“If you’re so insistent at wanting to have this conversation right here, right now, in the middle of the night, then I’m going to warn you that I’ll have to go with my gut and break things off.”
Break things off? She couldn’t mean that. What he’d kept from her wasn’t a big deal. He was allowed to keep his life private until he saw fit to share with her.
Just looking into her seething stare, he knew that thought wasn’t quite right. Jane was hurting. This was more than just keeping a secret. He’d broken her somehow. Slowly, he climbed to his feet, but when he moved to get closer to her, she held up a hand.
“Don’t,” she hissed.
His hands dropped to his sides listlessly. All he wanted to do was pull her into his arms and assure her that this changed nothing. He was still the same man she knew him to be. But she wouldn’t even allow that.
Jane shook her head and blinked, causing a solitary tear to slide down her cheek. With a quick, rough brush of her hand, she wiped it away. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” She whispered, her tone both menacing and broken.
“I didn’t?—”
“Don’t you dare say you didn’t know what you were doing. You knew exactly what you were doing when you chose to keep that secret. I can’t believe you didn’t trust me with that information. What did you think would happen? That I’d try to steal it? You know my views on money. You know that I don’t find value in that sort of thing like other people do.”
“That’s why?—”
She cut him off again, her words spilling like a dam had been broken open at his arrival. “I work hard to be recognized for everything I’ve accomplished in my life. I’m not the prettiest. I’mnot the smartest. But I work my butt off. My reputation in this field is everything I have, Noah.”
“And you’ve done a good job at it.”
She snorted. “Have I? Tell me, then, Noah. How does it look when a subordinate in a company starts dating someone in charge, and suddenly, they get a raise and a promotion?”
A cold, hard rock formed in the pit of his stomach, and he muttered a curse. She was right. To anyone paying attention, it would look like he played favorites. “That’s not how it is, Jane,” he attempted.
“It doesn’t matter what it’slike, Noah, and you know that better than anyone. What matters is how itlooks—what can be proven and measured. And the fact of the matter is that the second you entered my life, I started moving up inyourcompany.” Another tear spilled down her cheek. “It only takes one moment to tear down all the hard work I’ve done to make a name for myself in this world.”
“Couples work together all the time,” he tried again. “And we don’t even work together. You report to someone else entirely.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Did you or did you not recommend me for my position?”
He snapped his mouth shut. He had told more than one person how impressed he’d been with her work on the first gala she was involved with. He’d even suggested that she was overqualified for the work she was currently doing. But he hadn’t forced anyone’s hand. No one would be able to prove that he was the one who’d given her a boost.
More tears fell, and she stifled a sob. “You did, didn’t you?” Her voice was just above a whisper. “You got me that promotion.”
“Jane…”
She shook her head and turned her back on him. “Tell me one thing, Noah. Was this all just a big joke to you? Like that marriage pact and?—”
He rushed at her, grasping her shoulders in his hands as he turned her to face him. “Nothing about our relationship is a joke,” he growled. “I recommended you for that position because you were good at your job, nothing more. I recommended a salary increase because that job was demanding and deserved a higher wage. Nothing I did was out of pity or because I wanted to toy with you.”
Jane’s features didn’t shift throughout his tirade. He couldn’t tell if he was getting through to her, or if she had already checked out and wasn’t willing to listen to his side of things.
“There’s nothing anyone can do. Your job isn’t in jeopardy. You won’t get fired or called in to HR. Up until tonight, no one besides my board knew my identity.”
“And because you were so insistent at hiding it, now it’s all everyone is talking about. They want to know your whole life’s story, Noah. Have you considered that? They’re going to figure out who your family is, what they do for a living, if you’re dating anyone?—”
His grip tightened on her upper arms. “If?IfI’m dating someone? I’m datingyou, Jane.”
She lowered her gaze to the floor, and he dropped his hands to his sides. It was clear she understood the way her previous words contrasted with her thoughts right now.
“Please look at me,” he whispered.
She took a long moment and finally looked him in the eyes. She was more than upset, but she was bold enough to not look away when he asked her not to.
“We’re still dating.” He said it to convince himself more than anything else. He reached up and brushed a tear from her cheek with his thumb. “Nothing has changed. I’m still the same person.”
Her eyes focused on him, and they turned hard before she pulled away from him. “I don’t know you, Noah. Not really.”
