So technically they’re not wrong.
The thought makes me want to throw up.
I wait until most everyone’s gone. Then I stand up, smooth my blazer, and walk into Nico’s office.
He looks up from his laptop. God, he’s gorgeous in this light. The fading afternoon sun catches the sharp lines of his face, throws shadows across those scarred cheekbones, and makes his dark eyes seem even darker. And that mouth, which has been on me so many times—
Focus, Bree.
“People are talking,” I say simply.
He leans back in his chair. “About?”
“About us.” I close the door behind me. The click sounds louder than it should. “About me. About why I’m suddenly in meetings I wasn’t in before. About why we both stay late every night.”
He shrugs. “Letthem talk.”
The dismissiveness in his voice makes something snap inside me.
“Easy for you to say.” My voice comes out sharper than intended. “You’re the billionaire CEO. You could have a different woman in here every night and people would high-five you in the break room. I’m the secretary they think is sleeping her way to the top.”
His jaw tightens. “You’re more than that. A lot fucking more.”
“Buttheydon’t know that.” I step closer, feeling the frustration build in my chest. “And neither do you, apparently, since you still treat me like furniture in front of them.”
He frowns. “That’s not fair.”
“Really? In that donor meeting earlier, Brown asked about the governance structure. The one I designed three weeks ago. And Paloma credited ‘the team.’ You sat right there and said nothing.”
Nico’s silent for a long moment. His fingers tap once against his desk. Twice.
“If I start giving you public credit,” he says slowly, “it’ll only make the rumors worse. You know that, right?”
“So either way I lose?” I shake my head. “I stay invisible and my work gets credited to everyone else, or you acknowledge me and people assume it’s because we’re screwing?”
“I didn’t say that,” he tells me.
“You didn’t have to.” I’m shaking now. “This isn’t sustainable,” I continue quietly. “Something has to change.”
Nico stands up from his desk. Moves toward me. “What do you want me to do, Bree?”
“I don’t know.” My voice cracks slightly. I hate that it cracks. “Acknowledge that this is harder for me than it is for you, maybe. That I’m the one whose reputation is being shredded while you get to stay the powerful CEO who everyone’s afraid to question.”
He reaches for me, but I step back.
“Later,” I say. “You haven’t even set the glass to opaque.”
“Your place tonight?”he asks.
I should tell him this is over, that the cost is too high, that I can’t become the story I fought so hard to escape.
But as I look at him standing there, with his scarred face and the vulnerability he only ever shows me, I can’t.
“Yes, of course,” I say softly. “But at some point we need to figure this out. Whateverthisis. Is it all just sex and lust? Or something more?”
I leave his office without looking back.
At my desk, I gather my things with shaking hands. My reflection stares back at me from the darkened computer screen.
