Page 119 of My Favorite Boss

“No!” She grabbed my hand. “When the hell did this appear?”

“Oh. Um, this morning.”

“Magnolia, it’s gorgeous!”

“It is,” I agreed. “A surprise too.” I told her how he asked, and she smiled.

“He’s so sweet under all that bluster.”

“He is.”

She turned my hand various ways, catching the light. “It suits you.”

I studied the elongated cushion cut with the pavé band. It glittered and sparkled under the lights, sending bright dots onto the walls. “I didn’t expect it.”

She stood. “I doubt he expected you.”

I had to laugh. “Probably not.”

“I have to get back. Lunch this week, right?”

“Sounds good.”

She left, and I stared at my ring.

I hadn’t expected him either.

Chapter Twenty-Five

MAGNOLIA

The following week, sitting at my desk, I frowned at the multitude of changes to the budget Bane had handed me earlier, asking me to update it. This client was frustrating him to no end. Bane was grumpier than usual, which was pretty damn grumpy. He hadn’t even commented on the flowers that arrived, the pretty bouquet bright and cheerful. He’d shot them the same disparaging look as usual and ignored them.

His mood was also due to the fact that I refused to move in with him yet, and he was almost surly at times. I wanted to enjoy the time at the house while I could. Spend some evenings with my memories. I loved my nights with him, especially waking up beside him, his strong, warm body next to mine, plus the inevitable, pleasurable sex that happened when he woke up. But everything was happening so quickly, I was trying to make sure I didn’t get swept up in the Bane-hurricane.

Besides, I had to admit, I still liked ramping him up. Watching him glower at me as I got ready to leave at night without him, thoroughly enjoying his intense, passionate kisses as he tried to persuade me to change my mind. I also hid my amusement when he would show up at my place, a bag of ramen or Chinese in hand, insisting he had to make sure I was eating. Offering to help pack things up in order to hasten my departure from the apartment. I had agreed during a prolonged and mind-scrambling orgasm to let him hire movers to take all the boxes and furniture from the attic and move it to his storage area the other night. The fact that he’d had it done in twenty-four hours shouldn’t have surprised me, yet it still did.

A loud curse interrupted my musings, and I looked up, peering into Bane’s office.

“Goddammit,” he roared, kicking at the desk.

Curious, I got up and bravely approached the lion. “Something wrong?” I asked.

“This bloody desk,” he replied. “I was reaching for something in the drawer, and I got a massive splinter in my hand.”

I reached for his hand he was holding, inspecting the “massive” piece of wood. He had a sliver under his skin, the area around it red with irritation. A second piece was beside it, the end sticking out.

Keeping the amusement out of my voice, I instructed him to sit and went to the bathroom, getting out the first aid kit. I sat on the desk, holding his hand under the light. Using the special tweezers I had put in the kit, I probed the area, trying to ignore his squirming.

“This will go faster if you stop moving.”

“You’re hurting me, Myers,” he grumbled.

I bit back a laugh. I had hardly touched him. “Sorry.”

I grasped the end of the smaller sliver and pulled. It came out fairly easily, hardly any tugging needed on my end.

Bane grunted in annoyance. “Can you leave my hand intact? I need it.”