The Billionaire's Gentle Rescue (The Sisterhood) Read Online Free PDF Page A

he’d haunt her for a long time. She didn’t want to see him all over her loft, she didn’t want that visual of him being comfortable around here. She loved her place, and seeing him in it would ruin the pleasure she got when she worked up here by herself, or had friends over.
     
    She took the stairs slowly, wishing she could just push him out the door. As she walked down the stairs, it occurred to her that she hadn’t let him in. “How did you get in here this morning?” she asked suspiciously.
     
    “Once I got you to bed last night, I took your set of keys so it was easier to get back in this morning without waking you up too early.”
     
    She glanced at the clock and raised an eyebrow. “It’s only eight o’clock now. What do you consider too early?”
     
    “I’ve been up since about five this morning. I didn’t think you’d had enough time to sleep off the wine by that time so I let you sleep a bit more.”
     
    Zoe hated the cool confidence that surrounded him. He didn’t move with a lot of fussiness. Everything he did as he took down two plates and filled them with scrambled eggs and bacon was with minimal movement, cool, efficient, precise.
     
    He took her coffee cup and refilled it, then handed her a glass of orange juice, placing the cup beside her plate. “You need a bit of sugar to get yourself going this morning,” he explained as she looked longingly at her coffee cup.
     
    Not having much experience with hangovers since she rarely drank, Zoe accepted his word that the orange juice would help.
     
    “What are you doing here?”
     
    “How are you Zoe?” he asked instead of answering her question. He looked at her as he sat down and started eating his own plate of food.
     
    The idea of sitting next to him was making her stomach clench with a feeling she didn’t understand so she took her plate over to the sofa and curled her legs underneath her, diving into the food but at a distance from him.
     
    The eggs weren’t just fluffy, they were cheesy and incredibly delicious. “Wow! This is wonderful. How did you make these?”
     
    “It’s just good cheese. The fat content will help you get over last night as well.’’
     
    Zoe didn’t care why, she just loved the eggs. “You’re a great cook!”
     
    They ate in silence for several minutes, Zoe enjoying the food more than she would admit to him, even though her enthusiastic devouring of the meal was obvious enough.
     
    When she’d eaten about half of the food, she was completely full, and put her plate on the coffee table and took her coffee cup, cradling it in her hands.
     
    Looking up, she realized that he had already finished his meal and was now watching her. “So,” she said as an opening to some sort of conversation. “What are you doing here?”
     
    “Debbie’s husband works for me. We were working late last night so when your friend called to let him know that she needed to be picked up, he told me about your company.”
     
    Those words brought back all the horror of the previous day and she dropped her eyes, staring at her coffee cup. “That’s nice for him,” she said politely, not sure what else to say under the circumstances. He probably had a whole slew of accountants on his staff and wouldn’t ever let himself be in the situation she now found herself.
     
    “So how’s your company doing? I’ve heard of your designs before, but I never made the connection that you were the artist behind the dresses.”
     
    Hearing him describe her as an artist warmed her heart. If only she’d been a good business woman as well, she might be able to continue to do the work she loved. “Thank you,” she said sadly.
     
    “How is the business?” he asked in the tense silence.
     
    “Fine,” she replied with a falsely bright smile. “We have a full line now and are about to ship out our fall line to clients in over forty states by the end of this week. The business has grown more than almost seven percent each