Page 109 of Wilder

I swallowed hard again, my throat feeling like sandpaper.

What the hell were either of us supposed to do now?

Obviously this was exactly what Sully suspected it to be—that I’d spent the night and slept with my damn boss.

Didn’t matter that we were both grown adults who could make our own decisions. None of that counted when Wilder was my superior and wasn’t supposed to be getting involved with any one of his employees in the first place, regardless of our very obvious age gap.

Wilder let out a slow exhale, both of his hands coming up in front of him. “Listen, I... it’s my fault.”

My stomach twisted up painfully.

Was he actually going to try and take the blame for all of this?

To... what, make it seem like he came onto me?

Holy fuck.

No one would believe that, least of all Sully. Wilder was as straight-laced as they came. If anything, I looked like the guilty one for seducing him.

That sharp, stormy gaze flicked back to him instantly. “This what you wanted to talk to me about in the kitchen?”

Wilder’s lips pressed together in a tight line.

With a shake of his head, Sully stepped back from me. One hand came up to cover the lower half of his face while he shook his head a few more times, a small, “unbelievable” rumbling between his fingers.

He moved around the table, pacing the short distance from where the archway leading into the kitchen was and the end of the room.

When I glanced at Wilder, he was staring right at me with an expression I’d never seen before: fear.

“Should’ve known,” Sully was muttering to himself. “Back during Christmas. I should’ve fucking known.”

“It’s no one’s business,” Wilder shot back.

“You’re out of your goddamn mind,” Sully snapped, stopping short right in front of him. A finger popped to jab Wilder in the chest, two hard taps that forced the other man two steps back. “This entire time—when the hell did this start? Was it Christmas? That phone call?”

My stomach rolled. I was going to be ill.

How much did Sully know?

I’d been so careful keeping my crush to myself.

My drunken phone call hadn’t happened until New Year’s, so what the hell did Wilder say to grab Sully’s attention?

Christmas I’d been a mopey mess, not at all waxing poetic about my damn feelings and getting either of us into trouble.

But maybe that was all it took—Wilder stepping out to take my phone call when he never did that for anyone else. It wouldn’t take a genius for Sully to connect the dots, even if Wilder had come up with some grand excuse to wave the situation away.

That seed would’ve already been planted. All Sully would’ve needed was evidence to back it up.

Wilder’s shoulder lifted slightly, his gaze breaking away from mine to look at his second again. He hesitated for a moment, rubbing his fingers together at his sides. “Not long. It... after the holidays.”

That didn’t seem to satisfy Sully at all. In fact, it seemed to make him even more angry. “You’re his boss, Wilder. He’s almost half your goddamn age. You don’t think people are gonna talk about this?”

I winced, not being able to help it.

From an outsider’s perspective, it looked fucking rough, I wasn’t going to lie.

But did that really matter when it came to matters of the heart?