FAKE DATING WITH BENEFITS MY BILLIONAIRE BOSS (Ophelia Corrigan) novel Chapter 121

CHAPTER 121

MIE

By eight fifteen, the training room already smelled like coffee, fresh paper, and anxiety.

I stood in front of twelve newly hired attorneys, explaining why a seemingly harmless clause could cost Hart Enterprises millions, when it hit me that for the first time in weeks, nobody in that room was looking at me as Simon Hart’s fiancée.

They were looking at me as their boss.

I liked it.

“Rule number one,” I said, bracing my hands on the table. “Never assume the other side threw a sentence into a contract by accident. If it looks useless, figure out why it’s there. Now let’s get to the exercise.”

Ethan, sitting in the front row, raised his hand.

“And rule number two?”

“Don’t ignore rule number one.”

A few of them laughed. Ethan too.

“Noted, boss.”

I handed out the practical exercise and let them work in pairs. Fifteen minutes later, I was circling between the tables when Ethan called me over.

“Jamie, I think this attachment contradicts the indemnification clause.”

I leaned in beside him.

“Show me.”

He turned his laptop toward me. The observation was right, but the reasoning still needed work. I pulled up a chair and started explaining how I’d structure the analysis. Ethan kept up fast, asking two good questions and a third that was even better.

“Exactly,” I said. “Now highlight that part and compare it to clause seventeen.”

I reached out to point at the line on the screen.

Ethan stopped.

Not for long. Maybe a second.

But I followed his gaze to my hand and understood.

The ring.

The diamond caught the white light of the room in a way that was anything but subtle. Which, considering

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who bought it, was probably exactly the point.

han tilted his head.

“That’s big.”

I looked at my hand.

“The ring?”

“I hope so. Because if I was talking about your finger, that would be a really weird thing to say.”

He smiled, but there was none of that pushiness from before. No attempt to turn the moment into something it wasn’t.

Then he looked back at his laptop.

“Anyway, back to the part where I stay employed until lunch…”

And that was it. Just Ethan being Ethan, maybe a little more careful than before.

My phone buzzed on the table.

SIMON: Lunch. My office. Noon. Ordered from that Italian place you like.

I smiled before I could stop myself.

I typed: Can’t. I have to eat with the legal team. It’s part of the training.

The reply came instantly.

SIMON: That sounds like an excuse invented by someone who doesn’t want to have lunch with her own fiancé.

ME: Survive.

SIMON: Cruel.

I put my phone away.

At noon, we took over two long tables in the executive cafeteria. I sat next to Claire, and then Ethan sat down beside me, debating an arbitration issue with two colleagues.

We were in the middle of the conversation when I noticed eyes drifting toward the entrance.

It didn’t go completely silent, but something shifted in the room.

I looked up.

Simon.

Dark suit, immaculate tie, phone in hand, crossing the floor like dozens of people weren’t tracking his

every step.

FAKE DATING WITH BENEFITS MY BILLIONAIRE BOSS

And they were.

mon never ate in the company cafeteria. In all the years I’d worked there, I couldn’t remember seeing him in that room once.

Yet there he was.

His eyes found mine and didn’t look away.

He stopped beside the table.

“Counselor.”

“Hart.”

The new attorneys sat up so straight I almost felt bad for them.

Simon surveyed the table.

“Ethan, take that chair.”

Ethan looked at the chair next to him. Then at Simon.

“Of course, Mr. Hart.”

My face went hot.

“Simon.”

“What?” he asked, perfectly calm.

One of the new attorneys bit back a smile, and Ethan switched seats.

Simon sat down beside me, spread his napkin over his lap, and looked at me like that casualness was the most reasonable thing in the world.

“Didn’t you have a meeting in a bit?” I whispered. “Don’t you need to focus?”

“I pushed it back two hours.”

“Because of lunch?”

“I needed to eat somewhere quiet today. No rush.”

“In the cafeteria?”

He picked up my water glass, took a sip, and put it back in the same spot.

“The food here is excellent.”

Claire dropped her eyes to hide a laugh.

I leaned into him.

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FAKN DATING WITH BENEFITS MY BILLIONAIRE BOSS

“You just kicked my intern out of his seat.”

didn’t kick him out. I provided him with a better chair.”

“You’re unbelievable.”

Simon turned his head, bringing his mouth close to my ear.

“I know you secretly like it.”

My heart tripped.

Before I could answer, he leaned back and looked at Ethan.

“So, intern. What were you all discussing?”

Ethan looked at Simon and didn’t flinch.

“International arbitration.”

“Has Collins already crushed your self-esteem, or is she waiting for dessert?”

“I’ll admit she threatened my job before nine.”

Simon nodded, satisfied.

“That’s the woman I’m marrying.”

The table laughed.

I should have been annoyed.

Instead, I felt that warm, dangerously domestic thing spread through my chest.

Simon didn’t need to raise his voice. Didn’t need to touch Ethan or make some childish comment. He just

took the seat beside me like it was the only place he intended to be.

And for the rest of lunch, his hand rested casually on the back of my chair.

Not on me.

Close enough.

When I stood up, he caught my wrist for a second.

“My office at four.”

“I have training until four thirty.”

“Five, then.”

“Simon.”

“Six.”

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FAKE DATING WITH BENEFITS MY BILLIONAIRE BOSS

I sighed.

Naybe.”

He smiled.

I went back to training trying to ignore the stupid grin on my face.

55 vaulters

At five forty, the last attorneys filed out carrying folders, laptops, and the relief of having survived day ong I was collecting the exercises when I heard footsteps running down the hall.

“MS. JAMIE!”

My heart recognized the voice before I did.

Lily came through first, still in her uniform, backpack bouncing behind her. Sam was right behind, and Jack brought up the rear, pretending he was too old to run even though he was clearly keeping pace with both of them.

“What are you guys doing here?”