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She’d run from him again. Friday night had been the best night of his life. Taking Maeve, pleasuring her, finally having her in his arms and his bed…. It had been a fantasy come to life. But, in the bright light of a Florida morning, she was gone.
At least she’d had the courtesy of leaving a note.
A bullshit note that said their night together had been a mistake. That they couldn’t do that again because Maeve didn’t want to be the “other woman.”
Fuck that. There was no other woman for AJ.
He’d sent dozens of texts, left her voice messages, and had even knocked on her apartment door, demanding she answer. He wasn’t done with her. He would never be done with her, but he knew she needed time to wrap her head around their new reality.
She was his, but she was fighting it. Once she knew that he knew she was Swan, things would get easier.
Right?
It had taken every ounce of his willpower to head into work, stride past her office, and sit down at his own desk in his office across from hers without racing to Maeve, pulling her into his arms, and admitting he knew the truth about her as Swan.
But he couldn’t. Not yet. She was withdrawing, pulling in to herself, hiding once again. If he admitted the truth, she’d run for the hills. She wasn’t ready for the intensity that would come when he finally had her all to himself.
No. He had to take his time, get her used to the idea of being with him. She’d hidden behind the persona of Swan so long, she didn’t know how to handle him as Maeve.
He didn’t blame her; he was a lot to handle. He smirked at his own thoughts, casting his gaze across the corridor to the woman huddled behind her desk. She was wearing brown again, like a shield.
His cock stirring, he bit back the urge to tear the shield from her body and invade.
He sat like that, hard as a rock, for hours, trying to concentrate on all the paperwork he’d been putting off for weeks.
Maeve, in her own world, distracted by whatever she was thinking, didn’t notice him watching her. Like a fucking creep. But what other choice did he have? As soon as she noticed him, she’d make some excuse to leave. She’d returned to the skittish mouse she’d been all the months before. This time, however, he knew just how amazing the fiery vixen could be.
No, he knew how amazing and wonderful his Swan could be. When she wasn’t hiding her true self.
His own thoughts were disturbed by the email notification sound coming from Maeve’s computer. Heaving a sigh, Maeve clicked…and her entire expression drained from her face, along with all color.
An email notification from his own computer sounded, but he couldn’t look away from whatever was happening across the hall in Maeve’s office. What was in that email that had made her look like that? Had something happened?
His phone ringing jerked him back to his own office.
Dropping his gaze from Maeve, he picked up his cell and noticed Denise’s name on the screen. Scowling at it, he silenced it. Like a magnet, his gaze was drawn back to Maeve’s office. Which was now empty.
Where had she gone?
Checking the clock, he noticed it was only a few minutes before the end of the work day. Perhaps Maeve had hurried off to deal with whatever was in that email.
Unsettled, AJ gathered his shit and headed out.
At home, after his shower, he poured himself two fingers of Jameson and leaned against the railing of his balcony. The balcony off his bedroom looked out over a sandy rise that, at one time, had been a sand dune rimmed with palisades. Now that the ocean and hurricanes had reshaped the land, it was simply a rise now home to rootless weeds.
It wasn’t the best view, but it was better than no view at all. Like at Maeve’s.
Maeve. Was she okay?
Something niggled at him, digging in and burrowing deep. Whatever was in that email was enough to utterly cripple the woman. He’d seen the way her eyes grew large, her skin paled, and her breathing shuddered. He couldn’t miss the way her whole body seemed to collapse in on itself as fear filled her eyes.
A thought prickled, and he latched on to it, pulling his phone from his pocket.
AJ: Hey man, do you have access to employee emails?
Blaze: I have admin access. You do, too. Why?
Hurrying to his laptop, he logged into the company email server, typed in his credentials, and looked for the appropriate tab.
