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“Oh. Okay.”This is going to take some getting used to.This amount of money and power made for convenience I’d never dreamed of. It also made it so that Brennan gave me more leeway, which was priceless, especially now.
Holden, unfortunately, was not immediately onboard. When he got there thirty minutes later, he was cranky and nervous from being picked up by a stranger, even though I had called to reassure him about what was going on.
He ran to me and hugged my legs, burying his face in my thighs as he pouted and grumbled.
“You left me.”
“I didn’t leave you, baby. I had somebody come to get you. You’re with me now.”
“Wanna go home.”
“This is home. Our new home.” I extended one arm wide as I patted his back with the other. “Look how big and beautiful it is. Don’t you like it?”
“Nooooooo,” he moaned, rubbing his face against my legs without even looking up. “Wanna go hooooooome.” Trust a cranky, sleepy toddler to not be impressed with a mansion.
“Later.” We still had to go get our things, anyway. Luckily, Peter had calmed down enough to go into a bouncy chair hung in the doorway of the great room, so my arms were free to scoop my son up and put him on my hip. Holden made some toddler noises of frustration, along with some baby squirrel angry chitters. They could be cute sometimes, but this was my first day on the job.
I turned to my new, hot boss.
“This is my son, Holden. Holden, say hello to Mr. Brennan.” Instead of saying hello, Holden turned his face just enough to glare at Brennan with one angry eye and grumble before burying his face again. Oh, to be three years old and have no idea how powerful billionaires were yet. I did my best not to be embarrassed. “I’m so sorry. It takes him a while to warm up to new people sometimes. On top of that, he really needs a nap. Holden, be polite.”
Thankfully, my alpha boss only looked amused. “No, don’t make him. He has a right to like who he likes and dislike who he doesn’t.”
“That’s true, but common courtesy exists. I’m not raising any brats. Holden, say hello to Mr. Brennan.” I grabbed his shoulders and firmly turned him around.
Holden’s face was scrunched in anger, looking on the verge of a tantrum, but he did as I said.
“Hi, Mr. Brennan,” he spit out.
Brennan smiled and nodded at him in his surprisingly gentle way. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, my friend.”
Hearing Brennan’s booming voice and taking full account of his huge size and alpha bearing, Holden’s eyes went wide with a mixture of fear and awe.
“Say you, too,” I coaxed, squeezing his shoulder gently.
“You too,” he muttered sheepishly, then turned, burying his face in my stomach.
I rolled my eyes in exasperation. “Thank you for that. Don’t go acting disagreeable, you hear? You can dislike what going on without being bratty about it.” He nodded against my belly, still stuck to me like an adorable little barnacle.
“The light of my life,” I said to Brennan with a chuckle, hugging my precious son, even if he picked a bad time to be in a mood.
“You said he needed a nap. How about I show you to your quarters?”
“My quarters? People actually call them that?”
“When you live in a place this big, people use weird words. Makes me feel like I’m in medieval Europe or something sometimes.”
“I don’t want to keep you if you have some important business-y type stuff you need to get back to.” I was sure he had a ton of people trying to get his attention every second, and as much as I loved having it on me, I wasn’t sure I deserved this special treatment when he had a million people on his payroll who could do this stuff for him.
He waved a huge hand at me. “Nonsense. Business this important, I like to handle it personally. There’s nothing more important than making sure my kid is taken care of. Part of that is making sure the person who takes care of my kid is taken care of. You may not realize it, Riley, but you’re already important to me, an important part of the family.” I swayed a bit on my feet, swooning for this sweet-talking, genuine alpha. Is that why he had so much money? Bottling up and selling all his charm?
I nibbled nervously on my fingers, looking like the squirrel I was, trying not to let my bashfulness get the best of me.
“Okay. Um, lead the way, please?” Brennan held out an arm toward one of the million hallways. It would take me a while to figure out the place. It was a maze. I scooped Holden back up and moved in the direction Brennan told me. As I started to move past him, he placed a hand on the small of my back. It took everything in me not to jump from the electricity that flowed up my spine form the magic of his touch.What in the world is going on?
I kept it together, but my expression was a mess. Thankfully, he couldn’t see what his touch did to me. He kept the hand on my back forquite some timeas we passed through the great room into the nearby hallway.
After what seemed like a mile worth of walking, we reached a door. It already had my name and title on a plaque on the front.
