Crossing the Line

by Maggie Cole

  “I would never do that to you.”

  “Well, I would never do anything to harm you or your career. I’m not that type of an asshole.”

  A small smile plays on her face, but she still doesn’t seem like she fully believes me.

  “I promise.”

  “So, you aren’t going to tell anyone?”

  “Is that a serious question?”

  “Yes.”

  “No, of course not. This is worse for me than you if this gets out.”

  “I doubt that.”

  I sigh. “No one is going to know because of me, and I would never harm your career. Can you please trust me on this.”

  “Okay. Thank you.”

  I’m relieved she seems to believe me, but it’s short-lived. “Are you going to tell me the real reason behind your list?”

  “No,” I blurt out.

  Hurt crosses her face once again. “So, it is about more than money?”

  It’s my turn to shift uncomfortably, but I don’t answer her.

  “Why won’t you tell me?”

  I shouldn’t be nasty, but I can’t help it. “It’s not your business.”

  “So, I’m supposed to work on projects blindly?”

  “Yes.”

  “Seriously? I think I have a right—”

  I snort and she furrows her brows at me. Before it comes out of my mouth, I know that it may be the worst thing yet I’ve said to her. But I need her to stop prying because if she knows the truth, it could put her in danger. “I didn’t choose to have you on this project. Just do your job and pick up your paycheck.”

  Her mouth falls open. A minute passes, and my stomach flips over and over. I totally disrespected her because her job means more than just a paycheck to her. And I already know that about her.

  God, you’re a miserable, nasty bastard.

  She quickly slips her laptop into her bag and slides out of her seat.

  Every ounce of me wants to take her in my arms and apologize and tell her the truth, just to appease her. But I don’t.

  Disgust, hatred, anger—her face is full of all of it. “Have a good weekend. Boss.” The last word hangs in the air, and I’ve just screwed up any chance with her I might ever have.

  The rest of the weekend drags by as I try to concentrate on work, but I can’t get Piper out of my mind. Several times an hour, I start to text her or call her to apologize, but I hold myself back.

  Probably best if this doesn’t go any further.

  Nope, it’s better if she hates me because I can’t put her at risk. She can run formulas and do analysis, but that’s it.

  I don’t know why Bennett had to get her involved anyway.

  Monday morning comes fast, and I’m outside Bennett’s office at 8 a.m. sharp.

  Bennett stops reading the paper when I knock on the door. “Good morning.”

  “Hey. I need to talk to you.”

  He points at the empty chair. “What’s going on, Noah?”

  “I need you to remove Piper from my projects.”

  “Oh?” He raises an eyebrow at me.

  “She doesn’t need to be involved in this. No one does. I can handle it on my own.”

  Bennett takes a deep breath. “That’s where you’re wrong. You can’t handle this on your own. I told you if you wanted to go after this, I would support you, but you can’t work yourself into the ground again.”

  Again. The word hangs in the air.

  “I’m fine.”

  “Now, yes.”

  “Bennett—”

  “No. I’m not going to change my mind, and I’m not going to take Piper off this and put anyone else on it. She’s the smartest cookie we have in the company, and she will be a valuable asset to you. She can learn a lot from you, too, and this can help promote her quicker into the vice president role I know she wants. I’m not going to hold her back because your ego wants you to do this all on your own.”

  My insides flip. The last thing I want to do is hold Piper back, but I don’t want her involved in this. “This could put her in danger.”

  “The company we buy isn’t the dangerous part, Noah. You know that. Let her run the numbers and do the analysis so we can find their weak spots.”

  “She’s too smart. She’s already asking questions.”

  Bennett laughs.

  “What is so funny?”

  “Of course she is, I told you she’s the smartest cookie we have here. She’s a huge asset to this company and a rising star.”

  “Just take her off it, please.”

  Bennett shakes his head. “No. You keep Piper. You allow her to help you so you don’t have another breakdown, and you teach her more about mergers and acquisitions, or I pull the plug on this project.”

  “Seriously?” I grumble.

  “Yes.” Bennett isn’t going to budge.

  I rub my hands over my face.

  “What else is going on that you don’t want her on this with you?”

  My heart races. “What do you mean?”

  He smirks at me.

  “What?”

  “Hey, she’s a perfect ten.”

  “You sound like a dirty old man now.” I try to avoid giving any of my feelings about Piper away.

  Bennett holds his hands in the air. “I’m just pointing out that she’s beautiful, around your age, and you two would challenge each other.”

  I scowl at him trying to dismiss it. “She’s my employee,” I grumble.

  A cocky, knowing expression appears on Bennett’s face. “I realize that the corporate policies are stricter today than they were in the past, but stuff happens. I may be old, but I’m not a fool.”

  “Well, I’m not interested,” I lie in my most convincing voice.

  Jeez. If Piper heard this conversation, she’d have a heart attack right now.

  I stand. I don’t want to discuss Piper with Bennett anymore. “So, you aren’t going to let me pull her off this, then?”

  Bennett sits back in his chair, and taps his fingers together. “Nonnegotiable.”

  I trudge toward the door. “Fine. If she gets hurt, it’s on your head.”

  “Don’t let her,” he calls after me. “And I expect you to mentor her.”

  Mentor her. Ugh. That’s the last thing I need to be doing.

  7

  Piper

  He’s the biggest asshole I know. There’s no doubt in my mind, and I curse myself for the millionth time for sleeping with him.

  Well, you didn’t actually sleep with him. You just let him fuck you into oblivion for ten hours straight.

  I try to push my thoughts away as I get off the elevator. It’s the middle of the week, and I’ve managed to avoid him. Well, except through email or Google sheets, and one text conversation. That was exceptionally fun.

  On Monday morning, I received a text from Noah. “Can you update the risk analysis report?”

  “Can you communicate with me via the company email and not my personal cell phone?”

  After that, it was all email and Google sheets.

  When I get to my office, he’s sitting in the chair across from my desk.

  Seriously? He can’t even respect my personal office?

  “What are you doing here?” I snarl at him.

  He turns in his seat with a cocky expression on his face. “Good morning to you, too.”

  Glaring at him, I hurl, “What are you doing in my office?”

  “Waiting for you.”

  “Why?”

  “I wanted to see how early you get here.” He attempts to joke with me, but I’m not giving him an inch.

  “Noah, what do you want?” I snap.

  He sighs. “Bennett wants an update at noon today and requires us both to be there.”

  I ignore him and take off my coat and put it on the hook near the door.

  He stands and comes closer to me. I take a step back, and he stops. An expression I can’t figure out passes across his face. He reaches past me and closes the door.


  “What are you doing?”

  My heart is thumping so hard, I’m sure he can hear it.

  “I’m sorry I was a dick to you. But you can’t act like this around Bennett.”

  I snap my head up at him. “No, you aren’t.”

  “Yes—”

  “Stop. I don’t want to hear your I’m a dick, I’m not a dick bullshit mind-game crap. Just stop.”

  Noah runs his hand through his hair and exhales hard. “Okay. But you still can’t act like this around Bennett.”

  I throw some more daggers at him. “And how exactly am I supposed to act, Boss?”

  “Well, don’t say that, whatever you do.”

  I fold my arms over my chest.

  “Can we get on the same team for a bit here?” He raises his eyebrow at me, and I want to slap him and kiss him at the same time.

  Taking a deep breath, I tell myself to pull it together because this is work and I shouldn’t have brought the personal into it.

  “How long is this meeting scheduled for?” I lower my voice.

  “Thirty minutes.”

  “What are we supposed to be presenting?”

  “Bennett wants preliminary numbers.”

  I take a deep breath. Noah’s clean, earthy scent flares in my nostrils, and my pulse beats faster. I wish he was hideous, but he’s not, and my attraction toward him isn’t any less than before. “We aren’t done with them yet.”

  “We have time to get it done before the meeting. Let’s put our heads together.”

  The last time we put our heads together, you fucked me for hours, religiously iced my knee, and slept in the guest bedroom.

  I want to tell Noah no thanks, but I realize that this is my job, and I need to be professional. “All right.”

  “Meet in conference room four in ten minutes?”

  “Fine.”

  “I’ll grab us a coffee from the cafe downstairs. What do you want?”

  “Plain latte. Thanks.”

  He opens his mouth to talk but snaps it shut. “I’ll see you in the conference room, Piper.”

  When Noah leaves, I sit down in my office chair. My insides are quivering from a mix of anger and lust, and I hate that I’m so attracted to him. All I’ve thought about since leaving his penthouse Saturday morning is him, and it’s driving me crazy. I hate him, but I want him, and I remind myself it cannot ever happen again.

  The number of times I cursed myself for even allowing him to touch me is too large to count. I had crossed a line, a big line, and it could destroy everything I had ever worked for. Besides my friends, my career means everything to me and I put that at risk.

  He said to trust him, that he wouldn’t ever hurt my career, but I wasn’t going to put my full faith in him when he morphed between Mr. Asshole and Mr. Nice Guy all the time.

  I need to get past my feelings for him and concentrate on work because the last thing I want to do is disappoint Bennett.

  I get to the conference room and open my laptop. Noah comes in shortly with his computer bag and two coffees. He hands me mine then sits his down and pulls out the chair right next to me.

  Great, I get to sit and smell him while his energy radiates into all my cells. Perfect.

  I turn on my computer and sit back with my legs crossed while it’s firing up.

  Noah points at my legs. “How’s your knee?”

  I blush slightly at the thought of how he iced my knee all night, between making me beg to cum so many times I lost track. I even begged to suck his dick. My face grows hotter as he waits for me to answer. “Fine.”

  “Looks good—like it’s healing,” he adds quickly.

  Okay, we need to get off the topic of my body parts.

  I scoot closer to the table. “So, the third company needs some work. We should probably work on those numbers.”

  “Agree.” He turns his computer on, we pull up our charts, become engrossed in our task, and complete it about an hour before our session with Bennett. I’m about to go back to my office when Noah stops me. “We have an hour. Let’s go grab some lunch, Piper.”

  I freeze then turn back to him. “Let’s just keep this professional, okay?”

  “Piper—”

  Without thinking, I put my hand over his. “Leave it, okay? It is what it is. It happened. It can’t go anywhere, and it’s not good for either of us, so let’s forget it happened and keep it professional.”

  Noah’s jaw clenches. “I really am sorry. I knew it was horrible and not to say it before I said it.”

  My heart bleeds. I want to believe that it could work between Noah and I, but it never can. “It’s not about that.”

  “No?”

  “This isn’t what you want, Noah. You’re the successor CEO of one of the largest investment capital firms in the country. You don’t need or want this, so let’s forget it ever happened. You stay in your lane, and I’ll stay in mine. I’ll see you at noon for our meeting.” I can feel my lip shaking. I turn away from him and leave.

  “Piper,” he calls out after me, but I don’t turn around. I can’t. One glance at him and I’m going to fall apart, and I can’t afford to go there. I just need to go back to my two-plus-two-equals-four world. The equation of Noah Parker has too much gray area.

  I get into my office and lock the door because I’m half afraid he may try to come in, and I need time to regroup before the meeting with Bennett.

  I still don’t know why Noah is trying to buy these three companies. I know it has to do with more than money, but I’m not going to ask him again. All weekend I searched the Internet for information about Noah, trying to figure out if his story about being a paramedic and not growing up rich is true, but I couldn’t find anything. All I found was one success story after another from age twenty-four when he hit the merger-and-acquisition scene. So he is a big mystery to me, and he obviously wants it to stay that way.

  Noah’s asshole-vs.-not-an-asshole game has my emotions all over the place, and I don’t want to keep playing. The truth is, I loved our night together, but I hated how he played the asshole, and I don’t want to be a pawn in his psyche anymore.

  I told him to be an asshole because I wanted him, and, at that moment, I permitted him to treat me like dirt. I’m done with that.

  I spent the night with two different men—Noah, the dream guy who took care of my knee and my every need, and Noah, the jerk who left me after every orgasm and slept in a different bed.

  The first man is the one I want. But he can’t be that all the time, and I don’t have any place in my life for the other one. The other one chooses to hurt me, and I won’t be a masochist.

  The hour passes quickly, and I get to Bennett’s office five minutes early, before Noah. Bennett’s assistant shows me into the conference room where Bennett is already sitting.

  “Piper.” His face lights up as it usually does when he sees me.

  God, please don’t ever find out I screwed your nephew. Bennett had given me tons of opportunities to develop my career despite my age. I never wanted him to be disappointed in me or feel he wasted his time promoting me.

  “Hey, Bennett.” I take a seat across from him.

  “How is the new project going?”

  “Fine.” I attempt to give him a smile, but it feels fake on my face.

  Bennett folds his hands on the table. “Are you learning a lot from Noah?”

  Learning a lot from Noah?

  Thankfully, I’m saved from answering that as Noah comes in.

  “Noah, sit down.” Bennett points to the seat next to me.

  I can’t read the expression on Noah’s face. I feel the buzz of his energy and smell his sexy scent once again. My pulse beats hard in my neck.

  “Noah, I was just asking Piper if she’s learning a lot from you.”

  He shifts in his seat.

  Bennett addresses me. “Well, are you?”

  My mouth goes dry, and I try to figure out how to answer that question. “There’s been a lot to get caught u
p on with this project. I’ve been wrapping my head around all the details,” I offer, hoping that will appease him.

  Bennett glowers at Noah. “I thought I made myself clear on Monday.”

  Monday? I shoot Noah a “what is he talking about” glance.

  “We’ve been getting all the preliminary data together. We can’t do anything until we have the information.”

  “You sure about that?” Bennett questions.

  Noah taps his fingers on his thigh nervously, and I don’t know why I do it, but I lie to Bennett twice in one week, which I never did before Noah.

  “I’ve had a lot of questions that Noah’s been kind enough to answer for me.”

  Bennett’s face changes, but I can’t read it. I worry Bennett knows I’m lying, but he asks, “Do you feel you are up to speed now?”

  “Yes, now that we have the preliminary data.”

  Bennett narrows his eyes at Noah and he flushes. “How many times have you met this week?”

  Noah takes a deep breath. “Once. This morning.”

  “Do you think that is going to allow Piper to learn?”

  What the heck is going on here?

  Noah shifts again. I blurt out, “Honestly, I’ve holed myself up in my office studying the numbers. It’s not Noah’s fault. I asked him to give me time to process all this information.” Once again, I have no idea why I’m jumping in to save Noah from whatever this is.

  A ray of sunlight comes through the window and highlights Bennett’s deep frown. “Okay, Piper. I understand this is all new to you.”

  Noah is nervously tapping his fingers on his thigh and I want to reach out and tell him to stop, but I don’t. I am not sure what is going through Bennett’s mind but he appears upset, and I hate that I’m part of the reason.

  Bennett sits back and pushes his fingertips together. The room is so quiet you can hear a pin drop, and Noah keeps tapping his fingers and shifting in his seat. “Until this project is over, I’m having another desk added to your office, Noah. Piper, you will move in there until further notice.”

  I snap my head to Bennett. “I’m losing my office?”

  “Not losing it. You can have it back after this project is over.”

  My stomach drops. Only four days after fucking the boss, and you’re already losing what you’ve earned. Great job, Piper.