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“I’m fine. I don’t need your help.” Ivy grabbed the back of a chair.

“There is a problem with the matches,” Diadora said. “We have a number of candidates who have jumped to the top of the list. That must be your doing.”

“No, I had nothing to do with that.” Ivy took a shaky breath. “I did figure out what Karn had done. I tried to fix it. I thought I’d deleted those new matches and solved the problem. I didn’t want to bother you with something so trivial. I figured you’d never find out.”

“You should have reported it to me,” Diadora said. “You should not have protected Karn. You let your emotions get the better of you.”

“I didn’t protect him.” Ivy clamped her lips together. She had, and she didn’t know why. Was one orgasm on the desk with Karn muddling her emotions?

“Ivy did call security,” Vegas said. “She made sure Karn didn’t get away with messing with the database.”

“Then she covered for him,” Diadora said. “Why do that if she isn’t involved in this?”

Ivy’s chin dropped to her chest. She’d behaved irrationally and nothing like her normal self. When she’d been with Karn, she’d forgotten all her concerns. It was as if touching that alien had made everything better.

It couldn’t be real. It reminded Ivy of her last relationship. She’d done stupid things to protect her idiot boyfriend, Marcus. Even when he’d stolen and cheated on her, she’d kept making excuses because he had a way of making her feel amazing. He knew what to say to make her feel like the most amazing woman in the world. It had taken her over a year to see through his lies and realize what a dirt bag he was.

She wasn’t like that anymore. Ivy was better than that. Or was she? Her recent actions suggested otherwise.

“I understand, when you’re interested in someone, you might not act rationally,” Vegas said. “They don’t call it love sick for nothing.”

Ivy glared at Vegas. “Don’t start lecturing me about relationships and acting sensibly. I still haven’t figured out how you’re dating Solan and get to keep your job.”

“This is not the same thing.” Vegas glanced at Diadora. “Solan withdrew his profile from My Single Alien. His match didn’t mind. She joined the new flying corp and is having fun in the stars learning how to fly all kinds of amazing alien craft. No one missed out.”

“A likely story. Have you got something on Diadora, so she had no choice but to let you date Solan? Talk about breaking the rules.”

“Their situation is different,” Diadora said. “We have come to an acceptable arrangement. You lied to me. You covered a deception by your match. I cannot trust you.”

“I wasn’t helping him,” Ivy said. “I had him arrested.”

“When were you going to tell me about this?” Diadora leaned back in her seat. “Or were you going to drop the charges on your alien lover and slink away?”

“Of course not. Karn is not my lover.”

“You’ve never been intimate with him?”

“No! I mean it’s not like we’re an item.” Ivy heard the lie. It had been a few dates and some serious making out. It meant nothing.

“You’ve not been dating?”

“Not seriously. I’m not even that into him.”

“Yet the two of you were seen in the store recently, buying groceries together. That suggests more than friendship to me,” Diadora said.

Ivy’s glare returned to Vegas. Vegas must have been the one to report seeing Ivy and Karn in the store.

Vegas shook her head slightly. “When we care about someone, we often put a lot on the line for them.”

“I’ve put nothing on the line for Karn.” Ivy slammed her hands on the desk. Her stomach twisted, and she pressed on it again. “I don’t care if he rots inside the holding cell. Throw him into space; see if I mind.”

The look on Vegas’s annoyingly smug face suggested she didn’t believe her. It only made Ivy angrier. Vegas didn’t know her. They worked together, but that was it. They weren’t friends.

Ivy needed to get control of this situation. “I am not in a relationship with Karn. I am not working with him.”

“That is for me to decide,” Diadora said. “The fact you submitted a profile to be matched is one breach of your employment contract. The fact you were then seen with this match after he’d broken into this office suggests you have a deeper connection than you’re admitting to. Your relationship might not yet be romantic, but it is of a criminal nature. That will not be tolerated.”

“I can talk to Karn,” Ivy said. “He’ll tell you I had nothing to do with this.” She needed to talk to him and break this freaky hold he had over her. She didn’t know what it was about this alien, but he made her restless. She hated it. Her life here was good. Everything was settled. She didn’t need this trouble.