FAKE DATING WITH BENEFITS MY BILLIONAIRE BOSS (Ophelia Corrigan) novel Chapter 166

CHAPTER 166

SIMON

I ended the call and found Stephen watching me over the rim of his glass.

“A club?”

I set my phone on the terrace table.

“Don’t start.”

He looked around at the planters, the couch, and the bottle sitting between us.

“Very exclusive. Tight security. Select clientele. Service could be better.”

I hadn’t left my penthouse.

Hadn’t planned to.

Stephen had shown up with a bottle, suggested two places we could go for drinks, then given up when I pulled out a chair on the terrace. That was the extent of my bachelor party: whiskey, one friend, and Manhattan glowing beyond the glass railing.

I’d lied just to get a rise out of Jamie. Childish, and it felt especially stupid after hearing her tell me she loved me.

“Was she jealous?” he asked.

“Told me to have fun.”

Stephen laughed.

“That woman has you bad.”

I picked up my phone and opened our messages. For a second, I considered sending her a picture of where I actually was. I decided to save it until she got home. She deserved to hear in person that I’d been an idiot.

“You’re right,” I admitted, setting the phone back down. “She does.”

Stephen shook his head, smiling, but the smile faded as he rolled his glass between his palms.

“Jesus, man. That happened fast.”

I looked at him.

“What did?”

“All of it. You. Marriage. Not that long ago, I had to ask what country you were in before I could make dinner plans with you.”

I leaned back in my chair.

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FAKE DATING WITH BENEFITS: MY BILLIONAIRE BOSS

“Yeah. Things change, my friend.”

ook a sip of whiskey.

“You don’t feel even a little…” Stephen searched for the word.

“Regret?”

“Fear.”

I ran my thumb along the side of my glass.

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“I do. She’s already been through enough shit. I don’t want to become one more thing she has to get over.”

His gaze dropped for a moment.

“That’s not the kind of fear I meant.”

“I know.”

I waited a beat before going on.

“It hit hard, Stephen. A hell of a lot harder than I was ready to admit. At first, I thought I could keep it contained. Keep it where it was convenient for me.”

One look from me was enough to make him hide his smile behind his glass.

“With her, everything is…” I exhaled, trying to find words that didn’t sound inadequate. “Even staying home is good. She shows up in my office doorway and I forget what the hell I was doing. She runs out to pick something up, and I catch myself waiting for her to come back. It’s ridiculous.”

“And I imagine forgetting about work gets especially difficult when she takes her clothes off.”

I crossed one leg over the other and took another drink,

“You seem unusually interested in dying on my terrace tonight.”

“I’m trying to understand the transformation.”

He raised a hand in surrender.

“What I have with Jamie isn’t something for you to turn into a sex joke.”

Stephen held my gaze, then nodded.

“Fair. My bad.”

I drank again, listening to the ice knock against the glass as I rested it on the arm of the chair. The conversation shifted to the last wedding details until Stephen asked if I’d memorized my vows yet.

“I’m not presenting quarterly earnings. I can talk to my wife without a script.”

He smiled, turning his glass between his fingers.

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FAKE DATING WITH BENEFITS: MY BILLIONAIRE BOSS

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“I want to see you keep that confidence when she walks in wearing white. Two friends of mine swore they’d be fine. One forgot everything he planned to say, and the other could barely get through his vows.”

I pictured the doors opening and her walking toward me. Jamie, who could already make me lose my train of thought just by appearing in my office with some random question, coming toward me to become my wife.

“Thanks for the warning, brother. Maybe I’ll write the vows after all.”

Stephen laughed.

“You’re welcome. As your best man, it’s my job to keep you from making an ass of yourself.”

He brought the glass to his mouth and took a drink, still smiling. I drank too, but noticed he kept watching me over the rim, like he was deciding whether to say something else.

When he lowered it, he let out a sigh that was too long for a man sitting that comfortably.

“About that thing with Eloise…”

My jaw tightened.

“She can do whatever the hell she wants with her life.”

“I know.”

“Good.”

It still bothered me that Stephen had slept with Eloise. I could admit I hadn’t handled it well. But she had always been like a little sister to me, and it was hard to act normal about it when I knew the man she’d gotten involved with as well as I did. Stephen was my friend, for fuck’s sake. I knew exactly what kind of asshole he could be.

“I was a dick to her after that night,” Stephen said.

I waited.

“Acted like it didn’t mean anything.”

“Did it?”

He took a drink before answering.

“We’ve never managed to have one normal conversation about it.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

Stephen rested his glass on his knee and stared down at the whiskey.

“I figured she wanted to forget it. So I made that easy for her.”

“Did you ask?”

“No.”

FAKE DATING WITH BENEFITS: MY BILLIONAIRE BOSS

I nodded slowly.

nd then you put both of you on display in front of me.”

His mouth tightened.

“She gets under my skin.”

“You can be pissed off without humiliating a woman at someone else’s dinner table.”.

“I know. I screwed up.”

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I let the silence do the work. I had no intention of helping my friend come up with a better excuse.

Stephen ran his tongue over his teeth and looked out at the city.

“I tried to talk to her when we went downstairs. She wouldn’t hear me out.”

“I’m not the one who needs to hear you out either.”

“I’m starting to get that.”

I leaned back.

“What happens between you two is none of my business. But if you sleep together again, give me a heads- up before you turn another dinner into an unpleasant surprise.”

He gave a humorless laugh.

“I don’t think there’s going to be a second time.”

“Fine.”

“She lives halfway across the world, and she’s leaving next month. Said she’s only staying through your wedding. Then she’s going back to Dubai.”

I stayed quiet.

Stephen looked at me.

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