But I was learning that Jordan Fawkes was not a decent person.
He was, however, still inches from my face. With each breath I exhaled, he inhaled, and the cloud of air between us grew steaming hot in seconds, our chests rising and falling. The tension between us thickened.
I was in trouble. So much trouble. Because I’d vowed I’d never, ever be the girl who slept with her boss.
And I’d had every intention of holding to that. Until the moment when I found out I’d already slept with him—one thrilling night of not-so-anonymous sex. Now the rug had been yanked out from underneath me and I was in danger of forgetting that very important vow.
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.