He turned around and gave me what I didn’t expect. A smile. What?
“Why are you smiling? I’m about to tell you bad news. B. A. D.”
“Your spelling skills are better than your margin ones.” His dimples were flashing, and my heart thudded double time. I was going to miss his gorgeous face, even if it wasn’t mine to miss. Maybe I was meant to live small, but I could live big in mydreams, and that face was not going to vacate my memory any time soon.
“Thanks. I worked hard at university for that. Three-letter words are my specialty.” I returned his smile but quickly dropped it because, well…. “Anyway, let me ruin the rest of the day for both of us and tell you what I need to.”
He walked around his desk, behind my chair, and sat in the seat next to me. He shuffled it to face me and leaned forward. If he got any closer, I was going to faint from the hormones clogging my arteries, stopping the blood flow to my brain. “I already know.”
I blinked, reminding myself to breathe. “You know?” Did he think I was going to say something else? How could he know?
“Yes.”
“Are you sure it’s what you think?”
“Yes, but please go ahead and tell me. I’ve been waiting for you to come clean.” Thankfully, he leaned back, allowing me to fill my lungs with less sexily scented air.
“Your aunt and father asked me to spy on you for them. If I didn’t do it, I was eventually going to lose my job, so I figured I might as well. But not because I wanted to.” I shook my head and gripped the chair bottom with both hands, as if hanging on would make this easier. “Argh, that came out wrong. What I meant is that I didn’t know if you were what they hinted you might be…. Someone who might sabotage his own company, someone who preys on women and uses his wealth and position to intimidate others.” His eyes widened, and I was sure that was pain glinting from the depths of his baby blues. I hurried on, not wanting to prolong my admission. “If you were… that kind of a person, I figured it would be a job well done. But I can see you’re not that person, and I’m sorry I agreed to it. I really just wanted to keep my job and get to the truth.” By the end, I was speaking at a million miles a minute. It was a relief to sit back and let out the infected-with-secrets air. I only wished I hadn’t hurt Curtis’s feelings in the process. Was I just another person in a long line who’d let him down?
I might be out of a job, but I wasn’t going to lose anymore sleep. My days of lying to Curtis were over. The peace of that soothed my heart more than I expected. Maybe not all rich men were weasels. Considering what his father was doing to him, I’d say only four out of five rich guys were scum. “So, I’m sorry. Really sorry.”
“I appreciate that, Faith. What gave it away?”
“That you aren’t a sleazebag?” I winced. That wasn’t great word choice.
Thankfully, he laughed. And it was glorious, warming my insides, making me want to join in. I’d never seen him laugh before, actual big joy coming from his usual grumpy, serious countenance. “Yes.”
“That brings me to my next piece of information. My best friend, Amy—the one I live with—she’s a lawyer for a huge firm, and they have a great IT security department. She had someone research the social media account that started the rumor about you supposedly trying to force a young woman into sleeping with you in return for representation. We found her. Her name’s Cassie Thomas. We can prove she was in another state, and you were out of the country when the supposed incident happened.”
He raised one eyebrow. “Are you sure? Our legal department was looking into it… or so they told me. They said it was almost impossible to discover who was behind it, but they’d keep trying.”
“Well, they either weren’t trying too hard, or they didn’t think to get your IT security department involved.” My brow tightened. “Did you speak to them directly?”
“No. Margie was dealing with it.” He sat back, frowning, and stared down at his hands in his lap. He slowly shook his head and met my gaze again. “She wouldn’t have betrayed me, surely. There must be one damned person I can trust around here.” He shot tohis feet and strode to the window, his jaw set. Staring at the view must be a way he calmed himself.
I stood and walked to him. I didn’t get too close—I was still probably the enemy in his eyes—but he deserved someone to be there for him. I wanted so badly to reach out and touch him, give him the comfort he so clearly needed. “I know it’s crazy for me to say after everything, but there is. You can trust me. And if you don’t want to, maybe call Jack. I know he’d want to help. Surely, you can trust him.” From what I’d seen of their relationship, they were close.
He turned, his tall, broad-shouldered sexiness backlit by dusky, cloud-filtered light. At the risk of sounding pathetic, he took my breath away. If only I was someone he could fall for. Idiot Faith was well and truly alive and kicking. At least Curtis had enough sense for both of us because if he wanted me, I wouldn’t have the strength to say no. Is this how the male praying mantis felt when he found the female mantis of his dreams? He was happy to die for the cause? “Have you told anyone else what you told me?”
“No. Stephanie called me earlier, asking for an update. I told her I didn’t have one. That was the point I decided I was going to come clean to you. You don’t deserve what’s happening. Me keeping my job isn’t worth what they’re doing to you.” Not that I knew exactly who all the “they” were. The next part made me nervous. He might not believe me. As annoying as he found Victoria lately, they were old friends. I was just the lying, spying, donut-squishing loser. I had the proof in my computer for him to compare, but he might decide she’d done it accidentally. And maybe if confronted, she’d blame her assistant and chalk it up to a few mistakes. Despite the low odds of being believed, I had to try. “Anyway, before I leave, I have one more thing. I was going through the campaigns of clients that’ve left, and I might have discovered why you lost those accounts.”
Before I could explain that Queen V had been swapping outapproved assets for subpar ones, the door opened, and the traitor herself came in.Shit. I quickly looked at Curtis and made as subtle a face as I could to say, “Don’t say anything.” I didn’t know for sure if she was working against him, but it appeared to be that way. The last thing Curtis needed was her having more ammunition, and if she was working against him, she might be working with his dad, and she’d tell him Curtis knew something was going on.
Curtis frowned at me and gave me an “I don’t understand” look before turning his attention to the evil, fabulously heeled one.
Queen V, or should that be Queen B for bitch, stopped and peered at him, then me. “What’s going on here? Nothing inappropriate, I hope.” Her pink-taloned finger waved from Curtis to me a few times. “You both look suspicious.” And why did she sound like that would be a juicy piece of information that would work in her favor?
Curtis, please don’t say anything. I’d never wished for telepathy more in my life.
“Of course not. Faith had some interesting news to tell me.”Argh, nooooooo! He thought he could trust her, but I knew better. Or maybe he was put off by the suggestion that he would engage in inappropriateness with me and was looking for a way out of an awkward conversation about the fact we werenothaving sex. Because we weren’t. No matter how much my vagina voted for it.
“It can wait.” I gave him a strained smile. I’d leave to get out of this, but then he might tell her everything I’d already spilled. How did I warn him not to say anything without verbalizing it?
“No. Please tell us,” Queen B said through a smug smile that grated on every nerve in my tense body. I’d love to rip one of her stilettoes off and shove the point up her ass.
I gave Curtis one last pleading look. He just raised his brows as if to say, “Go on.”
This was an emergency.
