Simon gulped down the last of his coffee.

What a freakin’ day. First the board, then talking with Heather, catching up on business that didn’t look promising, and now he was late for a meeting he’d arranged. Arranged after the board had practically ambushed him and Heather. Now, he was walking out of work without Heather’s knowledge.

Nobody at Dover could know what he was up to. It would sabotage everything, and he needed to be sure.

Keeping his head down to avoid being noticed, he sprinted to the parking lot and got into his car. He pulled out of the parking lot, heading across town.

His phone went off. Damn. He couldn’t remember the last time he left his office and didn’t get a phone call from someone on staff.

He reached over, answered, and put the call on speaker phone. “Hi, Heather.”

“Simon? Where are you? I forwarded some e-mails to you that you need to look at, but I can’t find you anywhere.”

“I stepped out,” he said quickly.

“Is something wrong?” He could practically hear her frowning. “I don’t see a meeting in your schedule for this hour and—”

“It’s a personal appointment,” he said. Not exactly forthcoming, but he couldn’t tell anyone at Dover that he was meeting with a financial investigator. Not even Heather could know. It was stupid, and it pained him to keep a secret from her, but he had to keep things professional. Still, it didn’t stop the guilt from surging inside him. The urge to tell her the truth was killing him.

“Oh.” She paused. “Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine. I’ll be back shortly.” He hung up and fought the guilt that was rising inside him. Lying to her had been almost painful, and he hoped he wouldn’t have to do it for much longer.

~~*~~

BY THE TIME HE PARKED his car and ducked into the Boathouse Restaurant, dark clouds had started to gather overhead.

He spotted Josh Bradley sitting in the corner and headed over to him.

Josh looked up from his newspaper. “Were you followed?”

“Hilarious.” Simon eased into the seat across from his old Stanford roommate.

“You’re the one who wanted us to meet in secret,” Josh pointed out. “I know we have to keep a low profile, but nobody at Dover is going to get suspicious if you bump into an old friend.”

Simon raised an eyebrow. “Old friends?”

Josh shrugged. “You know me. I know you. We exchange pleasantries occasionally.”

“If you consider twice a year occasionally,” Simon said.

“You cut me to the quick,” Josh said dramatically. “I thought we were pals.”

“Well, twice a year is more than anybody else, so I guess we are pals,” Simon said. “What’s good here?”

“I hear the stuffed seagulls are good,” Josh replied.

“Sometimes, I can’t tell when you’re joking,” Simon grumbled.

After ordering, Simon cleared his throat. “I need you to look in to something for me,” he said.

“Like last time?” Josh asked

Weeks ago, when Simon had suspected insider trading had been going on at Dover, he’d called up the one financial investigator he trusted. Josh wasn’t exactly a friend, but with a high-pressure job in such a tough environment it paid to have someone with his financial skills on call. It was Josh who had helped him discover that his former assistant, Xander, had been giving confidential information to an outside source. Josh’s expertise was valuable, and he needed it now.

“Not exactly,” Simon replied. “It might be something, or I might be paranoid.”

“What’s going on, Simon?” Josh pushed his sandy-blond hair out of his eyes. “What’s with all the subterfuge? Asking me to meet someplace nobody would recognize us?”

“I like my privacy.”

“Is someone robbing Dover?” Josh asked.

“I think someone is spying on me.”

Josh scoffed. “You’re paranoid.”

“Just hear me out,” Simon said.

“Fine.”

“There’s a story that’s about to break,” Simon began. “It’s about me and a relationship I’ve been having.”

“You? In a relationship?” Josh grinned. “Who is she?”

“It’s over.”

“Of course, it is.” Josh rolled his eyes. “Who is it? Someone famous?”

“Someone inconvenient,” he replied.

Josh’s eyebrows furrowed. “Inconvenient for whom?”

“Both of us.”

“Simon, I can’t kill the story,” Josh said. “I don’t do that kind of stuff.”

“Trust me, I tried killing it earlier today,” Simon said. “That’s not going to happen. I don’t need you to kill it. I need you to find out how it got out.”

“Well, maybe she talked,” Josh said. “You know how some people are. They go after you for a little money or attention.”

“I know that,” he said in exasperation. He knew that all too well. That was one of the reasons he was still single. It was impossible to know who to trust when he had so much money. When he had first struck it rich, almost everyone he came into contact with wanted a piece of him and his newfound wealth.

Getting rich so quickly had reminded him of the summer he’d had that growth spurt and subsequently got more attention from girls that he ever dreamed of. But he’d always had attention from Heather. She was the only one who had noticed him before he’d shed his nerdy exterior.

Which was why he felt so guilty about lying to her on the way over here. It seemed wrong to keep something like this from her, based on their history. Not only was the press going to come after her as well, but there was still an underlying friendship between them. Even if all hope of ever being more than friends had died when she slammed her front door in his face.

“So, maybe she talked,” Josh repeated.

“She would never do that,” Simon said bluntly. “I do think her ex-husband had something to do with it. She called him earlier today and he admitted that he talked to a reporter.”

Josh rubbed his hands together. “The plot thickens.”

A waiter appeared with their orders, salmon for Josh and grilled shrimp for Simon, and promptly left.

Simon reached for his fork and popped a shrimp into his mouth. “I don’t think it’s all down to the ex-husband. Someone else has something to do with this. The timing of the story is too suspicious. This story is about to come out right when our new products are hitting the market. That can’t be a coincidence.”

Josh frowned. “Corporate espionage?”

“I think somebody got a reporter to call the ex-husband. Somebody pushed the reporter to this story. At first, I thought it might be someone in a law firm I do work with but...”

“The timing,” Josh finished for him.

“There are no coincidences in this business,” Simon said. “It’s like somebody has been waiting for me to screw up.”

“Is that what this secret girlfriend of yours is?” Josh asked. “A screw-up?”

Simon had told Heather that he regretted their affair. Had made the wrong choice by being with her. But that had been a complete lie. Heather wasn’t a screw-up or a mistake. She was everything. Everything he could never have. Everything he had to find a way to get over.

Because, if he didn’t get over her, he’d be stuck in this loop of insanity for the foreseeable future. She consumed every part of his day. From when he woke up in the morning after dreaming of her, to when he finally got over obsessively thinking about her and slipped off to sleep at night. Sleep that was filled with dreams of her.

There was no escaping her, and the insane thing about it was that he didn’t want to. He had actually been relieved when she turned down the chance to move to a different department. Being obsessed with the one woman he could never have put things into perspective for him. Before she came back into his life, everything had been dull. Grey. And, truth be told, lonely as all hell.

He’d never been this hung up on a woman before. Nothing distracted him from his work. Yet here he was, shirking work responsibilities to start an investigation based on a nagging feeling that there was something he had to protect Heather from.

“No,” Simon finally said, “she isn’t. But she’s in my past now.”

“Tough break,” Josh said. “Well, who do you spend most of your time with?”

Simon mulled over the question. “My assistant.”

“Then, that’s the culprit,” Josh said. “It was your assistant last time, and it would make sense now.”

“No, that can’t be right,” Simon said harshly. “There’s no way Heather would want this to get out.”

“How can you be so sure?” Josh asked.

“It can’t be her,” Simon said. “Trust me on this.”

“You’re screwing your assistant, aren’t you?”

“Dammit, Josh,” he whispered harshly.

“Sorry,” Josh said and shrugged. “What am I supposed to think?”

“Don’t talk about Heather like that,” he growled, leaning closer. “That’s not what we are. She’s not just some lay.”

“Okay. I’m sorry.” Josh shoved a bite of salmon into his mouth and chewed. “I just...I’ve never seen you get worked up over a woman before.”

“We’re not close enough for you to know a damn thing about my personal life,” Simon said. “Look, it’s not her.”

“Where did she work before?” Josh asked. “Your assistant. Heather.”

Simon let his fork drop, the sound reverberating across the restaurant. “That hardly matters.”

“You’ve only been working with her for a short time,” Josh said. “You have no idea if you can trust her. You’re here asking for my help. So, let me help you. Where did your assistant used to work, Simon?”

He gave Josh a hard stare, his typically restrained anger making his body go taut. “VLA Technologies.”

“Dover’s main rival?” Josh whistled and leaned back in his seat. “What if she seduced you to screw you over? What if this whole thing has been a setup?”

“It’s not,” Simon hissed loudly.

Every patron in the restaurant turned to stare at him but he didn’t care. There was no way Heather could have done what Josh was accusing her of. Sure, she had started their working relationship with a lie, but she had only done that to protect herself. It was only natural for her to want to avoid conflict if she was looking for a job.

“Do the math, Simon. Your PA got fired because of insider trading. You hire a new one very quickly, almost like a rush job, right?” He didn’t wait for Simon to respond. “Then this... this girl is swooning over you, somehow manages to get the vault known as Simon Diesel open. She lost her job or quit her old job and you’re the one who hired her. She seduces you, the story gets leaked to the media, and yet she’s still innocent?” Josh sighed. “I’m not trying to throw around accusations.”

“So, don’t,” Simon warned through gritted teeth. “I want you to get to the bottom of this with evidence.”

“That I can do,” Josh said. “After I start investigating, the first task is writing up a list of possible suspects. I’ll get that list to you as soon as I can. We can proceed from there.”

“I’m not telling you how to do your job.” Simon shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He hadn’t wanted to blow up at Josh, but he wasn’t going to let anyone make accusations against Heather. Not when a news story that could destroy her reputation was about to break. He refused to believe what Josh was suggesting. He knew once Josh did some investigating he’d realize it, too.

“I get it,” Josh replied. “I’m not trying to make baseless accusations. I just want to be upfront. Sometimes my investigations reveal very unpleasant things, and it’s best that you know that now.”

“Find out who’s trying to fuck me over. I’ll take care of the rest.”

They finished eating; Simon picked up the tab and headed back to the office. It was pouring rain by the time he raced into the lobby. He dried off in the bathroom and head into Heather’s office, to find out what was so important that he’d missed.

The sight in front of him pierced his heart.

Heather was sitting at her desk, tears streaming down her face.