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“And what will the report say?”
“It will say that I discussed the issue with Jo—Mr. Flynn and he provided an explanation. Both the discrepancy and how FlynnSoft handled the issue will be included in the report for Mr. Bailey to handle as he pleases.”
There was a long pause on the phone that Emma didn’t like. When Tim was quiet, he was preparing his words, and they usually weren’t good. “So you’re on a first name basis with Jonah, are you, Emma?”
She swallowed hard, measuring her words carefully and trying to ignore the heat of Jonah’s naked body that still warmed her. “The environment at FlynnSoft is very casual, sir. You know that as well as anyone.”
“You know, Emma, I sent you because I thought you had some sense. More than Dee. I should’ve sent Mark, though. I underestimated Mr. Flynn’s allure. I see that now.”
Emma’s mouth dropped open. “Sir, are you accusing me of some kind of wrongdoing? I assure you that my report is as accurate and impartial as Mark’s would have been.”
“So you’re willing to sit there and deny any type of personal relationship with Mr. Flynn?”
Could she lie? No, she couldn’t. But could she convince him it wouldn’t matter? “No, I can’t do that, sir. But I can say with complete confidence that I did my job as well as anyone.”
Tim groaned loudly over the phone line. “Can’t you see that he just used you, Emma? I’m willing to bet that he turned on the charm the minute you walked in the door. Did he offer to give you a personal tour of the building? Did he take you out to dinner and welcome you to the company? Just to be friendly, of course? He dates models and actresses, Emma. You’re a pretty girl, but do you really think a man like him would be interested in a woman like you if he didn’t want something from you? I’m pretty sure his entire plan from the beginning was to distract you from your work so you wouldn’t find the problem in the books. Or if you did, to convince you not to disclose it. Now that it’s done, he’s going to drop you like a bad habit.”
His sharp words hit their target, bruising her ego, but she wouldn’t back down on her report. “But I did disclose it,” she insisted. “I don’t understand why you’re saying all this when I haven’t even submitted my report yet.”
“Yes, you disclosed the problem, but then you followed it up with the recommendation that the deal still go through because Jonah had handled it in a fiscally responsible manner.”
“How...?” She hadn’t submitted her report yet, and he’d just quoted her own words back to her.
“I pulled it off our server and read your draft when I got off the phone with Mark. I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Would you have made that recommendation with anyone else, Emma? Tell me the truth.”
Emma couldn’t answer. She didn’t know. Perhaps she wasn’t as impartial as she thought. Perhaps Jonah had managed to get his way in the end without her even realizing he was doing it.
“You’ve lost your objectivity because you’ve gotten romantically involved with him, just as he’d planned. If I can’t count on you to do your job, Emma, I have no choice but to let you go. Come in tomorrow and pack up your office.”
She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. It was everything she’d feared and dreaded since the moment she laid eyes on Jonah. She thought she’d been so cautious, so careful, and yet it was all falling down around her. “Are you serious? You’re firing me?”
She heard the bed squeak and Jonah’s heavy footsteps coming down the hallway. He must’ve heard her say she was fired. Panic started to close her throat. She couldn’t deal with Tim and Jonah at the same time.
“I am,” Tim said. “I’m sorry, Emma.”
The line disconnected, leaving her dumbstruck. The phone slipped from her hand to the living room floor, where she left it.
Jonah appeared in the room wearing nothing but his boxers and jeans. “He fired you?” he asked, but she didn’t answer.
She couldn’t. Tim’s words were swirling in her head and muffling Jonah’s voice. She was pregnant and unemployed. She’d just lost her medical insurance. What was she going to do? Turn to her baby’s father? The same man who may have very well used her to close the deal with Game Town?
That was the part that really ate at her insides. She wasn’t the kind of woman Jonah was known to date. He’d pursued Emma from the moment he walked into his office and first laid eyes on her. Well before he knew who she really was, he was asking her to dinner, to coffee, buying her expensive flowers and pouring on the charm layers thick. Maybe Tim was right. All of this was just his way of securing the contract by any means necessary.
“Emma, what did he say? What’s happened? Did he find out about us? We were so careful.”
“Jonah, please,” she said, holding out her hand to silence him. “Just answer one question for me. That’s all I want to hear right now.”
Jonah’s jaw flexed as he held in his own questions and nodded. “Okay. What do you want to know?”
“Before you knew who I really was, why were you pursuing me so doggedly? The truth. Were you only feigning an interest in me in an attempt to distract me and keep me from finding that Noah stole all that money from the company?”
“Is that what Tim told you?” he asked.
“Just answer the question, please.”
Jonah’s blue eyes focused on her for a second before they dropped to the floor. “Yes,” he said after a prolonged and uncomfortable silence.
“Oh my God,” she said, tears rushing to her eyes.
