One Regret(14)

I couldn’t keep the smile away any more. “Not even a little bit. But I love messing with you.”

“Christ, Olivia. That wasn’t funny.” William’s eyes flashed and I no longer found what I had done to be at all funny.

“I’m sorry, William. I was just screwing around. You were so tense after the flight.” I stepped closer to him and looked up at him innocently. “I should be punished for this.”

“Oh, no, you don’t.” William tried to step away but I already had my arms around him. “This isn’t going to work.”

“It isn’t?” I pressed my body against his and slipped one hand between us until I was grabbing his crotch. “It sure feels like it is working.”

“Fuck. Fine, but not here.” William smiled reluctantly. “Let’s go home.”

“Yes,” I agreed, loving the sound of that word from his lips. “Home.”





CHAPTER FIVE

When William dropped me off at my place the next morning, everything between us was perfect. He carried my bag to my door and we kissed goodbye for ten minutes. Even though we would see each other at work in less than an hour, neither of us wanted to let go. But we did. I didn’t know it then, but that was the end of perfect for us.

The situation with Dennis Jeffries hadn’t gone away. I spent hours digging through his financial records, searching for some way to explain his blatant embezzlement. By the end of the day, I was exactly where I had started and it was clear that Mr. Jeffries was headed to jail.

“Bad news,” I told William at the end of the day. He had called me into his office to discuss the next steps. “He’s screwed.”

“I figured as much.” William was kicked back in his chair with his feet on his desk, tossing a stress ball into the air. “What options do we have?”

“Legally or from a P.R. standpoint?”

“Both.”

“Legally, Jeffries is going to jail. As a lawyer, I suggest he accept the plea bargain. He should liquidate his assets and pay back whatever he can. But Jeffries doesn’t strike me as the kind of man who admits he was wrong. Short of an apology, the best thing he can do is keep his mouth shut. We can circulate pictures of his family, and it would probably be good if the news cameras could see him with his wife. Maybe even the grandkids.”

“His family hates him.” William’s feet landed on the ground with a thud and tossed the stress ball onto his desk. He started pacing the length of the room. I could tell that he was deep in thought and he stopped in front of me abruptly. “We need the apology. He needs to take the offer on the table.”

“I agree.” I glanced at his desk. “Speaking of ‘on the table’…”

William glared at me. “Not now, Olivia.”

My face grew hot at his rebuke. He had never spoken to me like that and I wasn’t sure how to respond. Normally, I would have given attitude right back to him but at that moment, I wasn’t sure if he was William my boyfriend or Connor my boss.

“I’m going to meet with Dennis again tomorrow. You should probably be in that meeting.”

“Fine.” I waited for him to say something else about the meeting, or perhaps apologize for snapping at me but he kept his lips pressed into a thin, harsh line. “If that’s all, I’ll be going.”

William nodded. “Tomorrow is likely to be intense. You should go home.”

“Which home?” I wasn’t trying to challenge him, but I honestly didn’t know if he was talking about his place or mine.

“Your home,” he said. “I’m going to be working late tonight.”

“Fine. Good night, William.” I was hoping he would at least give me a kiss, but I had too much pride to wait around for him to make a move.

He stopped me with my hand on the door. “Olivia.”

I knew after one look at his face that what had happened between us in Utah was over. He couldn’t look me in the eye.

“What, William?” It was hard for me to speak around the knot that was forming in my throat.

“Good night.” He turned away from me and I kept my head high as I left the office.

I was in bed by nine o’clock that night- alone. Yet I managed to not get a single minute of sleep. I couldn’t stop thinking about William and how much he had changed in just one day. The playful, considerate, damaged William from Utah had been replaced by a cold, abrasive imposter. Or maybe Utah-William was the imposter. Either way, whatever fantasy I may have had about a happily-ever-after with him had been erased.

Our morning meeting with Dennis Jeffries was brutal. He screamed at us for two hours when we suggested he take the plea deal. William tried to reason with him, but that only made it worse.