Page 49 of The Billionaire in Her Bed

“I have no right to ask you this, but I’m going to anyway. Give me two weeks.” Simon stood and came around to sit on the corner of his desk. “I’ll get what we need to nab Krystal. I promise. And in the meantime, I’ll make sure she doesn’t have access to any more sensitive information.”

“How are you going to do that?” Eli asked.

“Plant a dummy file. Then when Dupree starts sniffing around, we’ll know exactly where his information came from.”

As much as he didn’t want to, Eli had to admit it wasn’t a half bad idea. And one a guilty person would never have suggested in a million years. “You really didn’t put Krystal up to this, did you?”

“No.” Simon jutted out his chin. “I didn’t.”

Eli studied his friend for a long minute before speaking. When he did, he weighed his words carefully. “I can help create the fake file.”

“Does that mean you’re coming back to work? Ginny’s done a great job covering for you, but I miss my partner.” Simon’s voice broke, and he stared down at his hands. “I miss my friend.”

Eli swallowed a lump in his throat. He hadn’t expected to feel sympathy for Simon. When he’d walked through the door to his partner’s office, he’d come in with guns blazing, his only thought retribution, his only emotion white-hot anger.

But that anger had quickly dissipated. What was the point in being mad at someone who was so clearly miserable? Besides, if it weren’t for Simon shooting his mouth off to Krystal and torpedoing the East Harlem deal, Eli would never have met Brooke. That didn’t mean Eli was ready to forgive him. But maybe he could forget long enough for them to catch Krystal.

“Not yet.” Possibly not ever. Even if he managed to look past his best friend’s lapse in judgment for the sake of smoking out their mole, Eli wasn’t sure he could ever trust Simon again. And trust was essential in a business partnership. “I’ve got some things to wrap up in Brooklyn.”

“Brooklyn?” Simon blinked. “So that’s where you’ve been hiding.”

Eli ignored his comment and stood. “We can collaborate remotely, through our private emails. And Ginny. I tell her everything.”

“Everything?” Simon’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down in his throat.

“Don’t worry,” Eli assured him. “I won’t say anything about you and Krystal. Your private life is just that. Private.”

Simon let out a relieved sigh. “I appreciate that.”

“I’m not doing it for you. I’m doing it for Ginny. For some strange reason, she thinks you walk on water. I’d hate to see her disillusioned.” Eli moved toward the door. There wasn’t anything left to be said between them, not tonight. Now he wanted to get back to Brooklyn. Back to Brooke.

“I appreciate it anyway.” Simon rose and followed him. “Will you be at the silent auction on Saturday?”

Damn. With all the shit going on in his fucked-up life, the Geek Girls benefit kept slipping his mind. He made a mental note to have Ginny send him a day-of reminder. If he was smart, he’d head into the city on Friday and spend a couple of nights at the penthouse. Although that meant two long, lonely nights in his California king without Brooke. “Of course. Paige would have my head on a platter if I missed it.”

“As a board member, I was planning on attending, but if you’d rather I not…”

“It’s fine,” Eli said, cutting him off. “I’m good with it if you are.”

“Thanks.” They reached the door. Simon opened it and stuck out his hand awkwardly. “For not being half the asshole I would have been if our positions were reversed.”

Eli probably would have been twice the asshole if it weren’t for Brooke. It was hard to be pissed about losing something when you’d gained so much more.

Still, he wasn’t ready to bury the hatchet just yet. “There’s still plenty of time for that.” He ignored his friend’s hand and stepped past him into the corridor, his feet pointed automatically toward the elevator bank at the end of the hall. “First, we’ve got a huge-ass fire to put out.”

…

Brooke was halfway to dreamland, images of her and Eli in a variety of increasingly interesting sexual positions flickering behind her closed eyes like a hard-core porn highlight reel, when a knock so soft she almost didn’t hear it interrupted the movie in her mind. She sat up and listened again.

Three knocks. Louder this time.

She threw off her blankets, padded across the loft in her thick, fuzzy socks, and peered through the peephole. Eli stood on the other side, wearing the same clothes he’d rushed off in hours earlier.

“So now you knock?” she joked, opening the door and stepping back to let him in.

“See?” He wrapped one arm around her waist and lifted her off her feet, simultaneously kicking the door shut and bringing her mouth level with his. “They were wrong. You can teach an old dog new tricks.”

She breathed in the scent of him, warm and soapy, with a hint of his citrusy cologne. Her fingers tangled in the silky, dark hair at the nape of his neck. “Is everything okay?”