Bait for a Gentleman novel Chapter 101

The next morning, Audrina Monroe woke up to the sound of her alarm.

Last night, the two of them had spent a long time discussing the details of the agreement.

But Audrina had deliberately avoided answering Sebastian Hawthorne's final question, eventually using exhaustion as an excuse to slip away.

Now, squinting against the morning light, she reached for her phone to check the time and noticed a new message waiting for her.

It was from Sebastian, sent just after eight o'clock:

[Taking the morning flight to New York. Taking off in twenty minutes.]

She read the text but didn't reply, placing the phone face-down on her nightstand.

It felt incredibly strange. Zachary Sutton never bothered to tell her where he was going or what he was doing.

So why was this man reporting his schedule to her...?

From the kitchen, she heard the clatter of a spatula against a pan, mixed with Willow Sinclair humming some trending TikTok song so horribly off-key it was unrecognizable.

Audrina washed up, did her makeup, put on her coat, and walked out. Willow was standing at the stove in an apron, aggressively prodding at an egg until the yolk broke, turning it into a sad scramble.

"You're up?" Willow asked without turning around. "Where did you go last night? You weren't back before I fell asleep."

Audrina poured herself a glass of water. "I went to see Sebastian. Got back around one in the morning."

Willow's spatula froze.

She turned around, her eyes scanning Audrina up and down like a TSA security scanner.

"What's with that look?" Audrina took a small sip of water. "I get off work late, okay? He's traveling for business today, so I had to meet with him in person beforehand to consult on the Monroe Industries situation."

Willow let out a long, meaningful, drawn-out "Oh."

She scooped the mangled eggs onto a plate and drawled, "Mr. Hawthorne sure is dedicated to his job, working overtime so late into the night. Hey, next time you need to 'consult' on something and it gets too late, you can just invite him over here to draft things up. The soundproofing in my room is excellent."

Audrina stared at her. "...I'm going to work."

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