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CHAPTER 22
The entire office watchedsilently as I carried the box full of my desk items past them to the elevators. I had known that I was going to be fired, it had been obvious as soon as I saw June Follet’s face the day after the recordings had hit the news cycle.
But what I hadn’t been prepared for was the fact that it took them almost two weeks to find a reason to fire me that wouldn’t get them sued.
Misappropriation of company funds and breaking company policy by billing a company instead of an individual. The first was completely false, and the second is what I had been told to do when it came to invoicing Chairwoman Bells.
Either way, it didn’t matter. Coming to this office left a bad taste in my mouth now.
Right before I stepped onto the elevator, the last person that I saw was Zoey. She was leaning against one of the cubicles with her arms crossed over her chest. I fully expected her to make a snarky comment, but instead, all I saw in her eyes was...respect?
“Good luck, Madeline.” She said as the elevator doors closed me off from Poleman’s forever.
I didn’t regret what I did, not one bit. I was just grateful that my name hadn’t been plastered all over the news—I at least had that level of anonymity. But I would never work in the fashion industry again, not with misappropriation of funds on my record. I also needed to figure out how the hell I was going to pay my rent with no job. I knew that Ric would be more than willing to cover things, but that would just make me feel worse about the whole situation. I was a grown adult, and I didn’t need my big brother to come and save me.
The lobby of the building that Poleman’s was in was empty, and when I finally stepped into the crisp February afternoon, I sucked in a breath to steady myself. I would figure things out, I always did.
“Madeline.” A familiar voice called. When I looked up, I found Adair, Rio, and even Marcus all leaned against a dark BMW.
I hadn’t realized how tight my shoulders were until they slumped with relief at the sight of them. I hurried over to stand in front of them, a sheepish smile on my face. “You didn’t have to come.”
“Yes, we did. It’s not every day you get fired for doing the right thing. We need to celebrate.” Adair said and took the box from me with a grin.
“All of us?” I asked, glancing shyly over at Marcus. Henevercame out with us when we went places.
Marcus’s green eyes looked a bit conflicted, but he finally nodded. “All of us.”
Madeline’s laughterfilled the apartment as I opened the door and got out of the way so that she could wander inside first, followed by Adair and Rio. We had all drunk a bit too much at dinner and had ended up needing Adair’s bodyguards to drive us home.
Dinner had been...nice. Ever since Madeline had put that flash drive in my hands almost three weeks ago, my view of her had shifted. I’d constantly been watching her every chance that I got. Even tonight at dinner, I had barely tasted any of the food that I ate. Instead, I watched as she let Rio and Adair comfort her, and I was filled with the overwhelming desire to do the same.
Now, as I watched her laugh at some silly joke that Rio made, I wondered how I had ever thought of her as a spoiled princess. Spoiled princesses didn’t give up their dream jobs and work to topple corrupt institutions.
“Are you alright, Marcus?” The object of my thoughts asked, and when I blinked, Madeline was standing in front of me with flushed cheeks and dazed eyes. At some point during my thoughts, Rio and Adair had disappeared down the hallway, leaving Madeline and me alone in the living room.
“I’m fine, are you okay?” Was the only thing my absolutely stupid brain could manage to conjure up for me to say.
Madeline shrugged her shoulders. “No, not yet.”
The instant desire to reach out and comfort her filled me, and I was about to do so when she squared her shoulders and continued. “But I will eventually be ok. Just gotta keep moving forward.”
She had shown me over and over again that I couldn’t put my expectations on her. Every time I tried, she reacted differently than how I expected her to. From not telling Adair or Rio about our meeting in my office to going out of her way to protect a little girl even at the cost of her own career. What had started as begrudging respect for the beta woman was quickly turning into something else, and it scared the shit out of me.
Without thinking, I reached out and tugged her by the front of her jumper dress until my mouth crashed into hers. The cherry scent that had been floating through my dreams for almost four months hit me full force, and the sound of Madeline’s surprised gasp spurred me onwards.
Madeline’s soft lips moved willingly against mine as her fingers curled into the hair on the back of my head. She was so damned responsive that I found myself pulling her even closer to me until our bodies were pressed completely together.
“Madeline,” Adair’s voice called from down at the end of the hallway. “Are you coming to bed?”
Madeline broke the kiss, and I expected to see surprise or regret on her face, but all I saw was heat as she licked her lips before heading down the hallway to join the two alphas in the back bedroom.
I was the one who was stunned by the sudden turn of events. I stood in the living room for a long time after that with my fingers pressed to my lips, reliving the memory of our first kiss over and over again.
