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“Hmmm… I don’t know about that,” Charlee says, feigning a thoughtful grimace. “There’s a lot of intensity in fiction. Are you sure real people wouldn’t break under all that heat?”
Wait. Is Charlee flirting?
My beast mode comes on and I flash her a smile.
“I like to think some people are attracted enough to replicate that much heat, or even hotter.” I’m surprised she doesn’t break out in a blush this time, but her breathing becomes disturbed and the sound of it goes straight to my dick.
“Harrison?”
We are both stunned at the same time as we turn toward the door. Victoria fills the doorway, her head nearly touching the rim in her height and heels. How long have we been in here with the door open? How many people have seen us?
“Yes, what’s up?” I ask, casually getting up from the table and shoving my hands in my pockets to keep my erection from showing.
“Can we talk, please? That is, if you’re done here.”
Victoria walks away before I can respond. I’m torn between sticking with Charlee who has a pissed look on her face and following Victoria because there’s likely a major work thing on board.
Charlee already has a notion at the back of her mind that I’m fucking Victoria and I’m about to make it surge to the front of her brain.
“I’ll see you later, Charlee. You take care now.”
A cocktail of disappointment, hurt, and anger flashes across her face. I shut my eyes and turn around, heading out the door and straight to my office.
Why can’t I just have a little stability at any point in my life? Why can’t things be all right with me for a long time?
Walking into my office, I ignore Victoria and head straight to my seat. She settles into one of the visitor seats and launches right into her gist.
“I came to bring an important break in the case. The legal team at Bridges, Inc. is stepping in to put up a defense. They are three times more powerful than yours here at Building Bridges and have all the affiliations Hayes’ team could never pull. Roscoe is putting them on the case for you. I’m positive they’ll crush the lawsuit in due time.”
For the first time in a while, I heave an actual sigh of relief. I don’t even care that my brother is stepping in to save my ass. I just want all of this to be over.
“What do we do from our end?” I ask, sitting up to face her.
She opens a tab on her phone. “We are going to go hard with formal press releases now. Apparently, Charlee’s campaigns are actually paving a small way for things right now, and we have an inlet to put out press releases strongly refuting all those allegations. I’ll work up the publications to push them through and the Bridges legal team will craft all the content.”
My hopes are rising again. I’m gently praying this will work because I’m not sure I can handle one more disappointment.
Victoria briefs me on a couple of other things, and then she gets up and makes to leave.
With one foot out the door, she turns and faces me.
“Harrison. I’m telling you this as a friend. You’re the boss and CEO of this place and the last thing you need right now, with all this turmoil and turbulence, is a scandal. You should keep the work-place friendliness to a minimum. It’s definitely not a good look.”
Again, she walks away before I can say a word.
If I had doubts before, I’m now definitely certain that Victoria noticed the tension between Charlee and me. Obviously, she does not approve. Charlee, on the other hand, thinks the worst of my relationship with Victoria.
My life is one giant ball of endless screw-ups.
11
CHARLEE
It makes sense that at least five people clean this house at the same time, three days a week.
What do Tess and Roscoe need all this endless, glistening, marble-covered, mirror-splattered space for?
We’re getting together for a quiet dinner at Roscoe and Tess’s home, and again, as it has the dozen other times I’ve been here, my breath is catching in my throat. The mansion sits in a pristinely exclusive estate, surrounded by lush vegetation and an actual, honest-to-goodness lake. But somehow, it’s always the vast, sky-like interior for me.
