AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Play it cool?”
“Yeah.” She shook Lainey’s arms around. “Loosey goosey, you know, like you don’t care, and this happens all the time for you. He’s just another guy on the roster.”
“I’ve never played it cool in my life. I’m not sure how to even do that.” Her head felt like she was underwater. The roster? He was only the second guy she’d ever slept with, and he was certainly not just another guy. He was Bradley Arnault, a man who stood a foot above her and picked her up like a stack of papers. He was a man with fingers like vibrators and a dick that fit like it had been crafted just for her. He had siren eyes and a smooth rumbly voice like a storm rolling in. And for a moment, he’d been hers.
Later that night, with Jill tucked in bed, Lainey tried to go to sleep as well, but her mind kept replaying Bradley’s cold demeanor toward her. She kicked her blanket off and opened her laptop, squeezing her eyes shut against the harsh blue glow. She googled “copyright law” and quickly realized how simplistic that was. Sighing, she shut the laptop again and threw herself back against the pillow. Rolling over, she used her phone to search the man who had claimed to have come up with LiveSteady: Michael Egan. He looked like just a guy, not like someone masterminding a plan to rob a man of his hard-earned money. He was of average height and build, and his hair was a bright copper hue and hidden beneath a cap in most of the photos of him. She switched over to images and noticed that in one, he appeared to be wearing the actual LiveSteady. This guy was something else, flaunting it that way. She zoomed in on it to be sure, and there was the little emblem, the mountain peak lines of an electrocardiogram. Disheartened, she was about to put her phone on sleep mode when she saw the date under the photo. It was three years prior.
Chapter sixteen
Fridaymorningcame,andLainey had never been so excited to go to work. Nothing could top the delirious anticipation she felt for the moment she told Bradley what she had found. Maybe all their problems would melt away, and he would tear up and tell her how thankful he was to have brought her into his office. Jittery, she printed the picture she had found with the date attached and hid it under a calendar Monica kept at the front desk. She needed the perfect moment to show him. She’d go and get him tea when he asked and then triumphantly return both the bearer of tea and the salvation of his company. She could hardly contain herself, bouncing her leg under the desk.
Hours passed while Lainey organized some desktop folders and emptied the recycling bin, but eventually Bradley emerged, looking frazzled. His cuffs weren’t buttoned, his sleeves shoved up his arm, revealing his tan and rippled forearm she so loved. His hair was haphazardly sticking out as well—from running his hands through it tensely, she was sure.
“Monica, do me a favor and go on a coffee run for all of us, will you?”
“Why don’t you have the intern do it?” Monica said in a bored tone, jerking her head toward Lainey. Lainey was watching them closely for any sign of being past lovers, though she wasn’t sure what that would look like exactly.
“Because I’m asking you to do it,” he snapped. The women both widened their eyes. “Just do it,” he said even more loudly and went back into his office.
“Woah, what was that about? Are you okay?” Lainey asked after the silence had thickened beyond what she could stand.
“I’m fine,” Monica replied curtly. “He’s stressed. What do you want to drink?”
“I don’t want anything.” Lainey’s shoulders raised instinctively, her body tense.
As soon as Monica was out the door, Lainey took the picture to Bradley’s office. She knocked and waited for an answer. When one didn’t come, she knocked again. After the third knock, she just opened the door.
“Lainey, did I tell you that you could come in?”
“No, but I—”
“I don’t need an excuse. I’m very busy, and I need time to work through this.”
“I think I can help if you’d just—”
“Go.”
Initially, she did. She closed the door and for a moment just stood on the other side, staring at the cherry-stained wood. She opened the door again and stormed back in, letting it close behind her as hard as it was going to.
“You know, you’ve been acting really unfairly toward me. I thought when you protected me from Josh that it meant that youarea protector, but you’re not. I don’t know what you are, but I don’t deserve this treatment, and I deserve an explanation.”
Bradley dropped his pen and turned toward her. She had expected her words to soften him, but he looked just as self-righteous as he had before. “I’m sorry that you feel I’ve acted unfairly. I feel that I’ve acted like a boss.”
“Why start now?”
That hurt him, and he flinched.
“Exactly. How I acted before was . . . out of character. I’ve never done anything like that before.” She had her answer about Monica. Too bad that under the circumstances, it brought her no comfort. “What we did was wrong.”
“Why was it wrong?”
“I think you know the answer to that, and if you really thought about it, you’d agree with me.”
“Don’t say something you don’t mean, Bradley, something you can’t take back.”
“I do mean it, Lainey. And your parents would never approve, Todd especially. Now, please go.” He turned back to his paperwork, evidently dismissing her.
“So you used me.” Tears bit at her eyes, threatening to spill. She held her eyes wide open so they wouldn’t, refusing to let him see.
