Read Online Plush Book 3: A Billionaire Romance by KB Winters - Free Book Online Page A

carefully placed inflections were probably more than enough to get most guys crawling on their knees.
    I cringed with the next steps, closing in on them.
    “Well, I’ve heard about you and what you’ve been up to, and I wanted you to tell me more. Maybe we can help each other out.”
    “I can do that,” she purred. “Let’s go into your office, so we can…chat.”
    I held my breath and peeked around the corner. Recognition hit for the second time that day, as I found myself staring at the retreating form of Tessa Greenwood. I remembered her striking beauty and charm from my brief stint at Spotlight.
    I whipped back around the corner and ducked out of sight again, right before the door of Cooper’s office closed.
    I pressed my eyes closed tight and counted to three before releasing the breath I’d been holding. I repeated the process again, trying to head off the impending panic attack that was rapidly building inside my chest.
    A click triggered my internal alarm and I dashed back towards the elevators without stopping to look back. I got on the first elevator and pounded the buttons to get the doors to close. I knew I was in no condition to ride home. My eyes would be blurred with tears, so I resumed my original plan and went down to my office. I used my key card again to get into the IT department and thankfully found it empty.
    I went to the staff lounge and made myself a cup of hot tea. My hands were shaking as I added honey from the bottle in the cupboard. I took a sip, barely noticing the scalding effect on my tongue, and then traced the path to my office.
    Only once I was safely tucked inside my own silent box did I release the tears that had been building since fleeing the floor above.
    “Fuck him,” I said, wiping away the tears before they could even make it past my lower lashes.
    I nodded, as if agreeing with myself—briefly contemplating whether or not I should check myself into some kind of mental hospital—and turned my attention back to my computer.
    I set aside my cup of tea and started to pull up the database, peeling away layer after layer to see if anything had been compromised since the early morning hours.
    It looked untouched.
    Well, at least one thing was working right, I told myself.
    I tapped my fingers along the edges of my desk and my eyes rotated to the ceiling. I wasn’t sure that Cooper’s office was directly above mine, but it was somewhere nearby. As I listened, I swore I could hear footsteps. My imagination went back into overdrive, wondering what was going on up there.
    First, the actress, and now Tessa?
    Maybe Cooper was one of those sex addicts.
    I shook the thought away and tried to refocus on my work.
    “Allison.”
    My head snapped up so fast, I feared that I’d inadvertently given myself whiplash. I found myself face to face with Cooper-fucking-Brighton as he stepped from the shadows and into my office.
    “Holy shit, Cooper, you scared me to death!”
    “Apologies.” His voice was dry and held no emotion.
    It was like talking to a cyborg.
    What the hell was he even doing down here? Wasn’t California Barbie upstairs, waiting for him to fuck her senseless?
    Maybe he already had.
    Damn, that must have been one hell of a quickie!
    I cringed at my own train of thought.
    “How did you even know I was here?” I demanded as he stepped closer to my desk.
    “You used your key card at the door,” he replied, as if that answered my question.
    “Okay…and?” I prodded.
    “I get alerts on any after-hours activity so that I know who is coming and going, and when,” Cooper explained, sighing as if he was teaching a particularly slow student.
    I fought the urge to roll my eyes at his explanation. Of course he was tracking all comings and goings. He wouldn’t be the world’s biggest control freak if he wasn’t.
    “Well, for your information, I’m actually here to work.”
    “So am I,” he said, his face unchanged.
    “Right. That’s what you were doing. Working,”