Read Online His To Own by Elena Black - Free Book Online

enough…
    Oh, God. Laney felt aroused and nauseated. The idea that she'd been sleeping with someone who had a girlfriend was bad enough. Unintentionally or not, she was the other woman. What made her a terrible person was that the betrayal wasn't what made her feel so awful. The idea of never having Michael again, the realization that this was the end of them, because she couldn't continue as she had with him knowing he had committed to someone… no, Laney was going to have to keep their relationship strictly professional. No more closed door meetings in Michael's office. No more punishment .
    "Are you listening, Ms. Hopkinson?"
    "I'm sorry," Laney said, shaking her head. "Is there something else you needed, Mr. Price?"
    "Yes, actually," Price said. "Michael asked that you join us for a meeting this evening. You're off at six, aren't you?"
    "Yes," she confirmed."
    "At six then," Price said. "My office. Try not to be late or destroy anything on your way in." He smiled tightly and walked away, leaving Laney feeling even worse than she had before he got there.
    She was wracked with indecision. Should she sit here and wait for Vivian to emerge? What if they were having an incredibly loving reunion? Maybe she had missed him so much they were already wrapped around one another on the couch in the office. If Laney were his girlfriend, the idea of being away from him for months at a time would be unthinkable. She could barely keep her promise not to jump him for a day. All he had to do was look at her a certain way, speak to her with that visceral authority in his voice, and her resolve crumbled to dust.
    Laney had just resolved that she would hide out in the break room until Vivian had left when Michael's door opened again and the other woman exited. Michael stood just inside the door, giving his girlfriend a look Laney couldn't quite decipher.
    "I'll see you tonight," he said, though it lacked both the warmth and the intensity Laney had come to expect from him. Perhaps he was trying to avoid rubbing the relationship in Laney's face. Perhaps they had just been together so long that things had cooled between them.
    Vivian headed out, as though to leave, until Michael's door shut. She then made a slight detour until she was standing in front of Laney's desk, one perfect golden eyebrow (because it was asking too much that she be a bottle blonde, apparently) raised.
    "You must be Laney," she said, her mouth curling into the tightest, most vindictive smile Laney had ever seen.
    "Yes," Laney confirmed quietly.
    "Michael tells me you're… quite useful," Vivian said, unnecessarily wiping the corner of her mouth with a well manicured index finger. The gesture was crude and unmistakable. Laney blushed and slouched in her chair, mortified.
    "I'm just a temp," Laney muttered, having no idea how to respond to Vivian's horrifyingly correct assumption.
    "Yes," Vivian agreed. "You're very temporary. And soon - very soon - Michael will have absolutely no use for you at all. You know that, don't you?"
    Whatever that status of their sexual relationship, Laney was sure Michael wouldn't just fire her without cause, and though she had been mistake and accident prone in the beginning, since her nerves settled down she had performed her job more than satisfactorily. Vivian's implication ran a lot deeper than that, however, and Laney had no such surety about the status of their more personal connection. Not, Laney reflected wryly, that it had been all that personal. She didn't know what his favorite song was or where he’d grown up, just that he loved her coffee and enjoyed being in charge. Of everything. Control didn't seem to be something he got a lot of in his relationship with Vivian, if the domineering way she carried herself was any indication. Laney sat up a little straighter. Yes, she had been wrong to sleep with this woman's boyfriend, but she didn't know he was involved and she would not be doing it again, now that she did.
    "I guess that's up