A Billionaire Punishes Part 1 (Erotic Romance) Read Free Page B

best thing to say when meeting
the new boss.
    He laughed. “I am, but please don’t hold it
against me. It’s all family money anyway, and most of it is stashed
away safely in bonds, stock certificates and real estate, so far
out of reach I couldn’t spend it if I wanted to.”
    That was a lot more information than I
needed to hear, but I appreciated the candor.
    “I’m your new secretary,” I said.
    “Great. You can’t believe how relieved I was
that the agency managed to find someone on such short notice. And
with such excellent references. So you used to work for Johnny
Barker, huh?”
    I almost said, “Did I?” but managed to bite
my lip and merely nod intelligently as if I knew what the hell he
was talking about.
    “How is old Johnny these days? Still in good
shape?”
    “Still going strong,” I said, wondering why
Celeste had failed to brief me on this ‘upgrade’ of my résumé.
    “He is?” said Remington with a frown. “So
all that talk about his debilitating stroke is highly exaggerated
then, is it? Last I heard he could barely remember his own name.
Oh, well. Just goes to show you shouldn’t believe everything you
hear.”
    “Exactly,” I said a little uncertainly.
Well, he certainly was right about that. I just hoped no more
surprises would pop up in the course of our conversation.
    “Now how much do you know about the flower
business?”
    He’d led me into his office, which was
roomy, airy and done up in the same floral motif as the rest of the
place. I just couldn’t figure a guy like him running a business
like this, and dressing up his office as if it were a girl’s
playroom.
    “Did… you design all this?” I said, not able
to curb my curiosity.
    He grinned, flashing me those stunning
pearly whites once more, and lowered his gaze. “You got me. No, I
didn’t. Gladys did, actually. My former secretary? Too bad you
can’t meet her. She’s on a Caribbean cruise right now. Met mister
right on Sunday, got engaged on Monday and one month later she was
walking down the aisle and I was minus one damned great secretary.
Why, don’t you like what she did to the place?”
    “No, I like it,” I hastened to say. “It’s
just that…”
    “It’s not really me? You’re probably right.
Still, I like it. It’s like working in a flower shop, which of
course this basically is.” He gave me a comical face and in spite
of my nervousness I laughed.
    “I’m sorry,” I said. “When I’m nervous I
start babbling.”
    He’d taken a seat behind his desk, which was
strewn with papers and stacks of brides magazines for some reason,
and gestured at a white plastic swivel chair in front of it.
    “Sit down. Let’s get to know each another.
I’m Remington—Rem for my pals. I’m 28, single, youngest in a nest
of five brothers, I like horse riding, long country walks, hiking
and… flowers, of course. What about you, Erin? What makes you
tick?”
    “Well, I’m Erin,” I began, but he
interrupted me.
    “And even more importantly, what motivated
you to apply for this job?”
    “That’s easy,” I said. “Who wouldn’t want to
work for the fastest growing small business in town? Besides, like
you, I love flowers. I actually used to work for Flowers For You…”
My voice trailed off. Dammit. The last thing I should have told him
was the first thing out of my mouth!
    His eyebrows flickered up at these words.
“Oh? You used to work for Celeste Carter? How did that happen?”
    “Oh, just something I stumbled into,” I
said, feeling a blush creep up my cheeks when I realized that
Celeste most probably hadn’t included that little tidbit of
information in my file.
    He frowned and dug a piece of paper from
under a stack, smoothed it out and glanced at it. “When was that?”
he said.
    “It’s been a while. I was only there for a
couple of weeks,” I said, my mind working rapidly. “Just temping. I
don’t think I even mentioned it in my CV.”
    “No, you didn’t,” he said, eyeing