My Wildest Obsession, page 1
MY WILDEST OBSESSION
BILLIONAIRE BOSSHOLES
BOOK 3
SHAW HART
CONTENTS
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Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
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About the Author
Series by Shaw Hart
Also by Shaw Hart
Copyright © 2023 by Shaw Hart
www.shawhart.com
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No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, distributed, stored in or introduced into any information storage or retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic, photocopying, mechanical or otherwise, without express permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages for review purposes. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, story lines and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons, living or dead, events, locales or any events or occurrences are purely coincidental.
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Dear Diary,
Theo tied the score today. It's okay though. I've got big plans for tomorrow to pull into the lead once again. He's not going to know what hit him.
He probably doesn't even realize that I'm keeping track of all our verbal sparring and ranking who wins each. Every interaction is carefully scored, but he's too wrapped up in work to notice me scribbling in my notebook every day.
I don't know what it is about him, but I can't seem to help myself around him. He brings out the worst in me. Or maybe it's the best.
He confuses me and apparently my body too. I'm never sure if I want to smack him or pull him down and kiss him. I wonder what he would do if I did either of those options. Maybe one day I'll try it, but for now, the war continues.
And I'm planning on winning.
Get ready to fall in love with these billionaire bossholes! Follow along as these three childhood friends meet and fall hard for their woman! This series is full of steamy office romance scenes and laugh-out-loud moments. If you love brooding billionaires, fierce heroines, and some seriously spicy fun then one-click today!
ONE
Clara
I wring my hands in my lap for the umpteenth time and Bossy sighs next to me.
“Did we have to fly?” I ask him, and he nods, never taking his eyes off the stack of papers in his lap.
“Yes,” he says in that no nonsense voice.
“Why couldn’t we have driven?” I ask, trying not to sound too whiny, and he sighs.
“Because it’s a fourteen-hour drive, Clara.”
“Still.”
He lets out an exasperated sigh and I cross my arms over my chest, turning to stare out the tiny plane window.
I took the window seat, hoping that if I could see, maybe it would help with my fear of flying. Sitting here now though, I know that won’t happen.
I’m terrified. It feels like my heart is about to beat right out of my chest and I clench my fingers tight until I feel the sting of my nails biting into my palms, trying to calm my anxiety.
“If I had known that flying was part of the job description, I never would have taken the job,” I mumble.
“You’ve worked for me for a year and a half now, and this is the first time that I’ve asked you to fly anywhere. In the future, I’ll only do business with people in a hundred-mile radius to better suit your needs,” he says sarcastically.
I kick his shin.
He glares at me and I glare right back.
I pull out my diary and flip to the last page, adding a tally under his name. I slam the diary closed when I see Theo glancing over at me curiously.
“You’re always scribbling in that thing,” he grumbles, and I tuck it back in my bag and nudge my bag back under the seat in front of me.
“Am I?” I ask innocently.
He rolls his eyes and goes back to his work.
I don’t know why he doesn’t just fire me. I have to be the worst assistant that he’s ever had, but I’ve managed to last the longest. I’m sure that has something to do with the fact that I can handle his mood swings and attitude better than most. I grew up with four older brothers which means that I can give as good as I get. Despite our constant bickering, we seem to make a good team.
I started working for Theo right after I graduated college. It was meant to be a stepping stone job, but it’s been a year and a half and I’m still working for him. As much as we argue, I love working for him.
Most of the time anyway.
I would never admit that to him, of course.
“Ladies and gentlemen, please buckle your seatbelts and stow your belongings. We’ll be taking off in just a moment.”
“Shit,” I whisper, and Theo shuffles the papers in his lap.
“Calm down,” he tells me.
“Fuck you,” I hiss.
We’re in first class, of course. Bossy only ever has the best of everything. The top floor of our building, the newest fancy car, a penthouse apartment, and the brightest lawyers working for him.
To be fair, he also works hard for everything that he has. The man is a workaholic to the highest order and he’s damn good at what he does. I try to pretend otherwise though. His ego is big enough already.
The plane starts to roll back from the gate, and I start taking deep breaths as the flight attendants give their safety speech. I’m paying attention to every word but Theo has his head buried in his paperwork.
“Pay attention,” I warn him.
“No.”
“I’m not going to save you if there’s a terrible plane crash or something.”
“Good,” he says, his tone flat.
I elbow his arm off the arm rest and he sighs like he’s the most wronged man alive. The plane reaches the end of the runway and I close my eyes, trying to find calm. My fingers twist together and I repeat stats on plane crashes in my head. I was hoping that would help, but it’s only reminding me of plane crashes and dying.
We start to accelerate and I gasp, my hands locking onto the arm rests.
Or, well, one of the arm rests.
My right hand is locked around Theo’s wrist. My fingernails dig into the skin on the top of his hand and I feel him tense. When I don’t let up, he tries to move his hand away, but I’m locked onto him like a cat trying to avoid the bathtub.
“Jesus, Clara,” he growls.
He manages to rip his way out of my grip, but I leave claw marks on the back of his hand. To my surprise, he doesn’t try to move his hand as far away from me as possible like I expected. Instead, he grabs my hand and squeezes it, almost reassuringly.
That’s what fixes it for me. That’s what distracts me from the plane.
Hold up.
Is Theo being… nice?
Why?
Oh my gosh, maybe we entered another universe.
I peek out the window and frown when I see the same view as before.
“The flight is only two hours,” Theo tells me, and I nod.
“Right.”
He sighs again, picking up his papers and leaving me to my misery. Except, he never tries to take his hand from mine.
A tickle hits my fingers and I frown, twisting our hands and gasping.
“Shit! You’re bleeding,” I half shout.
I let go of his hand and grab my bag from under the seat. I start digging through it to find my first aid kit.
“I have band-aids and stuff. Just give me a second.”
“That’s not necessary. I’m fine,” he says, trying to wave me off.
I don’t know what it is, maybe because he was kind to me, and just like with our sparring, I feel like I have to make things between us even, but I desperately need to make this up to him.
“Let me clean it up,” I insist, grabbing his hand and dragging it closer to me.
I dab at the wounds with some Kleenex and then squirt Neosporin onto the scratch marks. I rifle through the kit and grab the band aids, stifling a laugh when I see that the only ones that I have are Hello Kitty themed.
“No!” He snaps when he sees the pink, and I pout.
“Yes. You can take them off later, but at least it will help with the bleeding now.”
I grab his hand, practically wrestling with it when he tries to tug away from me, and I hold it still while I peel off the bandages and stick them over the scratches.
“Always so fucking difficult,” I snap at him.
He just growls in response, his fingers flexing in my hold.
My skin starts to tingle and it hits me then that this is the most that I’ve ever touched him. Normally, I try to do all that I can to avoid making contact with him.
It’s bad enough that I have this stupid crush on him. I mean, sure, Theo is hot as hell, but he’s also a total asshole. He’s argumentative and grumpy. Plus, he never dates. Like, never. He’s always solo to any events that he goes too, and to be fair, he’s always in the office so I don’t think that he’s even looking for a relat
“There,” I say as I put the last band-aid in place.
He growls again, and I bite back my smile.
“They really pop next to your black suit,” I compliment him, and he looks like he wants to rip all of the band-aids off and set them on fire.
“Great,” he says through gritted teeth.
I smile, and he glares at me. My smile is quickly wiped off when the plane starts to shake. He must be able to see the panic on my face because he reaches for me at the same time that I reach for him.
“It’s just some turbulence,” he tells me, and I nod.
“Right.”
It was always easy to keep my distance with Theo, but now that I’ve seen this side of him, this compassionate and caring side, I’m starting to kind of fall for him. He’s being sweet, well, sweet for him, and I like it.
Be careful. It would never work out between the two of you, my subconscious reminds me and I nod.
I know that dating him would be a bad idea. I shouldn’t let him get close to me and should keep my distance, yet I still let him hold my hand for the rest of the flight.
Probably not a bad sign, I lie to myself.
I sigh as the flight attendant comes around to ask if we’d like something to drink, and Theo ignores me and everyone else around him for the rest of the flight.
TWO
Theo
This is a mistake.
I shouldn’t be holding Clara’s hand. I shouldn’t have even brought her on this trip. I didn’t really need my assistant on this trip, but the thought of being away from Clara for even a few days was hard to bear.
Not that I would ever admit that.
This damn girl. Only she can get me to do things.
Holding hands? I don’t do that with anyone. Except for Clara on planes, I guess.
Wearing Hello Kitty band-aids? Only because Clara put them on me and seemed so relieved to be bandaging me up.
I admit, it was nice to have someone take care of me, even if it was only for a few moments. I haven’t had that, well… ever in my life.
I push away thoughts of my shitty childhood and try to focus on the papers in front of me. I should be studying up for the meeting later today. Instead, all I can think about is how it feels to have Clara touching me.
Her grip tightens around my fingers as we hit a pocket of rough air and my heart takes off like a shot.
Dammit. Get it together. You can’t have Clara. You can never be with her. Get your head straight!
Her fingers brush over the back of my hand and I glance down, glaring when I see the Hello Kitty band-aids.
Jesus, there’s like five of them.
I want to rip them off, but then I notice Clara smiling down at them and I can’t bring myself to take them off.
We’re close to landing now. I can tell by the way that Clara is squirming around in her seat like an anxious, hyper squirrel.
“It’s going to be fine,” I whisper at her, and she rolls her eyes.
“I hate when you say that,” she complains, and I roll my eyes right back.
“You’d rather I told you that we were going to die?” I ask her sarcastically, and she tries to kick me but I move before she can.
She reaches for her bag to dig that damn diary of hers. She thinks that I don’t know what she’s doing with that, but I know everything about her. I know that she keeps track of our verbal sparring in the back of it. I also know that after this plane ride, I’m winning.
I keep track of things with Clara too. Mine is all just mental though.
For instance, this is the fifth time this month that she’s worn that tight black skirt, the first time this week that she’s pulled her hair up, and the millionth time that I’ve thought about kissing her.
The buckle seat belt sign dings and they announce that we’ll be landing soon. Clara’s grip tightens painfully around my fingers and I swear that she’s close to breaking a few of them. My ears pop as we get closer to the ground and I stuff my papers in to my bag and get ready to deplane.
As soon as the wheels touch the ground, Clara and I release each other like our hands are on fire. We both ignore the other as we gather our things and then stand and make our way off the plane.
“This way,” I say, taking off at a quick pace towards the exit.
I hired a car to take us to the meeting and then our hotel, and I scan the people holding boards until I spot my name.
“Keep up,” I say over my shoulder, and Clara’s bag hits the back of my legs.
I don’t glance back at her. I know that she did that on purpose.
We walk in silence behind the driver to the black sedan and I open the door. Clara elbows past me, leaving her bags at my side and I bite back a grin as she climbs in.
God, I love her sassiness and confidence.
My eyes zero in on her ass as she climbs across the seats to the other side.
“In the trunk, sir?” The driver asks, and my head snaps to the side as I glare at him.
“What?” I snarl.
“The bags. Should I put them in the trunk?” He asks again, and I blink.
“Oh, yeah. Thanks.”
I slide into the car and slam the door closed behind me. Clara is busy texting on her phone, her diary lying in her lap. I glare at it, knowing that she counted getting into the car before me as a win for her.
“To the hotel, sir?” The driver asks, and I shake my head.
“No, we’re running late. Take us straight to High Tower Market.”
“Please,” Clara adds, giving me a stern look that I choose to ignore.
“Right away.”
The car pulls away from the curb and I grab my briefcase to go back to reviewing the documents. My phone buzzes and I pull it out, freezing when I see my aunt’s name on the screen. I silence the call and tuck the phone back in my pocket.
“You know that she’s just going to call me if you don’t answer,” Clara says.
“Tell her I said hi.”
“You could have just told her yourself,” she points out as her phone starts to ring.
“Too busy.”
She sighs and answers the call. I listen to her side of the conversation as we drive down the congested streets.
The truth is that I love my aunt. She was the first positive adult that I had in my life. She just came into it way too late.
“Oh, and Theo says hi,” Clara says, giving me a dirty look. “Yeah, I will.”
She hangs up the call as we pull up in front of the building and I climb out before she can say anything.
I just need to make it through this meeting and then I can get away from Clara and get my attraction to her back under control once I’m alone in the hotel room.
Clara climbs out after me and we share a look before we stride into the meeting, side by side. I do my best to ignore how right it feels to have her by my side.
THREE
Clara
“You were in top form back there, Bossy.”
“Don’t call me that,” Theo says without looking up from his phone.
I snicker and he sighs. I’ve been calling him Bossy for a few months now. Ever since I found out that he didn’t know who Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs were. He doesn’t find it as funny as I do, but that’s okay.
The car pulls up in front of our hotel and I open my door, climbing out and rounding the trunk to get Theo’s door. He’s still engrossed in his email or whatever and he barely glances up as he gets out.
“You’re welcome,” I tell him, and he does a double take.
“What are you doing?” He asks, and I roll my eyes.
“Pay attention, Bossy.”
He sighs loudly, and I push past him and grab our bags. I reach into Theo’s coat pocket and grab his wallet, pulling out a hundred and tipping the driver.
