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Like mother, like daughter.
She straightened her spine, but she couldn’t look at him. If she met those gray-blue eyes, she was a goner. “It’s been fun. Really fun. But let’s leave this on a high note. I want to be a fond memory, something that will never get a chance to lose its shine.”
His bitter laugh made her stomach drop. “Sounds like you already have the narrative set.”
Better me setting the narrative than playing supporting role in someone else’s. “I do.” She forced her hand to turn the doorknob and open the door, because if she didn’t move right then, she’d go back to him and let him spin whatever pretty fantasy until she actually believed it. It wasn’t the truth. She knew that, even if he wasn’t willing to admit it. “Have a nice life, Aaron.”
Becka walked out the door without looking back.
CHAPTER THREE
Twelve weeks later
“THAT ABOUT SUMS it up. The new account didn’t request anything fancy, but we’d be assholes if we left them exposed. Better to just go the extra mile.” Aaron slid the file across the table to his business partner, Cameron O’Clery. “You want to handle this one, or should I?” Their security business focused heavily on all things tech related, and this new account was no different. Once they got the initial cybersecurity laid down, they would maintain it for as long as their retainer was paid, but it took time to figure out exactly what the client needed—and often enough, it wasn’t what the client thought they needed.
Cameron flipped through it. “You usually don’t ask me—you just dole out the clients.”
Aaron tensed, but it was the truth. He tended to be the client-facing part of the company, and he picked and chose which ones he passed to Cameron because Cameron...wasn’t particularly patient with people he considered too stupid to live. Unfortunately for any prospective business-client relationships, Cameron found ninety percent of the world too stupid to live. Some clients could handle his attitude because he was the best cybersecurity expert in the city, and some couldn’t. Part of Aaron’s job was figuring that out. “We’re partners.”
“Never said we weren’t.” Cameron sat back and laced his fingers behind his head. He was a big fucker, his white T-shirt stretched tight against his dark skin. He narrowed brown eyes at Aaron. “You’re off your game—have been for weeks. I didn’t ask, but if it’s going to affect the job, maybe it’s time to.”
“It’s nothing.” Just a blue-haired woman he couldn’t seem to scrub from his mind. He hadn’t tracked Becka down after she’d left so abruptly because she couldn’t have been clearer in wanting nothing to do with him. If he was smart, he would have left what happened between them in that room behind as easily as she had.
But she haunted his dreams.
He kept waking up and reaching for her, only to find himself alone in bed. It didn’t make a damn bit of sense. It had been sex—outstanding, earth-shattering sex, but sex. A single fuck shouldn’t screw with his mind so effectively.
“Doesn’t look like nothing to me.” Cameron held his hands up. “Not my business. Just handle your shit, Aaron. I can take this client.”
He thought about the timid man who had signed the contract earlier that day and sat back. “Nah, I got it. This guy needs a softer touch.”
“Shit. Take it.” Cameron slid the file back to him with a disgusted look on his face. “I’ve got to tie up a few loose ends with the last one. She came back wanting changes despite the job being done. Nothing I can’t handle, but it’s a pain in the ass.”
“Always is.” Aaron grabbed the file and rose. “Let me know if you need an assist.”
“I don’t.” Cameron frowned. “Though I think we might need to expand the team to include someone to handle paperwork and all that shit. It’s taking too much time from the jobs themselves, and you know how I feel about paperwork.”
“The same way you feel about most things.” He hated it.
Cameron nodded. “I’ll post a job opening. Figure they can man the phones and the main email account to field and file prospective clients. Frees you up to focus on the jobs and stop handling me.”
Considering Aaron didn’t know who they would hire who was capable of handling Cameron, he just nodded. It was a problem for another day. First, he had to arrange a secondary meeting with the new client and bring them up to date with the prospective client list sitting in his inbox. Throwing a new person into the mix without them being caught up was a recipe for disaster.
That said, it would be nice to delegate some of the more tedious tasks. “Sounds like a plan.”
He headed out of the room. They owned the entire floor of this building, but they really only utilized their respective offices, a boardroom and a waiting room that was more neglected than anything else.
