Wife Wanted (A Billionaire Bad Boy Romance)(45)

 

Phoebe thought about it for one more second before she snatched them up and headed back into the living room to find Ben laughing hysterically at the pictures in his hands.

 

“You have got to tell me what happened here,” he gasped. “Really. How did you get your hair to be that many colors?”

 

“It was an art festival with lots of booze,” she said, laughing right along with him. “We were trashed and had way too much money on hand, so they dyed our hair and painted our faces, and I’m pretty sure I woke up the next day with full-body henna tattoos.”

 

Ben glanced up and down her body, his eyes narrowing as he took in every inch, making Phoebe squirm with wanting to pounce on him. “I think you’d look pretty good like that.”

 

“Yeah, well, too bad. No pictures of that.”

 

She pulled the album out of his hands and dropped a stack of files onto his lap. “Here, this is what I wanted to show you. If you don’t mind, I’m going to the bathroom. Be right back.”

 

***

 

Riley looked at the file and saw Yancey Securities on all the folders. He opened the top one, then sat up straighter and set them all on the floor, opening them one by one. The pages were extremely familiar, research documents and notes he’d seen before. He’d seen all of them before. These pages had come directly from his own company’s files and been planted in these folders. They were very thin files, though. Barely two or three pages in each. Yancey was missing research, which meant these files…he was trying to create a paper trail from his own company.

 

He peeked down the hall, but Anna was still out of sight. He reached for his cell, which they’d brought into the living room earlier for some music, and called Ben. “Dude, where the hell have you been?” Ben whispered. “I’ve been fielding questions all weekend for you. Did you get kidnapped or something?”

 

“Why are you whispering?”

 

“Because normal people are asleep at this time. It’s almost two…that, and Linda may have slept over last night.”

 

“And you’re giving me a hard time about spending a little time with my girl.”

 

“Your girl,” Ben said just as Riley realized what he’d said. “You’ve only seen her, what, three times?” He heard another voice in the background and figured Linda had woken up from Ben’s sudden high pitched voice. “It’s Riley. Think he’s getting ready to propose.”

 

“I never said that,” Riley snapped, then glanced down the hall again. Still clear. “Look, I need you to do me a favor. Anna is turning out to be a bit more helpful in another area than just the marriage issue.”

 

“Oh, yeah? What’s that? Was someone having shy guy problems? You know…” Ben said, and Riley could picture him smirking as he waggled his eyebrows. “Below the belt?”

 

Riley gripped the phone harder. “Do you want to be fired?”

 

Linda yelled at Ben to stop being an idiot or she’d smack him herself.

 

“All right, what do you need at this time of morning?”

 

“Remember those files, the research notes Yancey claimed he had?”

 

“Yeah? What about them?”

 

He picked one up and skimmed through the pages. “I think Anna just dropped them in my lap.”

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 16

 

 

 

Phoebe stirred in bed but was too warm to bother getting up. It was Sunday morning, she knew that, at least. What time exactly, she didn’t care. There was a naked man next to her with his arms wrapped around her, and she really didn’t want this weekend to end. It had been the best two nights of her life. If only she could have a few more like it, to figure out what this was.

 

Before she had to settle with Mitch Harper to save her mom’s life.

 

That thought brought her back to reality, but she still didn’t move besides fluttering her eyes open. Something else woke her. A knock? Nope, it was Sunday. No one was coming over today. But she guessed she should probably get up at some point and see what state her apartment was in. There was another noise and she sat up, glancing at her bedroom door. Ben muttered something in his sleep and wrapped his arm around her a bit tighter, pulling her to his side.

 

“Back to bed,” he muttered.

 

“It’s gotta be pretty late,” she laughed.

 

“So? Still Sunday.” He pulled her close and kissed the tip of her nose. “We still have a few more hours.”

 

“Thought I heard something.”

 

“Nope, you didn’t hear anything.”