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She had zero experience dealing with something like this, but she wasn’t going to let that make her frantic. She stayed calm as she called a cab, and when she was told it would be twenty minutes, she hung up and walked over to the side of the bed where Eden was sleeping.
“Eden.” She nudged her shoulder. “Eden.” There wasn’t so much as a batted eyelash or a flicker of coming into consciousness. Jos sighed and gripped Eden’s shoulder, shaking it hard. “Eden.”
“What? What’s happening?” Eden exploded out of the sheets, the blankets falling to her waist to reveal her perfect breasts. Her nipples hardened instantly after losing the warmth of the blanket and Jos tore her eyes away.
Not fast enough. Hunger and raw need overpowered her until she felt dizzy with it. What the hell was that? Clearly it was a brain fart. Eden’s breasts were just breasts. Yes, she was beautiful, but Jos had never felt anything like that. She rubbed her chest where the feeling persisted. Apparently that gin and tonic the night before was giving her some strange form of indigestion.
“I called you a cab. You have to leave.”
Eden blinked at her like she didn’t understand. She did that for a few seconds before reality rushed at her and she swivelled her head around, taking in the room. She realized she was naked a second later and let out a yelp.
Jos had already set Eden’s clothes from the night before, washed and neatly folded, on the foot of the bed. Eden spotted them and dove for them. Jos turned around while Eden stumbled around, pulling on her jeans and blouse. Her soft footsteps brought her into vision a minute later.
“You’re kicking me out? After we…?”
“Yes. I have things to do today and work later. You’re going to get a call from someone at the network today. It would be better if we both forgot this happened.”
“Forgot? I can’t just forget!” Eden stared at her like she’d just turned into a viper. “Forget?” she asked again, clarifying, like she couldn’t quite believe what she heard.
“That’s right. Forget. We work together. It’s not professional. You were drunk and I was, well, people make—”
Eden shoved a finger at Jos accusingly. “Don’t you dare say mistakes. If you say mistakes, I’m going to scream.”
Jos was tempted to do it, just to see if Eden actually would. But then, if she did, Jos would grab her by the waist and throw her back down on the bed and cover her mouth with hers, eating at the sounds until that scream turned into moans of pleasure.
What the hell? No, I’m certainly not going to do that.
“I’ve called you a cab. Things happened last night for whatever reason,” Jos said calmly and logically. She was relying on her professionalism, the perfected on-air demeanor she’d polished over the years, to get her through. “You’re taking a job and we’re going to be cohosting the same show. There is no room in our careers for error. You know that as well as I do. Not with viewers and not with anyone pulling the strings.”
“What you’re really saying is that we slept together, and you liked it, and you don’t like that you liked it.”
“Your cab is going to be here in ten minutes, maybe less.”
“Jos! Let’s just talk about this.”
Jos put her hands on her hips. Something close to pain stabbed at her chest. “We aren’t talking about this. There is no this. We used each other. We slept together. It was fine. Now, it’s morning and that’s not going to happen again. If you don’t want to forget it, that’s your business, but it’s not going to affect how we work together and it’s not going to happen again. If you were expecting sweet and tender this morning, I’m afraid you have the wrong idea about me.”
Eden narrowed her eyes like she could see straight through that, but then she frowned, and that frown said something else entirely. She was displeased. Hurt, even. Jos knew it was for the best, but her heart still sunk irrationally.
“I didn’t have the wrong idea about you,” Eden said coolly, her face shuttering closed. The hope in her eyes was banished and any lingering tenderness from the night before disappeared. Her face took on a hard expression that didn’t suit her at all.
Jos hated it, even if it was necessary. To protect her job and her reputation as a journalist. To protect herself because that’s what she did, that’s what she’d always done.
“That’s good.” She walked to the doorway of the bedroom. “Because there isn’t room for any silly little girl fantasies. No room for feelings or emotions. That’s not what it was about. Sometimes sex is just sex and that’s it.”
Eden circled around, feet slapping hard against the wood floor behind her. She made it through the doorway first, blocking it with her slight form, her arms crossed over her chest and one hip thrown out. She looked like a bossy goddess and Jos nearly groaned.
“I didn’t think you were capable of tenderness,” Eden snapped. “Maybe for a minute, but that was a silly mistake. Don’t worry. I won’t get carried away again.” She narrowed her eyes. “I could refuse to take that job at the station. Then you’d be screwed, and all of this really would have been for nothing.”
Everything in Jos rebelled at that thought. It wasn’t nothing. Even if it should have been, it wasn’t. Even if she wanted it to be, it didn’t feel like it.
“I’d be fine,” she lied.
She’d lied about a lot of things yesterday. Things that mattered. She felt guilty about it now, which was odd because she’d told herself she was willing to do what it took to save her job.
She didn’t care about Eden Rutherford. Yes, she cared that she might get hurt in this industry. She didn’t want to see that happen to another journalist, let alone a young woman with stars in her eyes and hopes for saving the world, but she’d also lied trusting that it wouldn’t happen to Eden. No one at the network was going to chew her up and spit her out knowing who her dad was. That kept her safe. That gave her a layer of insulation.
“But you’ll take the job. You’ll take it because you want to change the world. You want to save the world. And you know this is a good opportunity. Anything less would be hypocritical, and you couldn’t live with yourself.”
