Page 21 of Boss With Benefits

But on the other hand, what if itwasn’tso easy to move on? What if, despite the promotion that suggested she’d been forgiven, the memories of it continued to hound her, riddling her with doubt and colouring her every decision? How would she stand it?

Maybe she had to offload everything once and for all—the facts, the fallout, the lasting impact the affair had had on her—so she could truly let it go. Maybe it would be cathartic. And as for exposing her fallibility to this man in particular, well, he had no sway over her career any longer. He posed no threat to anything, and she certainly didn’t care about his opinion of her. In two and a half weeks’ time she’d never even see him again. How bad could it possibly be?

Nevertheless, bracing herself to be hit with a flurry of unpleasant memories and a surge of turbulent emotion, Ella sat up and hugged a pillow to her like some sort of shield. ‘Drew Taylor,’ she said on a sigh. ‘He’s what happened.’

‘Who’s Drew Taylor?’

‘A year ago, he was my then boss’s then boss. He’s also the biggest mistake of my life.’

Adam stilled mid-rub, and while she appreciated the pose that displayed his muscles to their finest advantage, she wasmore intrigued by the unexpected flare of emotion she saw in his glare when her gaze met his. ‘What did he do?’

‘Plenty,’ she said with a wince and a shudder as she fought to keep the details from flooding her head. ‘But then, so did I. I had an affair with him. I knew it was against company policy, but I went ahead with it anyway. For a whole six weeks.’

His eyebrows shot up. ‘You didwhat?’

‘There’s no need for you to be so judgemental about it,’ she said, bristling a little even though his incredulity was perfectly understandable and not nearly as great as her own. ‘Believe me, I have berated myself repeatedly for it. Barely a day goes by that I don’t regret my stupidity.’

Adam abandoned the towel with which he’d been rubbing his head and sat at the end of the bed, facing her. ‘I’m not being judgemental,’ he said, his expression softening a fraction. ‘I’m just staggered that you’d risk your career like that when it obviously matters a great deal to you.’

Yes, well, quite. How very perceptive of him. ‘It was an extremely stressful time,’ she said, not entirely sure who she was trying to convince most. ‘I’d been working long hours and was running on fumes. We were out celebrating the end of a successful financial year, and one thing led to another.’ She sighed again. ‘To be honest, I’m not sure what I was thinking at the time. I must have been out of my mind. I don’t even do relationships. But somehow I got tangled up in it. He was very dynamic. Very persuasive. But I still should have resisted.’

The frown returned. ‘Did he take advantage of you?’

‘No.’

‘It sounds as though he did.’

‘I was a very willing participant. Too willing, as it turned out.’

‘What do you mean?’

Even though she was beginning to die a little on the inside at the thought of revealing things that were so personal, soridiculously sentimental, Ella soldiered on because there was no going back now. ‘I thought I was in love, which I wasn’t, but still. There was definitely some infatuation going on. For him, though, it could not have been more casual. We could not have been more at odds in terms of expectations. And so when we were found out, he threw me under the bus.’

‘How?’

‘He claimed I’d seduced him and that I wouldn’t take no for an answer.’

For a moment there was utter silence. While she’d been speaking, Adam’s expression had grown increasingly stony, and by the time she finished, his scowl could have vaporised rock. ‘He deserves to be ruined.’

‘He does,’ she agreed, something deep in her chest twanging in response to his support, which she didn’t need but for some reason felt nice to have nonetheless. ‘Instead, he got promoted, I got blacklisted. The night you and I met in that bar, I’d just found out he’d been nominated for an award, while I was still battling to repair my reputation. It felt grossly unfair.’

‘It’s more than grossly unfair,’ he said, his jaw now so tight it looked as if it were about to shatter. ‘It’s immoral, if not downright illegal.’

‘I know.’

‘I should fire them.’

Her eyes widened with alarm. ‘Please do not do that. They might blame it on me and take my promotion away.’

‘All right,’ he conceded grudgingly. ‘But the minute our contract comes up for renewal, the gloves are off.’

‘There’s really no need. I can fight my own battles.’

‘I wouldn’t be doing it for you. I’d be doing it for me. There’s no place for misogyny and harassment in any of the Courtney Collection’s dealings. There was enough of that going on under my father’s tenure.’

‘So I’ve read,’ she said, stifling a shudder at the thought of Edward Courtney, who sounded as though he’d been an utterly abhorrent individual.

‘So, because of the affair, your career stalled,’ he said, bringing the conversation back to the point. ‘What other impact did it have?’

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