Keep You: Love on the Clock

By Nichole Rose

This billionaire won't know what hit him when he meets his sassy BBW.

 

Ian
Holly Simpson is my dream woman.
She's loud, bright, fierce…adorable. A complete mess.
I came here for her help.
I'm determined to leave with her heart.
But how do you catch a fairy and claim it as your own?
I don't know.
I won't let that stop me.
This little warrior is mine and I'm keeping her.

 

Holly
Ian Sterling is big, bossy, and wildly inappropriate.
He's also the man of my dreams.
I've been hiding from him since the first time I set eyes on him.
Now he needs my help saving his business and his family.
He says we're getting married.
I want to believe him.
But now the fate of his company and his family is in my hands…
And I have bad, bad news.

 

Warning
When an older billionaire meets his curvy younger woman, she'll have him on his knees. Literally. If office romance, over-the-top men, and hot mess heroines make you laugh, get ready to meet Ian and Holly in this laugh-out-loud romantic comedy. This sweet, steamy romance from Nichole Rose comes complete with a sticky sweet and guaranteed HEA.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nichole Rose
• Release date: Sep 27, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223987215

Book preview

Chapter One

Holly

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I have bad news, Gia Duncan says, plopping down across from my desk in the only chair that isn't currently covered with reams of paper. With humor dancing in her multicolored eyes, her lips lifted in a sweet smile, and a hot pink coffee cup in hand, she doesn't look like she has bad news. Then again, looks can be deceiving.

Gia is absolutely gorgeous with auburn hair, ivory skin, and hazel eyes rimmed in a ring of the purest green. People tend to underestimate her because of how pretty she is. Nothing makes me happier than watching her destroy their assumptions when she opens her mouth to speak.

The girl is basically a genius.

People tend to underestimate me too. I'm a trained forensic accountant with a certain set of lucrative skills, but I definitely don't look the part. I have bright red hair and freckles I can't hide. I'm also thick, curvy, and proud of it. Everyone says I look like I should be teaching kindergarten, not hacking into financial records for Fortune 500 companies to test the security of their data. When clients meet me, they're always surprised to learn just what I can do for them.

What kind of bad news? I ask Gia, peering at her over the rim of my coffee mug.

"The kind you are not going to like."

In that case, don't tell me. I'd rather not know, I say, taking a sip of coffee, the sugary nectar of the gods that keeps my world running. I need it this morning for sure. My dreams were crazy all night. I didn't sleep much. I've really gotta stop watching scary movies by myself. It's not working out well for me. Wait. No. Am I being axed?

Why do you always ask that? Gia laughs, tossing a packet of ketchup that was sitting on my desk at me.

It lands against my boobs…but it's kind of hard to miss them, so I can't blame her or anything. My girls are not small. I pluck the packet up and toss it back at her. It lands in her coffee cup. Naturally.

I look at her with big, innocent eyes.

She shakes her head at me, sending strands of her hair bouncing around her face.

Um, have you met me yet? I ask. "I basically terrorize the staff, our clients, and our boss. Why would I not be worried about getting the axe?"

Because everyone here loves you and you're a genius, she points out.

Thank god for that or I probably would have been fired a long time ago. As my mom likes to say, I'm hell on wheels. It's not intentional. I just like to know everything about everything. Annoying people with questions is what I do. Well, that and hide out in the break room so I can avoid the disaster that is my office.

I'm basically the conductor of the Hot Mess Express. Choo choo.

You have an appointment with Ian Sterling at eleven.

Shut the front door. I sit upright in my seat so fast hot coffee sloshes over the side of my mug and splatters all over my hand. Son of a biscuit!

Gia grabs a handful of paper towels off my printer and thrusts them in my direction.

You're joking. You have to be joking. Please tell me that you're joking. My voice is a high-pitched squeak. I think my heart stopped beating. How long can I live without it beating? This feels like too long. Maybe I should get a defibrillator in here.

Breathe, Holly, I mumble to myself. Breathe.

Gia gives up on me taking the paper towels from her, and hops up from her chair to pry the cup from my hand and wipe up the coffee dripping down my wrist. Breathe, Holly, she says, patting me on the shoulder. You have plenty of time to prepare.

I'm definitely going to be fired, I say, slumping down in my chair to bury my face in my hands. I knew I shouldn't have stolen that parking space yesterday at the gym. Now Baby Jesus hates me.

You went to the gym without me?

No, I went to the Cheesecake Factory. I hate the gym. I groan loudly. See? I'm a liar and a terrible person!

Gia bites her lip, trying valiantly not to laugh at me. It doesn't work. She cracks up, her body shaking with laughter as she tries to sop up the spilled coffee on my desk and keyboard. You aren't a terrible person. Dramatic, but adorable.

I am not dramatic, I gasp. That's a lie too. I am totally dramatic. It's a sickness.

You are but I love you anyway. Oh! Gia glances at the clock and then grabs her mug, tossing the paper towels in the trash can. I have to run. I have a conference call in a few minutes.

Bye.

Love you! She throws the door open and hustles out, her heels clicking on the tile floor.

I sit where I'm at for a minute, staring blankly at the monitor in front of me.

I should quit, I mutter to myself. Saying it out loud makes me feel better, but there's no way I'd actually do it. I love my job at Davis Financial Group. I get to spend my days prowling through other people's financial records and hacking into their accounts. And I get paid an obscenely large amount of money to do it.

Not bad for a chubby chick who grew up on the wrong side of town. All my life, I've been…different. Loud. Messy. Dramatic. I was bullied a lot and didn't have very many friends as a kid, but I never let it get to me. Instead, I spent my time learning everything I could about computers and finance. I graduated a year early.

College was a better experience for me. I graduated with honors on my twenty-first birthday and have worked here ever since. At twenty-three, I'm the youngest forensic accountant on staff. I'm also the only resident hacker, a skill my boss has been able to capitalize on more than a few times over the last two years.

But if I have to meet with Ian Sterling—the Ian Sterling—today, I am so getting fired.

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I have a new client coming in today, I tell my boss, Grant Davis, staring at him over the rim of my coffee cup. We're both in the executive break room, avoiding work. Well, I'm avoiding work. I think Grant is in here stalking his wife, Lily, because she's across the hall talking to Ms. Janice. Grant's never very far away from Lily since they found out last month that she's pregnant.

Knox Mikhail follows my friend Lauren around all the time too. And Jason Kirby practically works out of Miranda's office with her these days. I swear, everyone at Davis Financial Group is falling in love and getting married at lightning speed. I think there's something in the water. Whatever it is, it seems to have skipped right over me, though.

My only date in months has been with Jack…and I'm pretty sure he doesn't even count because he's a cat. I'm also pretty sure he hates me. He just hangs around because I give him the good cat food and don't complain when he hogs all the covers.

Interesting, Grant says. He studiously avoids my gaze, looking everywhere but directly at me.

Suspicious. Very suspicious.

I'm not taking new clients.

Oh? Scheduling must have forgotten that. He glances my way again, trying to look innocent. He's not very good at it. Now that he has Lily, he's become kind of crazy. He's way easier to read too. It's adorable to see him so in love. It's hilarious to watch him ignore everything to stare at her all the time.

You know I know this is your doing, I say.

What is?

My appointment with Ian Sterling. Just saying his name makes me want to hide under the table. Ian Sterling is…basically the hottest man to ever star in my fantasies. I've had lots of those since I first set eyes on him six months ago. He doesn't know I exist, but in my dreams, we're married and having babies.

Which Grant somehow seems to know, darn it all. I don't know what I did to give it away, but he figured out that I have a massive crush on his friend frighteningly fast. Probably when he caught me watching Ian walk away and I blurted that I wasn't staring at his ass, or maybe it's the fact that I hide anytime Ian comes here.

It's kind of a necessity. Sometimes, keeping thoughts inside my head is a lot of work. God only knows what I might say if I actually met Ian instead of just fantasized from afar. I bet it would involve a lawsuit, and then a judge and everybody would know all the dirty things I think about Ian doing to me in my office. That can't be good for business.

Grant should be far more concerned about that than he is. He owns the company. When Ian fires us because I say something completely inappropriate, he's going to be the one losing millions. It'll serve him right. If I can't even speak to Ian, how am I supposed to work with him?

My boss has lost his mind. Again.

Ian needs your help, he says, clearly not sharing my concern here. There's a possible embezzlement situation going on. You're the best forensic analyst I've got.

Flattery will get him…everywhere, darn it. I am good at my job.