Scandalous novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: Caught

"I lied," I said.

There wasn't any point in saying otherwise.

Burke didn't move.

He stood with one hand on the back of the chair, studying me.

"About which part?"

"The part where I worked at Arbor and Quill."

"And the rest?"

"The rest is true. I'm organized, I'm unflappable, and I'm good at this job."

"You are good at it," he said. "I looked at your schedule for tomorrow. You rearranged my Tuesday and saved me forty minutes."

"Thank you."

"That wasn't a compliment. It was an observation." He took off his jacket and hung it on the chair. "Sit."

I sat.

He didn't sit.

He leaned against the desk with his arms folded, close enough that I could smell his soap.

It was the same soap, and my body remembered it before my mind did.

"Why lie about a company that no longer exists?"

"Because no one hires a girl whose last company went under."

"That's not the same as inventing a job."

"My family's business failed," I said. "Badly. In front of everyone we know. My father's name isn't something I can put on a page."

That was true, and it was almost all I could safely say.

The rest was my father, waiting by his phone for what I had found.

His eyes narrowed.

"What was the business?"

"I'd rather not."

"I'd rather you did."

"Then you'd rather be disappointed."

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