The Contract Said No Strings Attached (Charlotte) novel Chapter 327

Justin grinned teasingly. “My brother mentioned he had his eye on your secretary last time—must be Miss Raina, right? But he said you guarded her like a hawk, wouldn’t even let him near her. Looks like he wasn’t exaggerating.”

Rebecca’s smile froze. She hadn’t expected Justin to bring this up out of nowhere. Her gaze instinctively flicked over to Dylan.

But Dylan only replied coolly, “You’d do best not to take anything Lionel says too seriously.”

Justin just smiled, saying nothing for a moment, then pressed on, “Mr. Austin, my brother can’t stop talking about your secretary. Says Miss Raina isn’t just beautiful, she’s got real talent. And I’ve noticed you seem to look after her a lot as well. Is there, perhaps…”

He purposely trailed off, fishing for more, trying to sniff out the real relationship between Dylan and Raina. If there was something there, he’d know how careful to be around this “secretary.”

Businessmen played these games all the time, but in this case, Justin was overthinking it.

Dylan’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly, his voice suddenly colder—a warning disguised as an explanation. “Mr. Olson, my relationship with my secretary is strictly professional. I value her because she’s outstanding at her job. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t make baseless assumptions.”

The edge in Dylan’s tone forced Justin to rein it in.

Still, Justin found himself at a loss. On the one hand, Dylan claimed there was nothing between them, but on the other, his attitude toward Raina was clearly different. Unable to figure it out, Justin decided not to push his luck and refrained from inviting Rebecca for another round.

A sharp operator, Justin quickly smoothed things over with a laugh. “No need to get worked up, Mr. Austin. I was only joking. But I really do admire Miss Raina’s abilities. Here’s to working together even more closely in the future.”

Dylan simply nodded, saying nothing.

After another hour of drinks and small talk, Justin was finally down for the count.

He then picked up the contract Justin had signed, handed it to Rebecca, and said, “Take this.”

Rebecca tucked the signed contract safely into her bag.

Dylan spoke again. “Go call his assistant.”

Rebecca nodded quickly and hurried outside to fetch Justin’s assistant.

The assistant took one look at Justin and nearly panicked, rushing to hoist him up.

Once Justin was in his assistant’s care, Rebecca finally let out a breath of relief.