Madly Yours (Nora Reed) novel Chapter 450

Olive sat cross-legged on the sofa, her brow furrowed in rare, absolute seriousness. "Do you guys think the Boss is going to skin us alive?"

"Oh, one hundred percent."

Archer groaned. He was huddled in an armchair, knees pulled to his chest, looking completely miserable. "Especially me. He might not kill me, but I'm going to wish I was dead."

Hudson had caught him dead to rights in the hallway that morning, and he had been forced to impersonate his brother for half the day.

Just because the boss hadn't exploded on the spot didn't mean retribution wasn't coming.

Arthur shot him a deadpan look. "What are you panicking for?"

"Easy for you to say! You dodged the bullet!" Archer wailed, burying his face in his arms.

Olive pulled the lollipop stick from her mouth and twirled it between her fingers, looking uncharacteristically wise. "If you ask me, the Boss is probably in a fantastic mood today. If we just apologize later and look really sincere, he might let it slide."

"And if he doesn't?"

Olive shrugged. "Then we get penalized. It wouldn't be the first time. What's the big deal?"

Archer looked up at her with pure resentment. "You might be made of steel, Olive, but I'm just flesh and blood."

"Get out of here!"

Arthur ignored their bickering, his gaze drifting out the window, lost in thought.

The room fell quiet for a moment.

Olive hopped off the couch, dusted her jeans, and cracked open a bottle of water by the coffee table.

"Alright, enough moping," she said after taking a swig. "Two heads are better than one, and we've got three. Let's figure out our apology strategy."

Archer finally lifted his head, looking mildly hopeful.

"How about this? I'll tell the Boss it was all my idea—"

Before Olive could finish, Archer rolled his eyes. "How are you the mastermind? This whole mess started with me, and I was the one he cornered this morning. I'm obviously taking the fall."

"So? A dollar saved is a dollar earned. Making money and saving money aren't mutually exclusive."

"Damn. No wonder you're so rich."

Just as the three of them crowded around the screen, debating which takeout spot had the best tacos, a sudden knock echoed from the door.

The room went dead silent.

They exchanged terrified glances. Arthur was the first to react, springing up to open the door.

When they saw Hudson standing in the hallway, all three of them immediately snapped to attention. "B-Boss..."

Hudson leaned casually against the frame. He looked entirely relaxed, exuding a lazy, deeply satisfied aura that was almost too intense to look at.

It was painfully obvious he had just spent the last several hours thoroughly enjoying himself.

To make matters worse, there were a few fresh scratch marks visible just above his collarbone, leaving absolutely nothing to the imagination about how wild their afternoon had been...