"Oh, yeah?" He quirks a brow. "Do you sweat?"
"Uh…"
"Do you scream?"
I narrow my eyes at him.
"Do you come all over me?" He saunters toward me, smirking like the devil. "I'll take your silence as a retraction of your previous statement."
"It is not a retraction. Sex is sex. Work is work." I toss a pamphlet at him, impressed when he actually manages to catch it. "You need to look this over and approve it."
"Why?"
"Because your face is all over it?"
He pauses, flipping it open. His gaze scans across it for no more than a second before he drops it on the table. "Approved."
"Briggs," I groan, laughing. "You didn't even read it! It could say anything."
"But it doesn't," he says confidently. "I know you better than that, Tia. I trust you. You haven't worked as hard as you have on this just to do some shady shit now. You want this too much."
"Yeah," I whisper, my chest pulsing, "I really do."
"I know you do. It matters to you too much for you to fuck around with it," he says. "Those kids and their futures matter too much."
I nod, grateful he understands. Maybe I thought letting him help was a terrible idea when he first appeared in my office, but… we're already doing a lot of good. Good we never would have been able to do if it weren't for him.
I love him for that. I really do.
"By the way," he says after a moment, peeling a banana. "I heard through the grapevine that Daniel Jordan's contract isn't being renewed."
I startle, staring at him with wide eyes. "You heard through the grapevine?"
"The grapevine has a lot to say," he says, shrugging casually, like he's just reporting the gossip when I know damn well he's the architect of this particular downfall.
"What did you do?" I ask, my heart in my throat.
"Me? Nothing."
"Briggs…"
"I didn't do anything, beautiful," he says, dropping the banana peel into the trash. "I just let Karsen know that he's a fucking creep who should be destroyed. Karsen handled it from there."
Karsen knows.
Old panic surges through me for a moment, weakening my knees. I stumble backward, sinking into the chair, my whole body trembling.
"Shit." Briggs is across the kitchen in two steps, kneeling in front of me. "It's okay, Tia. I'm right here."
"I'm fine," I gasp, shaking my head. My heart is racing like I just ran five miles, but the panic is already receding. "I just…" I'm not even sure I know how to explain or if there is anything to explain. "Does Karsen know?"
"I didn't give him your name or any specifics," he promises, clasping my hands in his. "I just let him know the gist."
I nod, trying to fit that into my mind.
"You know I'd never betray your confidence," he says, his voice soft…almost disappointed.
"I know. I know. I just…" I shrug helplessly. "For a split second, it felt like being back there." I give him a tremulous smile. "It was stupid."
