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“Well, that was just mean.”
I ignored them both as I stood up straight. “I’m going back to the kitchen. I don’t want Jessica to think we’re talking about her.”
“We are talking about her. We need to talk some more about her, dammit,” Derek insisted, but I ignored him again and brushed past him.
When he tried to block me, I growled. “Are you seriously trying to get in my way, Derek?”
“Yes. What you’re doing hurts us all, Max, you need to think about that before you do anything stupid.”
“Stupid, like what? Be nice to her? Treat her well? Take her for nice meals and show her that not all men are scum-sucking bastards?”
Derek sighed, so I carried on my way, heading out into the hallway and down toward the kitchen. When Alex and Derek started arguing, I tuned it out, but at the same time, winced because you seriously could hear everything they were saying.
When I popped my head around the kitchen door, I saw Jessica had flushed cheeks as she sat there, slicing tomatoes at the kitchen table.
“Hey,” I said softly, hating that when she muttered the greeting back to me, she didn’t raise her head.
Eileen sniffed at me, and I looked over at her, seeing her glare as well as the weird nod-like gesture she made with her chin, hustling me over Jessica’s way.
I frowned at her in misunderstanding, then when Jessica didn’t say anything else, stepped nearer to her. Placing a gentle hand on her shoulder, and loving that she didn’t flinch at my touch—already! Dammit, that had to bode well, didn’t it?—I crouched down at her side. My jeans creaked with the motion and her gaze flickered over to see the source of the noise.
When she looked down into my eyes, I murmured, “Ignore them. They’re boneheads.”
“They’re also right. We shouldn’t be dating.”
I licked my lips, uncertain now. “Is that what we’re doing?” I asked, my curiosity stirred. Then, other things stirred when her cheeks turned a faint rosy peach before she blanched. I watched in confusion as she tried to pull away from the table after having dropped the knife with a clatter, but I placed my other hand on her knee and kept her in place. “Where are you going? Jessica, I was just clarifying. I didn’t think you would be calling ‘this’ anything, that’s
all.”
Her face puckered with confusion; that pale creamy skin of hers crinkling as she stared down at me. “You can’t be that naïve, can you?”
“Oh, trust me, he can be,” Eileen grumbled with a snort, making both of us jerk in surprise at her intrusion. Jessica looked over at the other woman, and I watched her stare in wonder as Eileen grumbled, “Boy is like a ten-year old in some things. Just never thought it would be where women are concerned. Not with his rep.”
That had Jessica licking her lips—but I knew it was to hide the smile that was twitching along the luscious swell of her Cupid’s bow.
“I-I’d like to think we’re dating. We’ve been on two, after all.”
Her shy hesitation had me squeezing her knee. “There’s no rush, Jessica. No pressure.”
Her shaky breath whispered between us. “Trust me, I know, Max. I read that the other day, and I’m reading that now. I-I just don’t want to cause you any trouble with Derek or, you know, the board?”
I shrugged at that. “They can screw themselves. Derek too. Although, he’d probably like that,” I told her with a wink that had her shooting a wry smile at me.
“You can’t say that. It’s business. Your business. It’s important; it matters.”
I shrugged again. “I’m not intending on hurting you; if things did go south and we stopped seeing each other, I wouldn’t move you to another office to avoid you, and I wouldn’t make you feel crappy for things being over. I wouldn’t leer at you or say inappropriate things. Why would it cause a problem?”
Something glanced over her features, something that had her eyes shuttering, and I had a ‘Eureka’ moment.
“You’ve had that before, haven’t you? With a boss?”
She cleared her throat. “I don’t want to talk about it.” Her words had turned stony, and she shifted focus back to the tomatoes.
“No, maybe you don’t, but maybe you should.”
Another shaky breath slipped from between her lips. “Even if I wanted to, I can’t.”
“You can’t? Or won’t?” I asked, seeming to hear that she was choosing her words carefully.
