Free Sleeping With My Boss: A Standalone Novel (An Alpha Billionaire Romance Love Story) (A Dirty Office Romance) by Claire Adams Page A

calligraphy with
ink and brushes.”
    “I don’t even know what to say. Wow just keeps coming
to mind. This is totally not something I'd have expected from a…”
    “A what? Someone like me? A financial mogul? A
billionaire? Or let me guess, a playboy billionaire? I mean, that is the rumor,
isn’t it?”
    “Yes,” she replied, with a subtle blush coloring her
cheeks.
    “Well,” I said with a conspiratorial smile, “you might
want to learn to expect the unexpected from me.”
    “I’ll keep that in mind,” she offered, smiling softly.
“So how did it all end up then?”
    “Well, I’m here now, so I found my focus. I found my
way. I bolstered my discipline and became, in mind and body, a warrior. Colonel
Tanaka truly did repay his debt to my grandfather in full. He saved my life,
without a doubt.”
    “Saved your life? How so?”
    “Before I went, I felt like I was spiraling out of
control. The stress was getting to me. I wasn’t handling it well.
    “After I returned, I found that the company had been
in decline, despite the best efforts of my grandfather's trusted friend and
former advisor. However, with my newfound sense of drive and purpose, instead
of throwing in the towel, I was able to not only turn things around, but turn
The Sinclair Agency into what it is today. In the years after I returned from
Japan, I found the intensity of focus and purpose I needed to take us to the
top and beyond. And in my personal life, as well, I found more peace than I'd
ever known before.”
    I couldn’t believe I had just told Lilah so much about
myself. Only my parents and a couple of very close friends knew about my time
in Japan. Of course, I didn’t share everything with her that was flooding my
mind. I wanted to add that an unfulfilled longing still remained even after I’d
returned from training with Colonel Tanaka. I'd done everything on my own up to
that point and even after I’d returned, and I’d been quite happy doing things
by myself.
    Or, so I'd thought.
    In recent years, I'd begun to feel as if the close
companionship I'd always told myself was an unnecessary burden wasn’t actually so unnecessary. Perhaps being alone, being entirely independent,
wasn't such a great thing. Perhaps surrendering myself to another wasn't a
weakness. Perhaps, in some ways, it required a strength and a depth of courage
I'd never before been able to access.
    But, again, I didn't say those things to Lilah—I
couldn't, not just yet.
    “Do you have any interesting souvenirs from your time
there?” she asked.
    “As a matter of fact, I do. I have a few suits of
samurai armor and a number of weapons that I keep on display at my place. I've
also had a Japanese garden, much like this one, constructed on the grounds near
my home. I like to walk there when I can, and when I have time, I'm learning to
do sand art in the way the old man over there is doing. But, by far, my most
prized memento of my time spent with Colonel Tanaka is a sword.”
    “A samurai sword?” she asked with a glint of curiosity.
    “Indeed. It had been in Colonel Tanaka's family for
generations, and had been forged by a blade master three hundred years ago, the
steel folded and hammered a thousand times. According to Colonel Tanaka, the
edge is still as razor sharp as it was three centuries ago; it's a true work of
art. He gave it to me as a parting gift.”
    “I'd love to see it sometime.”
    Her statement took me by surprise. The last thing I
was expecting was for her to suggest spending more time with me in any manner.
Much less in a setting as private as my home. But I wasn’t about to turn down
the chance to spend time with her.
    “You should. I have a lot of fascinating pieces and
artifacts. I am definitely something of a collector.”
    “And I happen to have a great interest in history,” she
remarked, but then, all of a sudden, a cold look entered her eyes; it seemed as
if she regretted what she had just said for some reason. “Look at the