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I wanted to sob, hug him and press my face into his suit, but he was my boss right now and I couldn’t do that.
“Everything’s fine,” I lied. “Just had a long day.”
He looked at his watch. “Well, it’s nearly four. You can go home early if you’d like.”
I shook my head. “I’ve got plenty of work to do here.”
“That’s an order, not a request,” he said firmly, and again, I wanted to burst into tears. He could tell that I was upset and stressed and only wanted what was best for me.
“I’ll go home,” I said quietly, grabbing my things.
“And Magda?” Dad called as I went past him, my shoulder brushing his.
“Yeah?”
“You’re doing a great job.”
That only made me want to cry harder, but this time, I made it all the way to the parking garage before I burst into tears, holding on to my steering wheel. I absolutely hated feeling this way. Heartbreak was the worst way to feel, and I hadn’t felt it probably since college.
My first college boyfriend had played with my mind and my heart, and I hated the way it felt. I felt that way about Roarke Brentwood now, and I hated myself for letting these feelings grow. I had no idea that I liked him so much, had grown to understand him, until his ex-wife told me they were getting back together.
Now I was going to still have to work closely with him on this case, all the while pretending like my heart wasn’t in shards. How the hell was I supposed to do that?
ROARKE
I kept tellingmyself not to go to Magda’s office. Whatever I wanted to tell her could happen over the phone, but what I needed was for her to go through the second half of this prenup. I’d gone through the first half and my eyes were starting to cross at all the legal language. It was a language I was well versed in, of course, but at the same time, things began to blur together when you read line after line of it.
I needed her help, and I didn’t want to admit it.
I finally sighed when my eyes blurred out for the third time and took the file toward her office. Her light was off, the office door locked, and when I knocked, she didn’t answer.
Webster walked up behind me. “She went home for the day.”
I frowned. “Why?”
He shrugged. “She wasn’t feeling well, and you didn’t seem up for teamwork.”
“I was coming to get her for teamwork,” I muttered under my breath. Richard was a few years older than me, and even though he was my best friend, he often seemed to take the lead on things. Most of the time, I let him, because I was pretty laid-back. I did a lot of the court work because he handled a lot of the paperwork, and it worked for us.
Outside of the office, we were the same, but inside the office, I was the shark and he was the one who sat back and made sure everything was by the book. I didn’t like following rules, and sometimes Richard overriding me pissed me off.
This was one of those times.
Was it just because it was Magda? Because I wanted to see her? Because I wanted her back in my bed? I probably would have talked her into coming home with me, so this was probably for the best.
“You’ll never believe who I scored a date with,” I heard one of the junior associates say. Magda’s office was near the water cooler, so a lot of gossips happened there, and I wasn’t really paying attention, trying to think of how to respond to Richard overriding me about sending Magda home. Then my ears perked up.
“Has to be Magda Riley,” someone else said, and it was like that was nowallI could hear.
When I turned, Mark Windham was standing at the water cooler with another associate I didn’t know by name, something like Lynch or Lynchburg, I thought. I didn’t know much about Lynch but I knew that Windham was a bit of a snake in the grass. That was all well and good when it came to the law, because sometimes it could be good to manipulate, but a date? With Magda? Absolutely not.
“She askedmeto dinner,” Mark continued, and I didn’t like the way he was boasting about it.
In fact, I didn’t like that she asked him, either. What was she thinking? She was the one always going on about how she didn’t want to get involved with anyone at work, especially me. Now she was dating Mark fucking Windham? He manipulated the law and the clients we worked with, especially the women, and he had the reputation of being a bit of a scumbag around the office.
Hadn’t Magda heard the rumors? And why the hell was she dating him, anyway. While we were sleeping together? It wasn’t like I’d broken things off with her. I was pissed off, and I glared at Mark Windham. He ignored me, laughing and chatting with Lynch/Lynchburg.
Richard gave me a hard look. “Roarke, I know what you’re thinking.”
