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“Where are my shoes?” Eden snapped, eyes flashing fire. She was nearly snarling, and she was so damn intoxicating it was almo
st impossible for Jos to tear her eyes away.
“By the door.”
“Well, that’s a good and logical place for them, isn’t it?” Jos very nearly smiled at that, but the chill in Eden’s tone stopped her. “Thanks for making sure I got home okay last night, then feeding me to the wolves anyway. And the complete opposite of thanks for being a total butthole this morning and ruining any good that came of last night. See you in a few days, Josella.” Eden turned, but then she faced back around. “It’s not me who is the hypocrite. It’s not me who can’t live with myself. It’s so clearly not me.”
Jos let Eden walk away with the last word. She was too stunned to think of anything to say, even if she wanted to. She was too floored to move a muscle to go after Eden, even if she wanted to.
It was better that Eden disliked her. That way, things could remain professional. No lines would get blurred, no boundaries would get crossed. There would be no scandal, and no one would lose their job. They would host the show that had been hers together. Eden would be the new blood the network wanted, and Jos would suck it up because that was all she could do. She would retire from a distinguished career in three years, and then she’d find something else to do.
Maybe she’d write a book.
A fucking book.
Whatever she did, she’d find something to keep herself busy with, because when she was busy, she wasn’t thinking about all the things she didn’t have and how all the things she did couldn’t even begin to convince her that she was happy.
Chapter 9
Eden
Eden hadn’t been sure whether she was dreading her first day or looking forward to it or something in between, but as soon as she’d walked through the doors of the studio, she was greeted with a flurry of activity and a sea of people. She was good with names and faces, but after five minutes, they’d all started to swim and blend together. Within a half hour of getting there, she’d signed the forms she needed to sign with HR, then she was taken down to the set and shown her dressing room.
She met the people from wardrobe, the makeup artists, one who had been hired just for her, the producers, assistants, camera people, people who did lighting, other journalists, and a ton of other people she was hard pressed to even remember their titles because it was all too much.
Throughout it all, her new boss, Alden Shetfield, had stayed pretty much glued to her like it was his personal responsibility to make sure she succeeded. She’d arrived at the studio hours before she actually had to go live and do the real show, and she’d run through several practice takes, sitting up on stage under hot, bright lights with a face full of makeup, clothes that weren’t her own and weren’t exactly her style, and she’d had a crash course in reading the teleprompter. A lot of it she remembered from journalism school and her first internship. This was so not her jam, but she wasn’t going to give up on it. She wasn’t going to disappoint her parents or anyone at the studio by up and quitting before she even got started, no matter how distasteful she found the whole thing.
Remember the good. She’d kept coaching herself with that line for hours.
Now, the whole remembering the reason she was there was a poor reason to keep her mouth shut when Alden ushered her off the set and helped her take her microphone off. He lifted one of her black curls, which she’d painstakingly put in before leaving her apartment, and frowned.
“Have you ever thought about going blonde?”
Eden turned, angling her body so that her hair slid away from his fingers. She barely repressed a shudder. She didn’t like being touched by strangers without her permission and having already sat through getting her makeup done and the wardrobe people fussing over her and then getting a microphone put on and having all the eyes in the place on her, she was already chaffing at the attention she didn’t want.
“No,” she said icily. “Going blonde would probably break half my hair off to get it to lighten. I like it exactly the way it is.”
Alden shrugged like it didn’t matter. Eden wanted to groan. So this was how it was going to play out. Most people would be afraid to say anything to her, let alone be genuine, because of who her parents were. She hated the whole special treatment, ivory tower thing. She didn’t want any of that either.
It must have been getting closer to seven than Eden thought, because she caught a flash of blonde bob and a black power suit and her whole body stilled. A shiver rattled down her spine and heat exploded between her legs.
She could sense Jos before she saw her, and the minute she did, Eden swore that when she dragged in a calming breath it was scented with lilies and gardenias and the other exotic flowers that seemed to cling to Jos like she had an array of gardens out behind her house that she spent hours in every day before coming to the studio.
Yeah, earth child Jos is not.
Jos walked over, all easy confidence, a perfect mask in place. She was gorgeous. Flawless. She’d already gone through her hair and makeup, and she was nothing short of spectacular. A queen, and not just in that room.
Eden swallowed hard, hoping it wasn’t audible. Hoping her face didn’t give her away. She’d always been told that she had a face that read like a thousand books.
“Eden, you’ve already met Jos Frank,” Alden made the introduction smoothly, indicating Jos, who wasn’t more than a few feet to the right.
Eden’s heart rattled around in her ribcage, knocking so furiously she was afraid the whole studio could hear it. It was a damn good thing they’d already taken her mic off. She glanced away from Alden, toward Jos, and when she didn’t react or narrow her eyes or make a facial twitch like some secret code, Eden figured her face was probably fine and her expression was good to go. She apparently wasn’t wearing a yep, we’ve met, and holy shit did we ever meet, this woman gave me an orgasm that made my brain freaking explode out of my skull kind of look.
“Yes,” Eden blurted when she realized she was just standing there, and Alden was starting to look at her. “Yes, of course we met.” She pasted on a smile for Jos. “It’s good to be working with you. I can’t tell you how much this means to me.” Those were platitudes, meant for anyone else’s ears, and Jos knew that, but still, the tiniest shadow of something flickered in her eyes.
Alden cleared his throat. He had an agenda to get the day going smoothly and standing there and chatting about how Jos was Eden’s hero wasn’t high on his priorities. He probably had more instructions that Eden needed to follow, more things she had to learn, people she had to meet, or more paperwork for her to fill out, but instead he turned to Jos.
“We’re changing things up tonight. I moved a few things around on the schedule and we’re doing a show on pregnancy loss awareness. The whole month of October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness and we’ve never done anything for it. I thought it was only fitting that we get some people in. Tomorrow we’re doing the new gym that opened up six locations around the city.” Alden pointed at the ceiling. “They have acro-yoga and swings and such. Fascinating.” He looked at his watch. “You have half an hour. If you want to go over anything ahead of time, just ask.” He left then, striding away and pulling out his phone as he went. Before he left the big, open room where the set was located, he was already talking to someone.
