Irresistible Bachelors: Books 1-5 by Landish, Lauren (bts books to read TXT) 📕

Martha laughs again. “I know what you mean. Great job, Cassie. That was a complex project. I’m proud of you for getting it done on time and on budget. Listen, Oliver’s at home for the day. I heard one of the kids is sick. So how about you take off early, relax, and maybe go out to celebrate tonight?”

She finishes her comment with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. I’m happy to get the praise. And the fact is, I’ve been busting my butt for a long time, trying to make an impact with the company. Really, it’s been hard to maintain my reputation as a ditzy party girl when I haven’t been out shaking my ass on the dance floor in ages. But since I started working for Oliver six months ago, I feel like I’ve grown a lot. Best of all, Oliver’s noticed it too. The last two projects, he let me, more or less, run completely solo after he signed off on my plans. Sure, Martha was there as a safety net, but I managed all the contractors, sales listing, and price negotiations, and now it was sold, baby, sold!

And Martha’s right. The McCormick deal was a complex project. Originally bought by Tony during Tony’s ‘funk phase’, as he calls it, the original plans had Steele Solutions sitting with that turkey of a property around our necks for the next decade. Instead, by finding the right investors—namely, a Chinese company that wanted to gain an American headquarters and needed a big enough property to get the tax breaks—I was able to take advantage of an opening. By setting up the right contractors for them, I was able to flip the property for not just a profit, but a good profit at that.

“Well, I suppose I could use a little bit of relaxation and reward,” I reply, leaning against my desk. “Hmmm . . . what should I get with my sales bonus? Shoes. Definitely those new peep-toe wedges with the ankle-strap ties. Completely impractical, especially in blush pink, but completely gorgeous and well worth the treat as a reward.”

“Shoes?” Martha asks, smirking and shaking her head. “I swear, all the smarts you have in that head of yours, and you blow your bonus on shoes?”

“Not just shoes,” I reply, biting my lip. “Maybe I’ll stop by Victoria’s Secret too. The wrapping is sometimes just as important as the present in the box.”

“Yes, well, I don’t need to know anything about your box,” Martha says mock-primly. While she’s no prude, she had to deal with both Oliver’s and Tony’s overactive single libidos for so long, she’s had enough. I don’t mind. I’ve been running a pretty epic dry spell anyway. I like to think I can keep things professional. I can still be a ditz—in fact, a lot of people assume I am just from my personality—and I’ve even used that to my benefit occasionally. But Martha sees through it so she keeps things at a relaxed professional level in the office. Not that I don’t miss joking around with Hannah sometimes. “Go on, get out of here before I find some files to shred or something.”

“This is Steele Solutions, not the White House,” I tease, grabbing my purse. “Thanks, Martha. See you tomorrow.”

I head downstairs, grabbing a frappe and a to-go salad from Mindy’s Place before heading back to my apartment. It’s not much, a one-bedroom half of a duplex, but compared to what I was living in before, it’s a damn mansion. I’ve actually got my own bedroom and living room that are separated by a real wall and not just a folding divider cutting the space in half. Oh, and a bathtub. Oh my God, the luxury of being able to stretch out in my own bathtub whenever I want . . . it’s heaven on earth sometimes.

I pop my salad in the fridge and decide that a bath is just what I need. I can do shoe shopping online anyway. None of the shops in town carry the really good brands. Manolos? Try Mano-nolos around this town. Still, I don’t mind. It’s a small and safe little town. Besides, Amazon is my buddy. So I pour in some bath oil, a gift from Hannah who sent it from Hawaii, the smell instantly relaxing me as I’m reminded of the forest we had to walk through on a constant basis.

In the year since coming back from Hannah and Tony’s wedding, I’ve missed her, even as we’ve grown closer as friends. Still, she’s nearly five thousand miles and six time zones away, which sort of sucks. But the bath oil is nice, and I’m just about to close my eyes when my phone rings. “Well, speak of the devil and she shall appear,” I answer, seeing that it’s Hannah. “How’s life in paradise?”

“Good,” Hannah replies, giggling. “But am I really the devil?”

“Only as much as I’m an angel,” I tease in reply. “What’s going on?”

“Not much,” Hannah says before filling me in on the goings on in Hawaii. In addition to her pregnancy, she and Tony are working at adding some rental cottages to the massive property. While the project’s still in the initial stages, it’s exciting to think about. “Studmuffin told me you closed the McCormick deal. He wanted to say thanks for pulling that albatross off his neck.”

“He can reward me with a first-class plane ticket and two weeks in one of those bungalows, and can you please stop calling your husband Studmuffin all the time?” I joke. “Oh, I love the bath oil. Hawaii smells different from any other place in the world. I guess that’s why it’s a vacation paradise.”

Hannah makes a surprised sound. “You’re calling me when you’re naked in the bathtub?”

“Nope. I’m answering your call while I’m naked in the bathtub,” I retort. “A small but important difference. Oh, and tell Tony that