FAKE DATING WITH BENEFITS MY BILLIONAIRE BOSS (Ophelia Corrigan) novel Chapter 88

CHAPTER 88

MON

“Maybe.”

The leather creaked as I leaned back. On the monitor beside my computer, twelve cameras fed me different angles of the near-empty office.

I ignored them all.

My eyes were locked on one.

Jamie, alone in the legal department.

“You’re pathetic, Hart.”

I smiled, spinning the pen slowly between my fingers.

“Maybe. But you’re the one who said you wanted space, and you’re still here, working late in the office of the man you don’t want around.”

Silence on the other end.

On screen, she looked up at the camera.

“I’m working because that’s what I do, Simon. I work hard.”

“It’s past eight, Jamie. The whole floor’s empty. That’s not working hard. That’s not knowing when the hell to stop.”

I exhaled through my nose, irritated.

“I should fire you, you know that?”

“Why?”

“Working too much.”

“Is that why you’re upset? Because I left you?”

“Left you?” I laughed, but there was nothing funny about it. “You didn’t leave me, Jamie. You ran. You know

why? Because you’re a coward. You’d rather run than deal with your own feelings.”

“Who said I had feelings for you?”

“Look at the camera.”

She raised her head.

“What?”

“Look at me and tell me you don’t feel anything. Tell me you don’t regret ending what we had.”

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FAKE DATING WITH BENEFITS MY BILLIONAIRE BOSS

“Simon-

ell me,” I said my voice going hoarse, “that I didn’t make you feel things no one else ever has. Tell me you didn’t feel alive with me the way you don’t feel with anyone else.”

Her lips parted.

“You’re a narcissist, you know that?” But her voice had gone quiet. Breathless.

“Maybe. But I’m right.”

“You don’t know anything about me.”

“I know you’re lying to yourself when you say you don’t want this.”

Then she laughed. “You really need to get over this. It was just sex. Good sex, sure. But nothing more. You were a distraction. That’s it.”

I leaned back, something cold settling in my chest.

“Way to hurt my feelings.” Not a trace of humor in my voice.

“Am I?” She shrugged, casual. “How do you know I didn’t use you the same way you used every woman before me? Maybe you’re not as special as you think.”

“Jamie-”

“Honestly? I needed a rebound. And you were convenient.”

That one actually stung.

“So I was a convenient distraction?” My voice was dangerously calm. “That’s what you’re saying?”

“What did you expect?” She shrugged on video, pretending not to care. “I bet you were in some other woman’s bed last night, and now you’re playing the victim.”

The accusation hit me like a slap.

Another woman.

After everything we’d been through, she still saw me as the same party-boy asshole from the tabloids.

I’ll admit it pissed me off.

“Actually,” I said, irony dripping from every word like poison, “she’s in my bed upstairs right now.”

Silence on the other end.

On screen, I watched her freeze. Her whole body went still, her hand hovering over the desk like it had been turned to stone. For a second, something flickered in her eyes. Something that looked like a pinprick. Pain.

“I didn’t get a chance to see her last night,” I kept lying, keeping my voice as casual as I could, “so I’m spending the night with her tonight.”

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FAKE DATING WITH BENEFITS MY BILLIONAIRE BOSS

“Then you should hang up and go find her right now. But know this. With me, it’s never happening again. From here on out, so you can’t say I’m cruel, I’ll let you watch. But that’s all you’re getting. Understood?”

She hung up, visibly upset.

The sharp click echoed in my ear, and I just stood there, phone still pressed to my head, listening to the deafening silence.

On screen, Jamie threw her phone onto the desk.

Then she looked up.

Straight at the camera.

There was a spark of fury and defiance in her eyes that made me forget how to breathe. They blazed with an intensity I knew too well. She was angry. Her pride was wounded. And she refused to show either.

She stood up from the chair.

Deliberately.

Then, without breaking eye contact with the camera, she reached for the hem of her blouse and pulled it up. The fabric rose over her torso, revealing skin I knew every inch of, and my mouth went dry.

The blouse hit the floor.

She stood there for a moment, just in her bra, still staring into the camera like she knew exactly where I

was.

Shit.

Then she reached behind her, fingers finding the clasp.

A click.

The fabric fell.

I held my breath, my fingers digging into the wood of the desk as she let the bra drop onto the blouse.

Her breasts were exposed now, perfect, the tips hard against the cold office air, and I could’ve sworn I saw a taunting smile curve at the corner of her lips.

She knew.

She knew exactly what she was doing to me.

For a long moment, she didn’t move. Just stood there in nothing but her panties, staring me down through that damn camera like she was saying: This is all you’re gonna get.

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