Page 31 of Sinful Abandon

His chin nods as he takes in the severity of what I just said.

I look up into his eyes, the ones I’ve feared staring into, knowing I’d lose myself completely.

I continue, “That night…our night, when you danced with me…it meant more than you could ever imagine.” I don’t know why I’m telling him this. It just feels like something I’m supposed to do.

Ryan lifts a hand and tucks my hair behind my ear. With his thumb, he wipes a stray tear I didn’t know I’d shed. I nod into his hand, savoring the feeling.

“Thank you for telling me.” He rubs a small circle on my cheek. “Heather, that night, with you, it was the most—”

His words are cut off when the door to the break room opens. Meg peeks her head in, her eyes bugging out for a second, and then she retreats backward for a moment. Something in her eyes changes as she takes in the sight of Ryan with his hands on me, the intimate embrace we are sharing. She moves back into the room and stands there, looking at us like a mother hen getting her chickens in line.

Ryan’s body stiffens. When he releases me, I feel so alone.

I watch as Ryan walks to the break room door and nods to Meg. A secret conversation passes between them.

He turns around to me and says, “Take care of yourself.” He points to my burn, but I have a feeling this is his way of giving up on us.

On our one night.

On our standoff.

On our coexistence.

The door closes behind him. I lean my hip against the counter, the ice on my heart and my hand on my head.

“He’s an intern.” Meg’s words pull me out of my sorrow.

I lift my head to her. “Excuse me?”

“You’re senior level management and, not to mention, Jarrod Bellomy’s fiancée. He’s a student. It’s against company policy to fraternize with the interns. It’s also tabloid fodder to be caught in an intimate embrace with a boy who is still in school.”

“It wasn’t—” I stop, trying to find the words. “What you saw, that was just…”

Meg frowns her lips, unhappy with me. Unhappy with what she saw. Unhappy with this role reversal the two of us seem to be sharing.

“Unless you want to destroy that boy’s good name and your own, you’d better stay away from him.”

Meg leaves the room, and I fall further into myself. My eyes are heavy, and before I know it, tears start trickling down my face. I haven’t cried since I was a kid, and here I am, in the goddamn break room, sobbing like a baby.

Perhaps tears are a side effect of getting burned.

Seven p.m., and every soul in the building is rushing out to get home after a long day’s work. The sound of people flocking through the lobby to get home drowns out the sound of my four-inch Pradas as I walk through the lobby. I swing through the revolving door onto Wacker Drive and raise my arm to hail a cab.

The yellow taxi reminds me of New York as it pulls up in front of me. I step off the curb. As soon as my fingers hit the handle, another hand is on top of mine.

“Well, this is some coincidence,” I say as I take in the male standing against me. I don’t even have to look up to know it is Ryan.

“Who said it was a coincidence?”

That voice makes my heart beat fast. If I could cover my ears, I would.

“What are you doing, Ryan?” I open the door and step inside the open frame, Ryan standing on the other side of the door.

“Where are you going?” he asks.

“Dinner with Jarrod.” I lower my shoulders and get into the cab.

He holds the door open. “Someplace fancy?”