All Chapters of Billionaire Boss? Nah, Just A Possessive Husband!: Chapter 171 - Chapter 180

The polite panic began a slow crawl up my spine. ‘No. I’m his plus-one. He’s running slightly late. If you could just check the master list? Under his name?’He inclined his head a millimetre. ‘Certainly, madam. But the list is rather extensive.’ With a gloved hand, he gestured me to step aside, behind a velvet rope partition, a tiny island of shame for the improperly prepared.A couple swept up behind me. She was a vision of inherited emeralds and frosty blonde hair, he a monument to distinguished grey temples and a Royal Academy pin. They presented a thick, engraved card.The usher took it, nodded as if to an old friend, and they were ushered through with a murmur of welcome.‘Terrible crush this year,’ the woman remarked to her companion. She paused, and her cool, assessing gaze rested on me, the solitary figure banished to the sidelines. One perfectly shaped eyebrow twitched upwards.A humiliating heat flushed my chest and neck. I was standing in the most exclusive hallway in Londo

‘Hyacinth. Hyacinth.’Hands shook my shoulder gently.I snapped out of my nightmare, blinking.Soraya was looking at me with concern. Lochlan was watching me too, his dark eyes giving nothing away.‘Are you okay?’ Soraya asked. ‘You look a little pale.’‘I’m fine,’ I said, and my voice sounded almost normal. A miracle, really, given that my internal world currently resembled a bomb site.I was about to say, ‘May I be excused,’ to flee to some dark corner and properly decompose, but Soraya spoke first.‘Dinner bell’s gone off,’ she said, nodding towards the general movement. ‘Time to move to the dining hall.’Lochlan took hold of my elbow. His touch was firm, impersonal, a security guard escorting a loiterer. He steered me towards the door.I went limply, my mind a numb, staticky blank. He led me to a prime table near the front, a place of honour that felt like a pillory.Soraya sat at the same table, and a short while later was joined by a man in a tux, her date for the night, who had

My mind circled back to Cary.He’d denied, and still denied, he was cheating even when I caught him with his head buried between the tits of a blonde in his office, when I’d run into Vanessa in front of his desk, buck naked.Maybe he hadn’t been lying. Maybe, to him, that wasn’t cheating.Only if I’d caught him in a proper bed, with his cock actually inside another woman, would it have counted as cheating in his personal, utterly ridiculous rulebook.A woman in his office was just… a fling. A distraction. A bit of stress relief.Maybe that’s how all men like him thought. Like Lochlan.He’d asked me out, kissed me, made promises with his eyes and his carefully chosen words, but that didn’t mean I was his girlfriend.Maybe men like him had a different vocabulary for women like me. An ‘associate’. A ‘companion’. A ‘temporary diversion’. The ‘staff’.Whatever the hell I was to him, I didn’t want to wait around to find out.I left the restroom, my damp dress clinging unpleasantly. I grabbed

I removed her hand from my arm. ‘Hell would need to freeze over before that happens.’Soraya’s smile was a thin, cold line. ‘Fine. But—’The vibration of my phone cut her off. I extracted it, seeing the name Declan on the screen. The driver assigned to Hyacinth for the evening.‘Apologies for disturbing your evening, sir,’ Declan’s voice was tight. ‘I’ve just observed Ms Galloway leave the Lanesborough. She entered a black taxi. I tried to get her attention, but she didn’t appear to notice me.’‘Do you know her destination?’ I asked, already moving to stand.‘I followed her as per your standing instructions. Judging from the route, the taxi is likely headed towards Lauderdale Tower.’‘Stay on her. Ensure she arrives safely. I’m on my way.’ I terminated the call.Soraya watched me, a cat observing a bird it had startled into flight. ‘Going somewhere? But the party’s hardly done.’I didn’t grant her a reply. I turned and left the dining room, the murmur of the auction fading behind me.T

‘Cancel it. You are not going out with him.’A laugh, brittle and harsh, escaped me. ‘You have no right to tell me who I can see. You’re my boss, Lochlan, not my keeper. You don’t get to ignore me for two days after humiliating me in public and then demand my time.’‘I’m trying to protect you!’‘From what? A nice guy who actually calls when he says he will? Or from you?’ The comparison rose, ugly and apt. ‘You know what? Cary used to do this. He used to tell me who I could see, where I could go. I left him for a reason. Don’t make me leave this job, too.’‘Hyacinth!’I ended the call. Just like that. My hand was trembling.I felt exhilarated and sick, powerful and utterly shattered.I had just hung up on Lochlan Hastings.I took several deep, shuddering breaths in the silent hallway, then squared my shoulders.The taxi ride to the restaurant was a blur of neon and my own chaotic reflection in the window.I wasn’t thinking about Leo, not really. I was replaying that phone call, the shee