Chapter 16
Jordan
I watched as the color drained from her face, her eyes shifting. My gaze dropped to her hands. They knotted and unknotted before repeating the pattern again. She was a study in anxiety and fear.
If I were a better person, I might have done something to help alleviate that. But I’d be the first to admit that I wasn’t a better person. And, hot night of sex or not, sweet-smelling, soft skin and irresistible curves or not, she still had done me a terrible wrong.
“It was an accident. I told you.”
My jaw tightened. “What part of it was an accident? Uploading it for the whole world to see, or pressing record on your video app and pointing the camera at us when I had no idea?”
She gulped, eyes widening. “I—I’m sorry.”
I straightened, pulling away from her heady scent. I’d had about enough of smelling her and knowing how soft her skin was and not being able to touch it. For the past few days, I’d made a valiant effort to avoid her presence at work and keep her out of my mind.
At this moment, my body wasn’t fully on board with that plan.
“But you shouldn’t have been torturing me for the past month, either, holding this shit over my head.”
“Really? You’re going to go there? Should I be happily skipping for joy that your little oops has threatened something I’ve been working for years?”
She paled, her eyes squeezing shut. Instead of answering, she shook her head.
I tensed, waited for her to talk. When she finally did, I wished she hadn’t. “This isn’t worth it, Jordan. You should just let me go.”
I should. I really should.
But I didn’t want to.
I rubbed at the back of my neck. “What on earth possessed you to do it?”
“Record it or upload it?”
“Both.”
She looked away, flattening herself against the window. There were people milling around the courtyard right outside, but they couldn’t see us thanks to the one-way privacy glass. Her eyes returned to me.
“I was caught up in the moment and my judgment was impaired,” she said in a shaky voice with wide eyes pleading for me to believe her.
The same bullshit answer she’d given me before. I wondered if she also blamed her impaired judgment for sleeping with me.
But I didn’t give a shit if she regretted it. It had been a damn hot fuck for both of us—a damn hot fuck that could have stayed safely in the past had she kept her phone in her pocket where it belonged.
As if she sensed my irritation, she reached a hand toward me before letting it fall. “I’m not going to go into the ancient, fucked-up history of why I’m a giant bag of insecurities, but if you must know, I thought it would prove something to myself.” She looked away again, blinking, and I felt it in my chest when I saw how sad she was. “That didn’t end up happening. The uploading was a complete accident.”
I softened my tone. “How does a video go viral without you realizing it?”
“I must have fucked it up somehow. I’m not some kind of techie genius like everyone else here. But please believe me when I say that no one will ever know it’s you. I’ll walk out of here today, and no one will even know why I’ve quit. This can all be wrapped up neatly.”
I snorted. “There’s no ‘neatly’ about it, at this point. And you know what? I’m not going to let you walk out of here and take the easy way out. You need to be here and face this every single goddamn day, just like I have to.”
She let out a breath of air like I’d punched her in the stomach. “That’s not what I was trying to do. I feel bad—”
“Then feel bad. You should. But do it here while you get your job done.”
We watched each other and the tension thickened between us. I finally took a step back, forcing some distance between us.
“Who else knows it’s you in the video besides the blonde?” I asked.
Her gaze fell. “My roommate knows because it was her elf costume. But no one has any idea who you were. No one knew it was you in the Falco costume. I didn’t either, until just now…”
A stupid fucking mistake on my part. I swallowed, half wondering if subconsciously I’d sent her for the clothes so she would find the costume. Somewhere deep down, I guessed I still had a conscience, though I managed to keep it gagged and bound most of the time.
I flicked my wrist to glance at my watch. I had to be out the door in ten minutes or I’d be late for the lunch appointment. My eyes shifted to the desk, now covered by my suit and pools of coffee.
“We have to continue this later. I have to go.”
Every muscle in her body visibly relaxed. I could feel the relief coming off of her in waves. “I’m going to see if the ticket can be transferred to Charles. I’m sure he’ll jump at the chance.”
“What?” I snapped as I grabbed the tie I’d been wearing this morning—fortunately, it was dark brown so I wouldn’t have to wear that pink monstrosity.
“We have twenty-four hours before the flight. I think that’s enough time to change everything.” She sounded less sure of herself than before.
“I already told you that you are not quitting.”
She stepped forward, surveying the damage from her caffeinated assault with a grimace. “I won’t quit. I’m just talking about the trip to Vancouver. I think I can sweet-talk Charles into going in my place.”
First of all, the thought of her “sweet-talking” that little twerp into anything made my blood boil, and second of all, what made her think she was off the hook for Vancouver? I wanted her where I could keep an eye on her. That had been the plan all along and nothing had changed in that regard. I was still aware that her conscience might get the best of her, and at any given moment she could be in the CEO’s office, ready to confess all her sins and beg for penitence.
My eyes trailed after her as she disappeared into the bathroom while I grabbed my stained dress shirt. It was still damp, but I’d managed to rinse out most of the mess. But what to do about the suit… Fuck! I had a spare sport coat hanging in my closet. It wasn’t normal banker attire but better than nothing. If I’d only remembered it in the first place, we wouldn’t be in this mess. April would still be happily ignorant, which would have been better for both of us.
She returned from the bathroom and started sponging up the excess coffee with white hand towels.
“You’re still going to Vancouver,” I declared as I looped the tie around my neck and collar.
Her eyes shot to mine and then danced away nervously. “Umm. Under the circumstances—”
“No. There are no circumstances. The only thing that has changed is that you have information you didn’t previously have. Nothing else has changed. You’re still going.”
She froze, watching as I knotted my tie quickly without looking in the mirror. Something about that action appeared to fascinate her—hadn’t she ever seen a man put on a tie before? Then her blue eyes slid down my body with obvious admiration. I averted mine and tried to think about something else. I knew what was going through her head. She was thinking about that night we were together at Comic-Con.
Well, that made two of us because I was finding it pretty damn difficult to forget that night, too. I grabbed my wallet and sunglasses. “I’m out for the rest of the day, Weiss. After this lunch meeting, I’m going to have to go hide my face in shame for being seen in public like this. Be packed and ready to go tomorrow.”
She rolled her eyes and I turned to leave.
“Wait. You have a loose string,” she said, moving behind me. I paused without turning toward her, then I felt her brush the top of my back. Her hands rested on my shoulders, and even through the coat, the pressure of her touch was turning me on.
I turned back to her, eyebrows raised.
“I’ll go to Vancouver,” she finally said after clearing her throat. “But that doesn’t mean I have to be nice to you.”
“Then, by all means, don’t. Now get your work done,” I muttered before pulling the door open and leaving.
***
The next day, we boarded our early afternoon flight from Orange County to Vancouver. April had refused to speak to me at the office and during the short ride to the airport. When I’d asked her questions, she answered in monosyllables and refused to look at me, still visibly pissed.
Oh well, I shrugged. She’d have to deal, wouldn’t she? Like I’d had to deal those first few days after discovering that my night of hot cosplay sex was on the Internet for all to see.
Since then—pain-in-the-ass work issues aside—I’ve come to think of it in a more philosophical light. At least the poor lonely geeks that could never get any were able to obtain some sort of education on how things worked. Whether or not any of them could ever get with a girl as hot as April was another question altogether.
I sat in first class enjoying my preflight drink—mineral water. I was still in my own private prohibition hell, or self-flagellation, depending on the day. As the rest of the passengers filed onto the plane, a pretty flight attendant was making chitchat with me. She had a beautiful smile and laughed at everything I said, funny or not. I eyed her for a moment, thinking about how long it had been since I’d inducted another member into my own personal mile-high club, but my thoughts immediately flashed to visions of being tangled up with April inside a cramped lavatory.
The flight attendant flashed her wide, baby blue eyes, but I was distracted by the thought of serious, darker blue eyes that hid all kinds of deep thoughts and secrets. Eventually, April filed past on her way to her seat back in the economy section. She overtly assessed the airline employee before meeting me with her frosty gaze.
I winked at her. I couldn’t resist. Her gaze glanced off mine like a stone skipping across a glassy lake. She readjusted her hand on the strap of her carry-on bag, her middle finger poking out, as she had done that night at the martini lounge.
I laughed before taking a deep breath and looking away. I tried to suppress the feeling of guilt that had added itself to the complex soup of emotions I felt regarding this woman. So she was angry. Well, so was I. But at the same time, I also wanted her, yet I had to remind myself that I was her boss and therefore couldn’t have her.
Goddamn, it would be easier when her internship was finished and she left the company. Only a few weeks to go…
But I had to hand it to her, she’d taken everything I’d dished out to her with quiet dignity and only lost it once—yesterday. Oh, and how glorious that little meltdown had been, too. I’d known there was fire under that serene surface, and part of me, the reckless part of me, wanted to see it again. And again.
An even more foolhardy part of me wanted to take the fire I knew was there, harness it and hold it in my hands. Just the abstract thought of it—of her—was making me hard again.
Shit. I was in trouble. I either needed to find some self-control fast or stay the hell away from her before I shredded every last bit that remained.
***
In less than three short hours, we touched down at Vancouver International Airport. We made it through Customs and were sitting together in the back seat of a town car while the driver took us to our hotel, located on the city waterfront near the convention center. Upon arrival, we were checked in by the concierge.
The Owner’s Suite occupied the entire top floor of one of the towers of the hotel. The suite itself was two stories of floor-to-ceiling glass windows that gave a 360-degree view of the city, from Coal Harbour and English Bay to the North Shore Mountains, to Stanley Park, to the modern, lit glass and steel of downtown Vancouver—as pointed out to us by the concierge.
April listened to his entire spiel with interest but didn’t say much as she followed his directions. He escorted her to a small room off the hallway on the lower floor of the suite. It was set aside especially for an assistant of the occupant of the Owner’s Suite. It adjoined the penthouse but was not part of it, and appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary hotel room.
Before I could say a word, she disappeared into the clearly subpar room—when compared with mine, anyway. I spent at least five minutes arguing with myself whether or not to go talk to her and point out that there was another room in the suite. Maybe it would be best, though…the more walls and locks between us during this stay, the better.
Because I really, really had no idea how I was going to keep my hands off her. And if she stayed pissed off at me, even better. That much more of a barrier between us would be a good deterrent. But it felt wrong to let her hole up in there when I had this huge place to myself.
I sighed. Against my better judgment, I lightly rapped on her door, and after a long pause she quietly called for me to come in. I opened the door but remained standing in the doorway—she and I alone in a bedroom together would not lead to good things.
Well… good things, certainly, but not the right things.
I looked around her room and my eyes zeroed in on a suitcase on its stand. I caught a glimpse of some silk and lacy underthings peeking out, like they were winking at me, tormenting me. I met her gaze.
“Yes?” she snapped. “May I help you?”
I sighed. “You don’t need to stay in here, you know. There’s another room on the top floor.” The one right next to mine. Why not? I was a glutton for punishment.
“That’s okay. This is where the help goes, and I’m well aware of my place.”
She turned to tuck a sweater into the drawer by the bed. As she bent, flaunting her fine ass in my direction, the first thought inside my head was, Yeah, your place is naked and sweating underneath me.
With a huff of frustration, I tore my eyes away before she could turn back to me.
“Can we call a truce, please? We’re both here in a foreign country. We don’t know anyone…”
She scoffed. “Canada is hardly a foreign country.”
“It’s close. They talk funny here. I feel lonesome already. Please be my friend and fellow American?”
She clenched her jaw and released it, folding her arms across her chest. I forced myself not to remember how those tits had tasted. Fuck. What the hell was wrong with me? I was randier than a fifteen-year-old boy who’d been forbidden to whack off.
I backed away from the door. “Come on…let’s go check out the view. And aren’t you hungry? Come on, Weiss. Loosen up and cut me a break.”
Her eyes narrowed, but her mouth curved into a smile. “I’d like to cut you… or break something.”
“Very funny. I’ll be sure to sleep with one eye open tonight. Now come on.” I spun, hoping she would follow me. But deep down I knew it was in both our best interests if she didn’t.