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I jerked my chin down slightly and revealed, “Things are okay at work. I think for the first three months of the year, I just buried myself deeper into it, because it gave me something else to focus on. But over the last three months, I’ve actually started to scale things back a bit.”
Curiosity and surprise washed over her. “Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
I took in a deep breath and blew it out. “The reason for that is two-fold,” I started. “It was around that point in time I started to let what was happening between us to creep in. I knew about it before then, but I was finding ways to ignore it at work. Then, I landed the biggest account of my career, and you weren’t there to celebrate it with me. I don’t know. It just didn’t feel as good as I thought it should have.”
“You landed the biggest account of your career?” she asked.
I nodded. “Yes.”
Following a beat of silence, she lamented, “I’m sorry I missed that, Johnny. I’m really proud of you, though.”
“Thanks.”
“So, what’s the other part?”
“What?”
Kiera rolled her body to the side, indicating she was recovering from her orgasm. As I settled my hand on her hip, she replied, “You told me that you started to scale things back for two reasons. You just shared one of them. What’s the other reason?”
I should have thought this through just a bit better. I wasn’t one for keeping secrets, but I wasn’t exactly sure this would be the ideal time to share this, either.
“There’s only so much I can do as one person,” I reasoned.
“Of course. But you were doing okay with the workload you had, weren’t you?” she pressed.
I shook my head. “Not really, if you consider where we wound up,” I noted. “But the bigger problem is that I’m on my own doing it all right now.”
“What do you mean?”
“Jackie doesn’t work for me anymore,” I revealed.
Kiera’s eyes widened. “Wait, what? Since when? Did she quit?”
“She didn’t quit,” I replied, without offering any additional explanation.
It was probably the worst thing I could have done, because Kiera grew alarmed, pushed her palm into my chest, and urged me to my back. “You fired her?”
My head on the pillow, I nodded.
“Why? What happened?”
Kiera’s warm, soft body was pressed against mine, and I started to wonder if it would still be there once I shared the truth with her. My eyes roamed over her face, taking in each and every gorgeous feature. My hand drifted into her hair and gripped it firmly at the back of her skull.
“Baby, I have something I have to tell you,” I said, the sound of my nerves present in my tone.
It took almost no time for Kiera’s body to tense. “Oh, God,” she rasped. “You told me you hadn’t slept with anyone but me for the last eight years. Did you… did you fuck her while we were going through this? I knew it. I knew you moved on.”
“Kiera, I did not fuck Jackie,” I said firmly. “And what do you mean, you knew I moved on?”
Tears had filled her eyes. “What happened between the two of you?” she croaked, her emotions clogging her throat.
“Nothing.”
Kiera wasn’t buying it. “But you just said you needed to tell me something after I asked why you fired her, Johnny. I’m not stupid. Something happened.”
