A Deal with the Bossy Devil (Bad Billionaire Bosses, #1)

by Kyra Parsi

It felt really, really good to sour his mood. It fulfilled me. Fed my soul on a spiritual level.

My legs burned, my stomach rolling as I sprinted through the airport, praying to every god documented throughout history that I hadn’t missed boarding.

“Sorry,” he eventually said, amusement tilting his deep voice. “I didn’t hear him come out over the deafening sound of all the chemistry we don’t have.”

The sky is blue, the grass is green, and I, Ria Sanchez, am never going to be tempted to go anywhere near your lap.” “Except the sky famously turns a mixture of orange, pink, and purple at sunrise and sunset, and gray when it’s cloudy.” He looked incredibly pleased with himself. “And grass withers to brown in the winter.”

“Every single thing that comes out of your mouth annoys the ever-loving shit out of me, Adrien.

“Fine. Yes,” he said. “You are… stubborn, and exasperating, and a massive pain in my ass.” I clicked my tongue. “Worst seducer on the planet.” His lips twitched. “But you are also aggravatingly, inconveniently… maddeningly beautiful, Ariana.”

I stomped into the house and stormed up the stairs (but only after turning off the fire pit, the lights, locking the door, and putting the pizza away—because I was a guest in this home and not a wild animal),

Adrien Cloutier, the undisputed bane of my entire fucking existence, was sitting behind his desk, casually tapping away on his phone.

He wanted to play this game with me? Fine. He wanted to push all my buttons and get me all riled up? Fine. He wanted me to wear the clothes his mother bought? Fine. Be careful who you fuck with, Lucifer.

I smiled into the darkness and closed my eyes to the sweet, soothing sounds of Satan restlessly tossing and turning in the grave he’d dug himself.

Who the fuck had moaned? I hadn’t moaned. Had I moaned?

I was losing brain cells at an alarmingly rapid rate.

And then I plopped them right into his cup. Adrien stiffened, his fingers digging into my hip. Alice frowned at her brother. “Ew… you like your coffee lukewarm now?” “I don’t know,” he answered slowly, a dangerous edge to his voice. “Do I?”

“Shut up and shhh.”

“I’ll keep my hands to myself from now on. Until you tell me to.” From now on, like I wasn’t leaving after this. Until you tell me to, like it was inevitable.

What would he do if I lazily traced the length of his cock⁠— My hand froze. My eyes flared. My brain halted. Excuse me? You wonder what now?

He’d broken me. He’d broken my brain, shattered my willpower to bits, and still had the audacity to maintain enough self-control to keep his stupid hands to himself.

“Adrien, we despise each other,” I reminded him. “Right.” He paused again, this time to wet his lips and clear his throat. “Except for the part where I don’t actually despise you.”

“Would it help change your mind if I grew a man-bun and painted my skin blue?” “For the last time, it’s cinnamon roll, not cinnaman-bun. And you literally couldn’t be farther away from the archetype if you tried—wait,” I interrupted myself, my brain stumbling back a step. “If I said yes, would you do it?” He didn’t answer right away. … He didn’t answer right away.

“You’re in my head, you’re under my skin, you’re fucking everywhere, Ria. I can’t think properly when you’re around, and I can’t trust that I’m not misreading the signs.”

“Admit you want it, stop waging war, and I’ll fuck you until you’re nothing short of incoherent, Ria. I’ll bend you over my desk and eat you out for as many hours as I’ve spent torturing myself fantasizing about it, and then I’ll punish you for making me want to taste you so fucking bad.”

until the only word you remember how to say is my name.”

Is this all for me?” I wasn’t going to dignify that with a response. “Yes,” my slutty mouth tattled immediately.

Adrien ordered as he guided the ice up to my bellybutton. He left it there. “If you let it fall, you won't get to come tonight.”

“This isn’t like a weird sex thing, is it?” “No!” I exclaimed at the same time as Adrien said, “Absolutely it is.”

“Almost where?” I demanded to know. We were walking over dark grass now. “Adrien, I am not into outdoor sex. I don't do bugs, dirt, or fresh air. So don't even think about it!”

“I’m going to kill Adrien Cloutier. For real this time.” “Yes!” Jamie jumped out of her seat. “But do it with mascara on, yeah?”

“Ria? You’re here. Hey. Wh—uh’re you here?” Was he having a stroke? “I’ve been trying to reach you about your jet’s extended warranty,”

“You are, without an iota of doubt, the most infuriating human being on the fucking planet, Adrien.

he wouldn’t let go of my hand no matter how much I didn’t complain.

I was beyond words. I’d used all the ones I knew in the three-hour interview, and I didn’t have any left.