I froze. He had to be fucking kidding me. But there was no cheeky smile incoming. Charlie jerked a thumb toward Jordan’s office. “Better hop to it, girlfriend. He’s hungover from partying all week at Comic-Con and not in the best of moods.”
Shit. Shit. Shit. This was already proving to be a fantabulous day. Goddamn it. I spun and walked back out the door, taking a long pull from my now tepid cup of coffee. Fantabulous and long-ass day.
Seriously, how could it get worse?
Chapter 2
Jordan
It was well into lunch hour, but I’d lost my appetite. Instead of eating, I paced beside the back wall of my office, staring out the floor-to-ceiling windows at the greenery and that weird, giant, marble, sphere-shaped fountain in our inner atrium garden. While I’d been called into an impromptu meeting, my new intern had left lunch on my worktable, complete with a little message scrawled on a sticky note, punctuated with a smiley face. I’d promptly crumpled it into a ball and hurled it across the room. No one was fucking smiling in this room, nor in the offices next to me.
I strode to my desk and opened up my laptop to watch the incriminating video again. I’d been so shocked when Weston, our PR guy, had shown it to us fifteen minutes ago, I’d hardly had a chance to take note of any telling details. Nor had I been aware of exactly how viral it had gone.
And sure enough, all it took was a Google search of “Comic-Con Cosplay Sex” that showed as the first hundred hits. On every social media platform imaginable. Holy fuck.
I hit play and sat back, taking in the background and foreground of the non-descript hotel room—standard furniture and few personal belongings. Forcing myself to ignore the passionate couple in the middle of the screen, I scoured for any detail that my boss might be able to take note of and use to figure out our identities. He’d already spotted my employee badge in the corner of the frame with the name blocked out. Thank God for that, because my ass was on the line here. Adam would crap bricks if he knew it was me. He was already pitching fits about it to begin with, and now I was in the unenviable position of lying to my best friend to save my own miserable skin. Helpless rage burned again.
But hearing the sounds the girl was making on the video was also starting to turn me on, and hot anger soon mingled with lust. I couldn’t sit here and listen to those delicious noises and not get turned on. It immediately brought to mind the feel of her skin under my hands, the way her body had felt against mine. I clenched my jaw, trying to get a hold of myself.
I studied her tight little ass again and that weird tattoo. April Weiss, one the hottest in our latest crop of silly college interns, now was the bane of my existence.
What the hell had I been thinking?
I hadn’t been thinking. That was the problem. I’d been drunk and enjoying my anonymity at the bar. No one had known who I was in the armor and helmet, and while I’d been getting a perfect buzz on, that delectable intern in her skintight leggings and halter top had plopped down next to me, assuming I didn’t know who she was.
And I’d tapped that.
Because hell, why not?
Except she was an intern at my company, and the interns, my boss had warned, were strictly off-limits. But as we sat drinking at the bar, she’d told me that she’d fantasized about having anonymous sex. And I was a guy who had fulfilled a few fantasies in his lifetime.
I was giving and selfless like that.
Well, okay, not entirely. I had to admit that I’d wanted a taste of her since the minute I’d laid eyes on her last fall. But because she was out of bounds, I’d restrained myself. In my drunken state, I’d rationalized that if she never knew, I could get her out of my system and we’d both move on, no harm done.
Only now it was safe to say that harm had been done. I didn’t know what to make of the video’s existence. I could only assume she had made it. But why? And why not tell me she was doing it?
I’d been into what was going on and pleasantly buzzed, but I would have liked to think I’d notice something like that. Unless this was some kind of sting operation. Unless she’d known exactly who I was and wanted something to hold over my head…
I shook my head, trying to figure out what to do, my mind racing. Should I fire her immediately? Should I get a private investigator on it? What about legal takedown notices? Since it was a video of me, I could do that, but I risked exposing myself. Not gonna happen.
My fist closed in frustration, pounding on the desk. All hell was about to break loose because of this damn video. I needed a plan and I needed it fast.
As if hearing my thoughts, Adam, my best friend and boss, busted through the door without knocking, clicking it closed behind him.