by C. C. Snow
He moaned and grabbed my ass. “Screw the meeting.”
“Jake!” I laughingly scolded as I jumped out of the way. I handed him his pants. Luckily, they weren’t too wrinkled. “You have to go. It’s to discuss the bid for the new project in Dubai.”
He grumbled, but allowed me to drag him into the private bathroom to clean up. We almost got sidetracked again, but in fifteen minutes, I pushed him out of his office. Both of us were presentable, but if anyone looked closely, they’d notice the flushed skin and swollen lips.
The afternoon passed in a dreamy haze. I probably smiled indiscriminately at everyone like an idiot, but I didn’t care.
I could tell something was wrong when Jake came back from the meeting. I tried to find out why he was upset, but he shook off his bad mood. By the end of the day, he seemed to have recovered completely and wanted to take Marcus and me out to dinner. To celebrate, he said. I had never seen him look so carefree. His eyes were sparkling and his dimple seemed to have taken up permanent residence. I didn’t recognize him as the imperious boss I met over a month ago.
When we were about to leave the office, he tensed, his face somber again.
Instantly, I knew why. Smiling at him, I laced our fingers together. The look of surprise and joy on his face was worth any ugly rumors that might start. Walking hand-in-hand, we left the office and walked to the elevators.
Most of the staff had left, but we got a few speculative glances from those who were still working. To my surprise, it didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would.
Alana got into the elevator with us. Her eyebrows almost met her hairline when she saw our clasped hands. But when she got off on the ground floor, she winked at me over her shoulder.
I smiled.
Chapter 20
On Saturday morning, Jake showed up early with pastries and coffee. Marcus had already left for the day to hang out with his school friends and Jake and I were looking forward to having some alone time. We were expected at his parents’ house again for dinner and I needed to bake two pies for the hungry Weston men.
I had just bitten into my Danish when my doorbell rang. “Who in the world could it be?” I didn’t get many visitors. I glanced at Jake and he had an oh-shit look on his face.
“Baby, let me get it. It’s probably someone who got the wrong house.” He stood and headed toward the intercom.
I followed closely on his heels. This whole situation smelled fishy.
He looked over his shoulder, “Um…baby, seriously, go finish your breakfast.”
Narrowing my eyes, I said sweetly, “No, I want to make sure it’s not a neighbor who forgot their keys. You wouldn’t recognize their voice.”
Muttering something under his breath, he sighed and pressed the button.
A brusque voice came over the speaker. “This is Antonio from City Movers. We’re here to help you move.”
I raised an eyebrow at Jake.
Jake cleared his throat. “Uh…you must have the wrong address.”
“Is this the residence of Cora Branton?” Antonio rattled off my address.
I swallowed my laugh at Jake’s shame-faced look. My man was definitely persistent. I leaned closer to the intercom. “Hi Antonio. This is Cora Branton. I’m not moving, but the man who hired you will be paying in full for your troubles today. I’ll send him down right now to sign the invoice. If I move, I’ll be sure to hire your wonderful service.”
There were a few cheers in the background.
I flashed a look at Jake and he went downstairs, grumbling about my pig-headedness. He opened the door and signed the invoice. Taking out his wallet, he gave each of the guys a tip. Antonio, who was a burly dark-haired man, gave me a thumbs-up and a huge grin.
When he climbed back up the stairs, Jake regarded me warily.
My voice was measured. “I take it you arranged this after you said, ‘I’m tired of being Mr. Considerate’ and then hung up on me?”
He grimaced and ran his fingers through his hair, making a tuft stick up. He looked adorable. “Yes.”
“And you weren’t going to tell me? Or let me pack? Were they going to drag me kicking and screaming out of my apartment?”
“I was going to tell you yesterday, but I forgot. You distracted me.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Baby, I know you value your independence, but I worry about you and Marcus walking around here at night. If you live in the same building, I could look after you. And we’d get to spend more time together.” He hauled me into his arms and whispered into my ear. “You could drop by my apartment for a quickie without worrying about leaving Marcus alone for too long.”
I tugged the recalcitrant tuft of hair back into place and said solemnly, “Oh, why didn’t you say so in the first place? That’s incentive enough for me.”
He jerked his head back in shock at my easy acquiescence. “Really? You’ll move?”
“Let’s have Marcus look at the apartment first. Then I need to give notice to my landlord. But don’t send a crew of moving men here before I’m ready. And don’t think strong-arming me is going to work for anything else.” I walked back to the counter and picked up my coffee.
“You got it, babe,” he said, grinning widely.
“And I insist on paying for part of the rent.” I blew on the hot brew and took a sip. I kept telling myself not to freak out about moving.
“Of course, baby. Besides, we won’t be there for long. We should really look into getting a big house. One with a big yard for when we have kids.”
I choked and Jake thumped my back, laughing at me. When I recovered, his eyes dared me to approach the subject, but I was too much of a coward. I was just getting used to the idea of being in love with him.
“And you’ll attend college in the fall?”
“One thing at a time. I still need to process everything. You’re moving too fast for me.”
His smile told me he wouldn’t give up until I surrendered.
He helped me with the pies, but he kept distracting me. We almost burned them when he decided he needed to “practice” having a quickie in my kitchen. Only it wasn’t a quickie. He bent me over the counter and took me from behind, pulsing unhurriedly in me until I reached a sweet slow peak. My legs could barely hold me up by the end and it took a few moments to realize the screeching in my ear wasn’t my own screams, but the oven timer.
“If the pies are ruined, I’m going to tell your dad it’s your fault,” I threatened.
Jake smiled like a Cheshire cat. “Then you’ll have to tell him what distracted you.”
I glared and he laughed. Then I had to kiss him because his dimple was flashing at me. And that distracted us some more.
To salvage the pies, I had to cut off the slightly charred edges.
When we arrived at his parents’, Geoffrey’s eyes gleamed greedily at the sight of the desserts. He hugged me, proclaiming me his favorite person. Then he headed into the kitchen with the pies. Troy trailed behind him “to make sure he didn’t sneak a slice.” Jake followed, declaring that one of the pies was “his” since he had helped bake it.
Marcus ran after them, too curious about the outcome of the pie wars.
Susan smiled knowingly at me. “There’s something different about you and Jake. You both look… I don’t know… more settled? Did my son finally get through?”
I nodded shyly. “Yes.”
She clapped her hands gleefully like a child. “That’s wonderful! I knew he’d be able to get you to realize how much he loves you. It’s a Weston trait.” Linking our arms, she walked into the house. “Did I ever tell you I was engaged to another man when I met Geoffrey?” She nodded at my wide-eyed look. “Weston men are very determined.”
Chapter 21
On Sunday, Jake took us to the Adler Planetarium. Marcus was in heaven, watching the shows and gazing at the cosmos through the telescope at the Doane Observatory.
For dinner, I made lasagna and they inhaled the food. I gawked a
s they ate portion after portion and decided God must be a man because if a woman ate that much, she’d pass out in a food coma and gain ten pounds when she woke up. Jake and Marcus didn’t even look lethargic after the meal.
The quiet evening at home with the two most important men in my life was the perfect finale to my week.
I still had a silly smile on my face when I showed up for work on Monday. I was about to walk into Jake’s office to give him a morning kiss when I realized his door was closed.
Worry wiped the smile off my face when I heard raised voices. His office was practically soundproof so someone would have to be shouting to be heard. Not wanting to intrude on the intense Monday meeting, I sat at my desk, glancing at the door intermittently, wondering who was in there with him.
Midmorning, the door finally opened and a red-faced Jason Hughes stepped out of the office. He looked harried and irritable.
“Morning, Jason,” I said hesitantly, uncertain about his mood.
He shot me a sharp look, his eyes narrowed in contemplation before he spit out a curt greeting.
Taken aback by the hostility emanating from him, I was about to open my mouth to ask him what was wrong when Jake came out and said firmly, “I’ll talk to you later, Jason.” It was clearly a dismissal.
My gaze bounced between the two of them, wondering what they could have been fighting about.
“I’ll dig a little deeper, but I think I’m right.” Jason stalked out of the office.
“Is something wrong?” I asked, still staring after Jason.
Jake sighed. “Yeah. We lost the bid for the hotel in Dubai.”
“What? Who won it?” I tried to recall the proposal we had put together a few weeks back. With our company’s connections to the best suppliers, it was unlikely that another firm could have underbid us.
“Lakeshore Industries.”
I frowned. “Why do they sound familiar?”
“They’re a local company. You’ve probably seen their signs around. Their bid was just under ours, like Bauen’s for the North Side project. Jason thinks it’s the same person leaking the information.” Jake looked haggard.
“Damn! Is he any closer to finding the culprit? This can’t keep happening. Maybe we need to bring in the police.” I stood up, anger coursing through me.
“We have no evidence.”
I plunked back into my seat. “Damn. Do you know who had access to the file?”
Jake stared at me for a long moment. “Troy, Kayla, Wayne Smythe in legal, Tom Wexler, head of our international division, you and me.”
I paled. Everyone on the list had been with the company for over ten years except for me. Troy and Jake were automatically eliminated. Tom Wexler had not worked on the Bauen project so he was also off the list. Of the remaining three, I was the most likely suspect.
Did Jake think I was the leak?
I tried to read Jake’s expression, but his face was closed off. He turned around and walked into his office.
No smile. No kiss.
I couldn’t concentrate on work, my mind working through the situation.
God, did Jake think I was like Sophia Chandler?
The first leak with Bauen happened right after I came on as Jake’s assistant.
My stomach cramped and I put my head in my palm. My skin felt cold and clammy.
I walked to the bathroom and blotted my face with a wet towel. The woman who was walking on air this morning was gone. Now I looked like I was given a death sentence. My skin was ghostly white and my eyes looked hollow and dull. Even though I knew I was innocent, it was killing me that Jake thought I might be guilty.
When I walked by the front desk, Alana shot me a concerned look, but she didn’t ask and I didn’t volunteer any information. The less interaction I had with people, the better.
The hours in the day dragged. Jake was called into an emergency meeting with the board before lunch, but he told me to stay in the office.
“It’s going to take hours. Someone has a bug up their ass about something and they’ll spend hours dithering over what to do. I’m sure someone else can take minutes for the meeting.” He wouldn’t meet my gaze and left.
Bile coated my tongue. God, didn’t he trust me to even take notes at a meeting anymore?
At lunch, I got a call from Jamie.
“Girl!!!!!” She screamed so loudly, I had to hold the receiver away from my ear. “I heard you were seen holding hands with Jake Weston on Friday! How could you keep this juicy bit of news away from me?”
I rolled my eyes, wondering at her sources. She was better than the CIA at uncovering secrets. “Jamie, I haven’t even had time to process it yet.” Besides, it might have ended before it started.
“You have to go to lunch with me. I want deets,” she whined.
Feeling a headache begin to develop, I opened my mouth to decline, but abruptly changed my mind. It would be good for me to clear my head. “Okay, let’s go to our favorite deli.”
Ten minutes later, we were sitting at our usual table.
Jamie was practically twitching with inquisitiveness as she leaned over the table. “Dish!”
I paused. My instinct was to dodge the question, but I was tired of holding people at a distance. “There’s not that much to tell. It happened so fast.” Omitting some of the more intimate details, I gave her a rundown of how Jake helped me with my brother and how I started to develop feelings for him.
Starry-eyed, Jamie breathed, “Ooh…that’s so romantic. He must be crazy about you.”
I must have made a face because Jamie sat up and demanded, “Why the long face? Aren’t you supposed to be on cloud nine right now?”
Swearing her to secrecy, I explained about the leak, sharing the bare minimum of details.
“And you think Jake suspects it’s you?”
I shrugged. “Wouldn’t you?”
“No way in hell! You’re too honest and if that asshole believes it, then he doesn’t deserve you!” She looked ready to go to battle with Jake. “Are you sure you’re not overanalyzing?”
Her ready defense made me smile despite my misery. And it gave me a glimmer of hope that I was reading too much into Jake’s actions.
But as the hours ticked by, that glimmer dimmed. At the end of the day, Jake had not returned. He texted me to leave without him because he was still in the meeting.
The ride on the El was the longest of my life.
When I got home, I forced myself to act as normal as possible and cooked dinner. I stared at my phone, but there was no text or call from Jake. After picking at my food and fielding strange looks from Marcus, I claimed I had a headache and retreated to my room.
The ache in my heart was unbearable. Curling up on my bed, I cried into my pillow. The cold wall Jake had put between us had gutted me. He had shut me out. How could he tell me he loved me and believe I would do something so heinous? Didn’t he know me by now? I would never betray him!
Anger started to pump through me. How dare he think I’d do something like this!
I sat up and pressed my fingers against my temples. “Think. Think, Cora.”
Wiping my wet cheeks, I took out a notebook. Writing down things always helped me see a problem clearly. I started to list all the things that might seem incriminating.
Both bids were only known at the highest levels.
Leaks happened after I started working as Jake’s EA.
Remembering the look on Jason’s face, I wrote down another item.
Jason must have found something on my hard drive. Did someone plant something on my computer? Who?
I massaged my temples. Something about Lakeshore Industries was niggling at the back of my mind. I turned on my laptop and looked up the company. I gasped when I recognized the logo.
With a shaking hand, I wrote one more thing on the list.
I applied for a position at Lakeshore Industries.
Weeks ago, after Jake and I almost had sex in his office, I had decided the best thing to
do was to look for a job at another company, and thereby remove myself from temptation. That night I had sent out a number of resumes to various firms, but I was careless and forgot to attach a cover letter to my application to Lakeshore. When I remembered the next day, I had sent it from my work computer.
I never received a response and after Jake and I became a couple, I had completely forgotten about it. An email to a rival company at the time we placed our bid would be highly suspicious. Jason must have found it and brought it to Jake’s attention.
But surely, had they looked closer, they would have seen that I was applying for a low-level administrative position and not selling secrets.
But maybe they thought it was code for something else? After Jake got burned by a dishonest assistant, would he trust another?
Eyes burning, I stared at that list.
Flipping the page, I started to list everything that would make Jake believe I was innocent. There was only one.
Jake Weston loves Cora Branton.
The words looked very lonely.
Chapter 22
Jake’s office was closed again, but this time I squared my shoulders and marched up to the door. I knocked sharply.
“Come in.”
I walked in and saw Jake, Troy, and Jason sitting together at the conference table poring over sheets of paper.
“Morning, Cora.” Troy was the only one to greet me.
Jake just stared at me quietly, his face blank.
Jason eyed me suspiciously. “Jake, she shouldn’t be here.”
I put my hands on my hips and glared at my boss slash boyfriend slash love of my life. “Jake Weston, you better not try to keep me from clearing my name. This is my reputation on the line.”
His face transformed. The hard lines around his mouth disappeared as his lips pulled up. His eyes were warm pools as he held out his hand to me.
I walked over, gladly gripping his hand tightly. A calm settled over me as soon as I felt his touch. Everything was going to be okay.
I turned to Jason. “I don’t care what evidence you think you have, but I didn’t do it! So I want to know what you have on me.”