Give our dates a lot of thought. Make sure that she and I didn’t get caught in any compromising positions. And it might be better if I gave an official interview or something to announce us, rather than just let them find out about us. Control the information they got about the relationship, let everyone get their questions out before the wild speculations started.

But for now, it felt like we were taking a good step forward, and that was all I could ask for.

Abby rolled her eyes at my teasing. But she reached out and caught my hands again. “I want you to come to our family dinners. And I don’t want to feel like we have anything to hide. Because we don’t. We’re grown adults, and we’re able to make our own decisions and consent to this. And we don’t have to let it affect our business dealings. If we act like it’s something to be ashamed of, then people are just going to be weirder about it when they actually find out about it, right?”

“You’re probably right,” I admitted, already thinking about how, and if, we should break things to the board of directors and the other guys we worked with.

“And I’m sure you realize this, but the only reason I’m even considering this is because I really like you.” Abby said these final words all in a rush, looking more shy than I had ever seen her before.

I couldn’t help but smile as I tugged her closer to me, so that she was resting against my still-naked body. I kissed her gently. “I guess it’s a good thing that I really like you too,” I said, unable to keep the joking note out of my voice.

Abby swatted my shoulder, but then she settled back against my side again.

“Are you sure about this?” I finally asked. Because I had to make sure. Going public again could change everything. In good ways as well as bad. I definitely wanted to go out in public with her, and I was sure that if we managed things the right way, we could minimize the amount of gossip we had to deal with about us and about our business relationship. But at the same time, no amount of managing my life thus far had been able to keep the media at bay. There were bound to be some unsavory stories out there every so often.

I’d do what I could to keep her safe, but there were some things I knew I just couldn’t keep her safe from.

Abby nodded at me, though. “I know you’ll do your best to keep me safe,” she said, as though echoing my thoughts. “And that’s all I can ask of you. I’m sure I want to do this, though. For us.”

“Good,” I said fiercely, holding her a little closer to my side.

Chapter 24

Abby

MY PHONE BUZZED AS I was looking in the mirror one last time, checking my makeup before work that morning. I smiled, not even having to ask who it was. Since Daniel and I had gone public with our relationship, Daniel had decided that he would pick me up every morning on the way to his office. I had protested, pointing out that it was out of his way and that I was perfectly capable of getting myself to the office on my own. What did he think would happen, th

at some rabid fangirl would come after me demanding blood because I dared to be in a relationship with him?

Nothing like that, though, Daniel had told me. He reminded me of the morning when I had been accosted by the press on my way into the building and pointed out that that could happen again. He wanted to make sure that if there was any sort of problem like that ever again, he was there for me. Easier that we just show up at the same time so he could look out for me if he needed to.

When I pointed out that the building security usually handled those kinds of things and that particular day with the press had been an anomaly, he jokingly suggested bodyguards. But then, he had leaned in close and started whispering in my ear about all the things he’d like to do to me in that private car on the way to work.

Suffice to say, I had quickly quit protesting. But it had taken what felt like hours for my blush to disappear.

We’d gone out on a couple of carefully orchestrated outings since going public, and I appreciated all the care Daniel put into showing off just enough about our relationship. The first date had been a little awkward; we’d been holding hands at some fancy restaurant when the flashbulbs started going off. I’d immediately paled, and Daniel had frowned, looking upset.

“If you want to leave, we can,” he said in a low voice. “There’s an escape out the back; the cook knows me.”

I had laughed, put at ease by the sheer absurdity of it all. And also touched by the fact that he had clearly thought this through and picked a place that had an escape route. “Do you make a habit of running out the back in the middle of your meal?” I asked teasingly. “I would have thought that the papers would have picked up on that by now.”

Daniel grinned at me. “Well, there was this one time, in the middle of this really fancy gala my father made me attend...” he began, launching into the dramatic tale.

By the time he had finished telling me all about it, I was laughing so hard I could barely breathe. And that’s what the press caught as photos for the latest story about us: the two of us holding hands in a fancy restaurant, Daniel smirking as he regaled me with a story of his youth, and me with my head thrown back as I laughed. Not the most flattering picture of me, but all the headlines were about how Daniel’s romantic life seemed to be heating up, rather than anything negative about the two of us.

That had set the trend for the rest of the gossip about us. Two weeks later, people still wanted to gossip about us, which I found a little absurd, but I was getting used to it, and the articles I had seen hadn’t been bad at all. It definitely hadn’t affected anything about work.

Except for the fact that I now had to be especially punctual since Daniel was there to pick me up and drive me to work on the mornings when I didn’t spend the night at his house.

I quickly tugged on my heels, grabbed my work things, and headed down to the car to meet him. He kissed me the minute I was settled in my seat and then handed me a coffee, our usual morning routine. “How’d you sleep last night?” Daniel asked, another part of our routine.

I laughed. “Fine, fine. As always.” I winked at him. “Not nearly as good as when I’m sleeping next to you though.”

Daniel smirked at me, but I could tell his mind was already on our first meeting of the day. It would be a big one, with some of our most important clients. We had spent half of the weekend going over strategies and proposals, and even though we were both sure that we were going to knock this thing out of the park, I think we were both a little nervous.

It was still nice to know that we were so much on the same page when it came to work things. Especially since no matter how nervous the other person got, we were each here for one another, silent support to calm each other down. We made a great team.