Page 59 of Ink & Desire

I nod. “Perfectreply.”

She sighs. “Luckily, one of the other assistants walked in right then, so he couldn’t say anything else. He just kind of laughed and shook his head. Said he was just checking on the archives and for us to have a good evening.”

I can picture the scene exactly as Cass described. Just the idea of being cornered in an empty room that way gives me the creeps. And she’s always been a good judge of character. If this guy gives her a bad vibe, chances are he’s not a good guy.

“Do you think I’m overreacting?” she asks. “I mean, it’s not like he did anything. And I could have misinterpreted the situation, right?”

I eye her for a moment until she sighs, her shoulders drooping in defeat. “Yeah, I know,” she says. “It’s just that I love this job. It’s perfect for me. I don’t want to jeopardize it because my boss is a disgusting pig.”

“So, go to his boss,” I suggest. “He’s got to have someone above him, right? Or an HR department you can complain to?”

Cass nods, clearly deep in thought. “Yeah. You’re right. I need to report it.”

Something about her tone makes me wonder if she’s really going to go through with reporting her boss’s creepy behavior, but I know Cass. No one is going to make her do something she’s not ready to do. Not even her best friend. But that doesn’t mean I can’t try.

“Cass, you have to,” I say. “You can’t let him keep intimidating you. Maybe it’s just creepy behavior, butwhat if it’s more than that? You can’t take the risk that he’ll catch you alone one day and do more than say weird shit.”

She nods. “I know. I’ll go to HR when I get back.”

Relief fills me. “Call me as soon as you do.”

She smiles. “Promise.”

We finish eating lunch and head back to my apartment. True to her word, Cass demands details of my night with Corbin as soon as we cross the threshold. I consider how to start the story, feeling slightly nervous for some reason. But this is Cass. She’s not a stranger. Besides, it’s not like we’ve never shared details of our sex lives.

“Fine,” I say. “But no interrupting. And no judgement.”

She looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. “You know I never judge, A. I might get a little envious. But I won’t judge.”

We settle on the couch, and I tell her everything I can remember from the events of yesterday. I start with the piercing and lead up to Corbin’s hand on my throat, ending with me standing in the empty shop. I don’t look at Cass until the story is finished. When I do, I’m glad I avoided her shocked gaze while I was talking. Her eyes are wide, and her mouth is hanging open in shocked amusement.

“Wow.”

“Is that all you’ve got?” I ask. “Wow?”

She nods. “Wow seems to cover it. I mean, damn.” She fans herself with one hand. “That was hot as fuck. I’d be pissed at him for running away too. Especially now that you know what you’ve been missing.”

I huff out a laugh, rolling my eyes. She’s not wrong, though. Part of my annoyance at Corbin’s stubborn refusal to acknowledge what happened stems from the fact that I want it to happen again. But his reaction makes me think he doesn’t feel the same way. Which is disappointing, to say the least.

“Are you going to just let him get away with it?” she asks, pulling me back to the present.

“What am I supposed to do, Cass? I could confront him, but he’ll probably just shut down and go on ignoring me.”

She shakes her head. “No, confronting him probably won’t work. What you need to do is decide how you want to go forward. Do you want to go back to the way things were before you two hooked up? Or do you want to do it again?”

I laugh. “It doesn’t matter what I want, Cass. He clearly wants to act like nothing happened.”

She waves a dismissive hand. “Yeah, and he told you in the beginning that you two were going to keep things professional, right?”

I nod.

“And he fucked that one up already,” she says. “So, it stands to reason that it might happen again. With the proper motivation.”

“What are you trying to say?” I ask.

She gives me a knowing look. “I’m saying, if you want him you need to push him over the edge. It happened once. It can happen again. Especially if you’re trying this time. I’m guessing you weren’t trying before?”

I feel my face heat because honestly, I had been trying to push Corbin’s buttons yesterday. But his shitty attitude after the piercing was driving me nuts. I’d wanted to prove to myself and to him that he wasn’t as unaffected by me as he was pretending to be. And I’d been right.

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