A noise from the office pulled my attention back. Howard had set a stack of files on his desk and was putting them into a briefcase. I hoped that meant he was about to leave, even if he was taking the files with him. As long as I could get out of here in one piece, I could figure out a way to find those files again. Howard struck me as the kind of man who’d never deign to destroy anything, no matter how incriminating. He was more of the “keep a trophy and brag” type.
He turned towards the bookcase and my heart started to pound. I knew where he was going even before his fingers brushed over the spine of the book. He frowned as he pulled it out, and I felt a stab of fear. Had I put it back in the wrong place?
Shit.
He opened the book and I could see his body tensing.
The article. What the hell had happened to the article?
With panic threatening to take over, I watched him looking around. When he bent over, I knew he’d spotted it. Would he think that it had just fallen when he’d opened the book and he hadn’t seen it, or would he realize that someone had been snooping? The moment he straightened, I knew that he was suspicious. I needed to hide better.
I started towards the bathroom, but stopped. I didn’t know if it was just a toilet or if there’d be a shower I could hide in. And what if the shower doors were glass? No, I needed somewhere else.
My eyes fell on the bed, then dropped lower. There wasn’t much room, but it was the best I had. I dropped and wiggled underneath. The frame scraped against my back, but I could fit. I pushed myself back as far as possible and waited.
What seemed like forever passed, and then the room flooded with light. I scrunched back into the shadows, trying to make myself as small as I could. I could see his feet as he entered the room and crossed to the bathroom. The light went on there as well. I heard running water, then the light went out again. He stood in the middle of the room for a moment, then walked back towards the door. The light went out and I sighed in relief. Still, I stayed under the bed.
I might not have been able to see Howard anymore, but I could hear him as he called out for Annie to come back in. I really hoped he wasn’t going to bring her in here for a second round, this time right above me. I wasn’t sure I could handle that. He didn’t, however. Instead, he told her that she would be flying back to New York tonight and she was to take the files to his Manhattan office.
“I want you spending the rest of the weekend giving me a short list of replacement candidates,” he added. “I’ll make the final decision on Monday. And remember, if I can’t find anyone suitable, you’re going to be taking a little trip.”
I heard a sound that I didn’t want to try to identify, and then I heard the door close. I stayed where I was, straining my ears to hear anything that might indicate whether or not Howard had left the room as well. When several minutes passed and I didn’t hear anything, I slid out from under the bed. I brushed off my dress and crept over to the door. I peeked out and didn’t see anything. It was time for me to return to the party. I just hoped I could lie as well as I thought I could. If Gavin suspected I knew the truth, I didn’t know what he’d do.
Chapter 4
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
I grimaced and nodded my head. The concern in Gavin’s voice was tearing me up. How could he pretend to care like that? It was beyond cruel.
From the moment I’d left Howard’s office and headed back down to the party, I’d known that I might be able to smile and make nice, but the moment Gavin had touched me, it had taken everything in me not to recoil. My body was torn, wanting to respond to his touch, to the pleasure I knew he could bring, but I was at the same time repulsed by what I’d discovered. When he asked if I was feeling all right, I’d realized that I had a cover.
The remainder of the weekend, I’d played sick. It had been painful having to watch him hover and act like he wanted to take care of me, but I just reminded myself how much worse it would have been to have followed through with our plans. If I couldn’t stand having him touch me in a nonsexual way, I never could have gotten through a kiss, much less fucking. And that’s what it had been, I reminded myself. No matter how tender he’d pretended to be, how often he’d said he wanted to pleasure me, it had all been a scam. He’d fucked me over as thoroughly as he’d fucked me physically, and I refused to let myself consider that it could be anything else.
The only thing that kept nagging at me was the story about his fiancée and daughter. If I hadn’t seen the article, I would’ve just assumed he’d lied about the whole thing, that the initials and date meant something else. Maybe that he was married or the very least had a girlfriend. But I’d seen the article, and everything he’d told me matched. Sure, there’d been a couple of details he’d left out, but nothing contradicted his story.