It wasn’t comfortable, but I grabbed onto that sensation and threw myself into it along with the kiss. It was a fool’s fancy to think that some sort of new bond could grow when an old one had been severed. But I was ready to believe in fairy tales with a handsome hero like Jack kissing me into oblivion.
Eventually, Jack rocked back, taking a vocal breath. “Wow,” he gasped. “I guess I got a little carried away there.”
I laughed loudly, then slapped a hand over my mouth until I felt like I could let it go without turning hysterical. “I can’t imagine what we must look like together,” I said. “The pink and purple-haired omega with a lip ring and tattoos and the straitlaced alpha in a designer suit.”
“You can’t really see any of your tattoos the way you’re dressed right now,” Jack said, his smile warm. “But I know where they all are and what they all look like.”
My heart flipped. Fuck, I shouldn’t have loved him so much as quicky as I did. It would lead to nothing but disaster.
“You’d better go,” I said in a gravelly voice. “I need to get back to work.”
“Yeah, you should,” Jack said.
I pushed up to my toes to kiss him one more time, we hugged, and then we parted.
It was like trying to walk uphill in acid rain with an elastic cord attaching us for me to walk away from Jack and back to the hotel. I couldn’t look back at him as we separated, even though I wanted to. I wouldn’t have been able to keep walking if I knew he was standing there watching me go.
I did glance back over at the park as I waited for the light to turn green right in front of the hotel, but Jack wasn’t anywhere in sight. It was a relief in some ways, but when I instinctively tried to feel my way along what my deepest soul knew should have been a bond between us to at least gauge which direction he was in, I slammed up hard against that invisible glass wall within me.
That was probably why I was near tears when I took the elevator up to the hotel’s offices. Maybe it really was time to up the dosage of my meds or seek additional help or something. Falling in love with Jack was beautiful in some ways, but it was going to shred my soul and every last ounce of my control.
“Hey, Quincy, can I see you in here for a minute?” Amelia’s voice caught me as I walked past her office.
I cringed, then took a few backward steps until I stood in her doorway. I wasn’t dumb enough not to know what she wanted to talk to me about.
“Hi,” I said, walking into her office, then taking a seat in one of the chairs in front of her desk even before she could indicate for me to.
Amelia sighed and mirrored my tired, deflated, wary expression. “Yeah,” she said.
“Yep,” I answered.
For a few seconds, we just stared at each other. Then she said, “Senator Salisbury wanted me to fire you.”
I jerked to sit straight. It shouldn’t have surprised me, not after everything with Jack’s money, but it did a little.
“Like, fire me fire me? Not just remove me from working with Chester—erm, Mr. Monk?” I asked, eyes wide.
I could tell Amelia made a note of the fact that I’d called Chester by his first name, but she had other things to address first.
“You know how these society alphas with money and position can be,” she said with a tight wave of her hand that was probably supposed to be casual, but totally wasn’t.
“I definitely know how they can be,” I said with a slow nod. I was in the middle of getting a sharp lesson about that.
“I said no, of course,” Amelia went on.
My eyes went wide. “You did? You actually told a senator that you wouldn’t fire me?”
“Absolutely,” Amelia said, folding her arms on her desk and grinning victoriously. “This is my hotel and my team. I refuse to let some puffed up alpha with delusions of grandeur, a man who is only here for one event and who might lose the election for governor in the fall, dictate to me whether I should fire one of the best team members I have.”
“Amelia,” I started apologetically, “I’m hardly one of the best team members you have. My mental challenges?—”
“Cause you to think outside the box and give you an extraordinary degree of compassion and understanding,”Amelia finished for me. “You picked up on things that none of the rest of us did for the Barrington Psychological Society’s annual conference this past winter. You’re insightful and dedicated?—”
“But not particularly reliable,” I stopped her, remembering how many times I’d ended up in the bathroom in tears while setting up the psychology conference.
Amelia made a scoffing noise. “Are you going to let me defend you or are you going to do Senator Salisbury’s work of cutting you down for him?”
Her question was blunt enough to stop my spiral in its tracks. “Thank you for not firing me,” I said, fighting to drum up the courage I needed to fight back. For my sake and for Jack’s.
