CHAPTER TWO

"Two salmon and avocado. Two miso soups. Plus, some edamame beans. Got it," Leilani said, as butterflies filled her stomach.

Jacob Dufort was heading in today and while she tried really hard to resist his terrible flirting, the truth was she looked forward to it.

Each and every time.

"You might want to be absent when he arrives," Blake, her boss, said.

Her eyes widened. "Oh. No. That's okay. I have a lot to get done before the end of the day."

Blake studied her. "I don't want you to feel uncomfortable. He's—"

"A flirt. I know." She laughed. "I can handle him."

As she turned away, she heard Blake mutter. "I don't think you can, but anyway."

What did that mean?

She'd worked for Blake for a while now. Like his brother, he was a very good-looking man. It had taken her a little while to get used to his tall, muscular presence and blush-worthy smirks.

But he was never inappropriate.

Not like his brother.

Jacob definitely crossed lines, and she was here for it. She found herself wondering each morning if he would be visiting today. She'd choose her outfits, wondering if he would like them, and a couple of times woke up from dreams featuring them.

Let's just say he wasn't helping her with the photocopying.

It didn't take much thinking to know there was no universe where Jacob Dufort would ask her out. First, she was Blake's PA. Second, she wasn't a billionaire.

Third...well, she was just Leilani Kai.

Blake definitely wouldn't be happy. He was a fair boss and cared about his team, and she knew he valued her as a PA. They worked well together.

Nearly everyone on board the InkWell team was extremely loyal to Blake—or rather Mr. Dufort. So she wouldn't do anything to jeopardize her job even if she was having sexual dreams about his brother.

Leilani tugged her bottom lip between her teeth.

God, she had to stop thinking about him while at work, but how could she? He randomly showed up at any time. Leilani could vividly remember the first day Jacob had visited. She'd been nibbling on some almonds when he'd stepped into her office—which was outside Blake's—and leaned against the doorjamb.

The almond, which she was just about to put in her mouth, had literally dropped from her fingers.

Jacob's smirk had sent nuclear level heat to her core which spread throughout her body, making her blush like a complete idiot.

There'd been no doubt he was a Dufort. His short, slightly wavy dark hair, square confident jaw, and piercing blue eyes had rendered her speechless.

But it was his towering presence, his strong round shoulders, and the way his shirt fit snug around his biceps that had her swallowing and thinking very bad things.

Naughty things.

Things you shouldn't think about your boss's brother.

But oh God, she had.

Every visit, Jacob would stop and flirt with her before going through to Blake's office.

"How's my sweet Hawaiian princess today?" He'd wink, leaning over her desk. He stayed just far enough away that it wasn't completely inappropriate. But it was the sparkle in his eyes that spoke to the dirty things going on inside his head.

Blake had nothing to worry about. Neither of them would cross the line.

The only thing that was at risk was yet another pair of her panties.

"You're insatiable, Jacob." Leilani told him once when he'd sneaked up on her and the wet ends of his hair had taken her breath away and had her panting.

From shock.

But her core had been blasted with heat from their chemistry.

The little growl he'd let out had lingered in the air long after he'd left. It had taken one hell of a session with her dildo to work that one out of her system.

"Stop flirting with my PA." Blake always interrupted them, so things never got too far.

So no, Jacob was just a flirt and wasn't interested in little old her.

Of course, that hadn't stopped her from googling him.

Jacob was twenty-three, nearly twenty-four, six foot three, two hundred and ten pounds, and had recently joined the list of billionaires in the United States.

Jacob had a Bachelor of Economics and became a hedge fund manager for a top firm in Philly. Off the back of the Dufort name and after some spectacular wins, so she read on Forbes, Jacob made some of his own investments and then started his own hedge fund company. All of which put him on the rich list by the time he was twenty-three.

Wikipedia said he also owned a handful of other companies. One named Sailors LLC, which she needed to google. Although the name rang a bell, Leilani just couldn't place it.

But this was all a reminder of why Jacob wasn't going to ask her out.

He wasn't new to wealth—he'd grown up living a life of luxury.

Unlike her.

Leilani had been born in Hawaii and lived there until her father died when she was thirteen. Her mother had been devastated, so she packed them up and moved them to Philadelphia, where she had grown up.

Leilani had started high school on the mainland and, aside from a couple of trips back to Oahu when her grandparents had passed away two years later, she hadn't returned.

She missed the islands and lifestyle, even though she was a kid in those days. But since her dad had died, nothing had been the same. Her mom was depressed and started drinking.

And had never stopped.

Now, it had impacted her health and was a serious issue. Nothing she said, or the doctors said, was making a difference, and her liver was damaged.

Sigh.

Things were not going as she had planned, and she was feeling pretty low these days. So, yeah, if Jacob's visited cheered her up, put a smile on her face and blush on her cheeks, then she was going to enjoy it.

Leilani placed the sushi order online and then opened her spreadsheet.

But her mind was now on her mom.

It wasn't just a serious issue.

Her mom was dying.

She had liver disease, and it was progressing fast. The technical term was cirrhosis. Her liver had been permanently scarred and couldn't regenerate because there were not enough healthy cells left to heal.

It was a horrible disease and made worse because her mom wouldn't stop drinking or even give herself the chance of having a transplant.

Until she did, they wouldn't.

That would save her mom's life. Apparently, she didn't want it enough to give up the bottle.

Leilani glanced down at her keyboard and let the emotion pass. Losing her mom, her last living parent, was one thing, but it would mean she was left alone in the world.

Her entire family would be gone once her mom passed. Morbid thoughts, but this was her reality.

She had two nice friends: Vanessa and Amy. Both were married to their college sweethearts and Amy was pregnant and getting ready to have her first child.

To Leilani, it felt like she was growing away from her friends as she focused on her career and caring for her mom.

There was nothing wrong with that. She still cared for them very much. It was just that they seemed to have less and less in common as time went by.

In fact, Vanessa and Amy had been each other's bridesmaids after becoming engaged around the same time, and she'd been excluded. They both explained that it was because their husbands had wanted a small wedding party, just a best man and maid of honor, but it had still hurt.

Leilani had smiled and not made a fuss.

Instead, she helped plan their bachelorette parties and laughed when Vanessa and Amy said they'd have to live vicariously through her now they were boring married women.

"What if I become a boring married woman soon?" she'd asked.

"You aren't even dating." Vanessa had laughed. "Please tell me you aren't planning to elope in Vegas after a one-night stand."

"God, Lani, no." Amy had cried.

"What? No. But I could meet someone." She had argued.

"Sure, but it's probably going to be in your thirties now. You need to date." Amy nodded.

Where all these rules came from, she didn't know, but her friends weren't wrong. She wasn't dating. It didn't help that her social circle was small...and now all coupled up.

At work, she'd met some nice people, but no one special. She did have lunch with one of the girls, Missy, who loved to gossip. Many of the things she shared made Leilani choke on her food.

As Blake"s PA, it wasn't appropriate for her to be heard gossiping, so she tried to divert the conversation, but she had learned quickly it would take a boulder for Missy to take a hint.

"Oh, oh, I didn't tell you about Jeremy. He's gay. Which is fine. I mean, I totally thought he was hetero but clearly, I'm totally not vibing right to miss that. Anyway, he was doing a presentation to the tech team last week and...no joke...farted."

Leilani's taco had frozen halfway to her mouth.

What the hell do you say to something like that?

"Literally let one rip in front of everryyyonee." Missy laughed.

"That's horrible," Leilani replied, although a part of her wanted to giggle.

"Well, it could've been worse. There was no smell, apparently."

Line crossed.

"You know what? I just remembered I forgot to book a meeting for Blake. I better get it done before I get fired." She jokingly laughed and packed up her lunch.

"Oh, Lani, find out how his marriage is going. I am not joking when I say I would do anything that man wanted." Missy winked.

M'kay.

Nope.

Absolutely not.

She knew at that point Missy wasn't in the running for new best friend status.

Especially when there was no way she was asking Blake about that. For obvious reasons, but also his wife, Bella, was lovely. They'd had a few small chats when she visited, and Leilani wondered how she could make friends with a nice woman like that.

It was an odd question to ask, but how did you make friends? It's not like dating where there are apps...or maybe there were...or you could just ask someone out.

Or could you?

Either way, right now, her focus was on her mom.

Leilani had moved home after they had found out about her mom's cirrhosis diagnosis. They hadn't known what was wrong with her for a long time. At first, they'd joked she was getting unfit when she was experiencing shortness of breath when they'd gone for a walk together, then Leilani noticed her cognitive skills were strange.

It was subtle, but she was a little confused about things and seemed not just out of breath, but quite drowsy. In the end, she went to her doctor, and they did some tests. That was when they learned her liver was not working optimally.

More tests and failed treatments told them what they didn't want to know.

Her liver wasn't going to heal.

And she wouldn't stop drinking.

Now her mom was having trouble moving around and doing the simple things in life.

So now she was taking care of her the best she could while also working. Being a carer was hard work. More than she had realized. One day, she had joined a social media group and began reading through pages and pages of people, sharing how tired they were.

No wonder she wasn't being active in her social life.

She was tired.

Plus, there was this thing where you were grieving before the person had actually died.

Leilani was scared.

Who would she have to lean on when her mom finally passed on? Not that she could do a lot anymore. But she could hug her mom. She could share her...

Well, she didn't even do that anymore.

But she was her mom.

And she was dying.

Leilani focused back on her spreadsheet and busied herself with tasks for the next few hours, all while a low-level buzz filled her tummy knowing Jacob Dufort was going to arrive midday.

Five minutes before he was due, she spun in her chair and opened the drawer behind her where she kept snacks and other bits and pieces. Reaching for her lip gloss, she slid it over her lips and then kicked her leg, turning back to her laptop.

Then froze.

"God, I love a woman who's prepared." Jacob drawled as he leaned against the door.

Holy hell.

Did he mean her mouth, or the sushi that was sitting on her desk?

His eyes answered the question as she rubbed her lips together, smoothing the lip gloss around.