Tempted By The Billionaire Next Door

‘That’s baking, Dylan.’

‘You bake?’

‘No.’

His lips curved. ‘So you cook, then?’

‘Nope.’

‘Then why did you correct me?’

‘It seemed like a fun thing to do,’ she said with a smile, and then sobered. ‘I’ve been learning how to do both over the last few years. I’m not quite at the level of being able to say that I can cook or bake well, but I can feed myself. And these—’ she lifted the muffin ‘—are definitely the kind of food I’d like to learn how to make.’

‘What happened a few years ago? That made you want to learn how to cook and bake, I mean.’ He set the fruit he’d been cutting up to the side, and began preparing the bacon and eggs.

‘I... I moved out of my parents’ house.’

He frowned. ‘How old are you?’

‘Old enough to have been out of my parents’ house by then,’ she said with a laugh, but it sounded forced. ‘We used to have a cook, so there was never really a need for me to learn how to feed myself.’

‘You had a cook?’

‘Yes.’ He glanced over to see the hesitation in her eyes. ‘Extravagant, isn’t it?’

‘I wasn’t thinking that.’

‘I wouldn’t blame you if you did.’

He turned to her and watched as she avoided his eyes. And suddenly he thought that perhaps he’d attributed the hurt he saw in her to someone who hadn’t deserved it.

‘So you had an...extravagant childhood?’

‘I guess you could say that.’

‘What would you say?’

‘I...was always well provided for.’ He could hear the care she’d taken with those words.

‘Your parents are wealthy?’

‘Yes.’

‘So why—’ He broke off, knowing that his question would veer into territory she might not be comfortable with. But she finished his sentence for him.

‘Why am I working as a PA?’ He nodded. ‘Well, I wasn’t...well cared for. Or cared for at all,’ she added softly, and Dylan felt his heart throb. ‘So, when I moved out, I stopped talking to them. Which meant I had to take care of myself, hence this job.’

Seconds passed as he digested this new information. ‘When you didn’t want my help this morning, were you...thinking about them?’

‘Only about how they used to throw it in my face whenever I asked them for help.’ She paused. ‘I remember when I was younger, I started saving for a new laptop. I didn’t want to use my dad’s old one any more, so I got a job and put away every cent of it so I could buy myself a new one. But my dad’s laptop broke before I had enough money to replace it, so I asked them to help me buy a new one.’ She lifted a hand, brushed at something on her cheek that he couldn’t see. ‘I thought that having half of the money for it—that working for it—would make them proud, but—’ she cleared her throat ‘—but it didn’t. They helped me buy the laptop, and reminded me of it whenever I acted in a way they didn’t approve of.’