Chapter 14: After the Gala

Brody's phone rang before either of us had let go.

He answered with my hip still in his hand.

"Yes." He listened. "Which camera? And who pulled it?"

I picked my badge up off the concrete and waited.

"Understood. Nobody goes near it until I'm up there." He hung up. "The stairwell feed was wiped six minutes ago, from inside our own system."

"So whoever it was already has the video."

"Yes."

"Of us kissing."

"Of you with your hands in my shirt, yes."

I should have been sick.

I waited for it, standing in a service stairwell with a camera pointed at my mouth and Hayes's voice still in my ear.

What I felt instead was clear and cold and almost calm.

"He already has the island," I said. "Hundreds of photographs. A kiss on a staircase doesn't make it worse."

"It makes it worse for the board."

"Then it's already bad for the board."

I wound the lanyard around my fist.

"Brody, I've spent two weeks doing everything right so nobody could say I did something wrong. He still got the photographs."

"Maddie."

"I'm tired of being careful for people who aren't."

He looked at me for a long moment.

"My office," he said. "The elevator's too slow."

We took the stairs.

On thirty-one the floor was dark except for the city through the glass wall.

He locked the door behind us and didn't turn on a light.

I stood by the desk where I had put down an envelope two weeks ago.

"Terms," he said, low. "I'm required to say it once."

"Overruled."

He crossed the room in three steps and kissed me hard enough to put me back against the desk.

His hands were everywhere.

They pushed my jacket off my shoulders and found the zipper of my dress.

Keep reading free with an account. Start I Fled My Wedding, Slept With a Stranger, and He's My New Boss from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.