A smile eased out, and I traced the line of a baby’s jaw that had appeared on the screen when I prompted the search engine for images to go with my studies. Soon, I’d hold our child.
The door opened and Bethany walked in wearing another of her low-cut blouses and too-short skirts.
I bit down a groan but kept the icy frown in place.
“I brought you a coffee. It’s your favorite. Fresh beans and a splash of cream, just the way you like it.” She leaned over the desk, once again bending far more than necessary to place the cup next to my hand.
I pulled away, anger and disgust twisting my mouth. Her scent overwhelmed the fragrance of fresh coffee and clogged my nose. I attempted to wave it away, but her invasion of my personal space made it worse. “Perhaps you could wear something work appropriate from now on. Especially if you’re going to insist on leaning over my desk every five seconds.” I almost threatened to talk to HR, but that came back to the three of us, making it an empty threat.
Bethany jolted back a few inches but managed to stay far too close for my comfort. She pouted, her expression falling from a happy grin to a muted and disbelieving look. Instead of retreating like usual, she crossed her arms and propped her hip against the corner of the desk. Both moves caused her breasts to push upward. One wrong breath and they’d spill right out. Which was most likely her goal.
“Why are you pretending you’re not interested in me?”
Impertinent little bitch. “I am not pretending.” I’d rather spend the rest of my life alone than endure a night with someone like her, someone who tried to manipulate her way into my bed by using her body.
A slyness entered her eyes, and she licked her lower lip, giving me that slow once over that I despised. “Oh, I don’t believe that’s true. If you would go for someone like Harper, I believe you’d be more than thrilled to have someone like me give you a little attention.”
“Then you’d be mistaken.” I controlled the anger through years of willpower. As much as I would love to rise to my feet and loom over her, the power play would work to her advantage. “And you will never speak like that about Harper again.” Even that little speech risked giving me away, but defending Harper was second nature.
“We all know she slept with you.” Bethany ticked three fingers into the air. “You. Alexander. And Julian.” The grin turned mean and haughty all at the same time. “Even though there’s a strict company policy prohibiting that kind of behavior.”
I took a single, short breath to regain my control and laced my fingers together on top of the desk. “If you ever speak like that again, I will fire you. You get this one warning because you have performed well here. But I can have a new receptionist, one who knows her place, by the end of the day. I dare to say she might even do the job better than you.”
“Ah, threats. I thought you might try that.”
I held up a finger. “I’m not finished. You will never spew that kind of hateful gossip, not about Harper or anyone else. Besides”—I let my own smile turn vicious—“Harper no longerworks for this company, so what does it matter if we are seeing her?”
The gloating expression melted from her face faster than ice cream in May. She spluttered but no true words emerged. Red infused her cheeks, and she tightened her arms over her stomach. “Does this mean you’re still seeing her?”
“Why, Bethany, you sound like a jealous lover. Why would you dare take that tone with me?” This time I did stand. Resting both palms on the desk, I kept us at eye level. “What I do is none of your fucking business. Get out of my office. Now.”
I’d been told before that the controlled anger and my quiet delivery were scary enough to make hardened men shudder. It worked just as well on Bethany.
She pushed away from my desk with a gulp and hurried out the door, slamming it closed behind her.
If I had any other cause to let her go, I would use it. Truthfully, until these last few months, she’d been a model employee. What was it about the gossip surrounding Harper that made so many others think we would fall at their feet if they so much as batted their lashes?
After waiting to ensure Bethany did not about-face and storm back in, I lowered to my seat but resisted dropping my head into my hands. The defeated posture pulled at me, but I fought it back. How bad were the rumors about Harper? Were Alexander and Julian experiencing the same kind of reaction from our female employees? I’d neglected to ask them, and they hadn’t mentioned it.
36
ALEXANDER
A lingering tension hung thick in the air. Every time I took a breath, it stuck in my throat and threatened to choke me. I prowled around my office, spending as much time as I could alone before I was forced to head to the fifth floor. I’d already checked in with Julian, who sent me to the coffee corner to check the latest shipment, then I took a quick jog up the stairs to take off the edge of adrenaline that came out of nowhere.
I hit the landing on the fourth floor and pushed through the door, straight into the hallway leading to the accounting department. Harper’s name rolled my way, passed from mouth to mouth in a hushed whisper.
I stopped at the corner and tried to pinpoint the location, the people responsible for talking about the woman I loved. None of them had the right to hold her name in their mouths. It was the second time I’d heard these low, intense whispers of her name in the office, though no one had talked about her in months.
They should’ve been over any mention of her by now. Had someone seen her? But how? Yes, we’d taken the chopper backto New York, but our pilot was trustworthy, and we’d gone from the chopper to the car, and from there to Dante’s penthouse. Cameras? They would have captured the few moments of us going from place to place, but Julian handpicked our security. If one of them betrayed us, we had bigger issues than we’d ever thought.
The idea that everyone had a price that bought their loyalty hadn’t applied to the men we worked with on a day-to-day basis. Loyalty mattered, and we rewarded them.
“I’m sure that’s Harper.” A low, male voice wrenched me from my thoughts.
I stood at the corner, out of sight but listening.
Several voices joined in, and I gave in to all the rampaging energy sizzling through my veins. Time to do something productive. I kept my pace casual, my posture relaxed, and strolled toward the desk where our best accountant sat.
