Page 44 of One Big Little Secret

Why?

Clearly, that’s all it was.

It’s not like she has any lingering attraction to me. That’s a one-way street, and I’m the clown who’s been stripping her naked with every glance, even if I’d die before I act on it a second time.

Company ink and all.

Also, I’ve been with enough women to know when they’re turned on and when they want to throw me out the window.

I just hate that she’s avoiding me.

Not totally, of course.

She’s my employee and a manager here, which makes it impossible to ghost me completely, but she does her damnedest.

Conveniently, she misses my calls, sending back the world’s shortest replies to my emails and texts. She tries like hell to pretend I don’t exist during meetings.

“Do you have any suggestions?” I ask during the review of employee logistics—the first time we’ve seen each other face-to-face for more than an hour since the car incident.

She doesn’t look me in the eye.

“I have a few,” she says.Quietly, damn her.

“You mentioned the cleaning routine was disruptive to some of our guests.”

“That’s right.” She launches into how we could handle the schedule better, given all amenities are open twenty-four seven.

I do my best to focus on what she’s saying, and not the fiery-red lipstick she’s wearing today.

Or the way the sadness seeped into her eyes when I asked if she was on that riverboat with me.

Or the brutal fact that I know what’s under her neat blue blouse.

Or hell, the fact that long after that one-night stand, I could still smell her perfume on me and dreamed about the way she purred.

The way she laughed at the table games, before I found myself inside her, haunted me for months after that night.

She’s not laughing now.

She looks like a woman who’s forgotten how.

“Another thing, I think we should consider increasing security. Maybe add one more person for the overnights,” she says as I make myself pay attention to her again.

The ice in her eyes feels so frosty it makes the forty-degree day outside feel balmy.

“We already have two security guards patrolling overnight.”

“I think we should make it three, enough to handle the rooftop bar and cover the floors every half hour.” She pauses. “You wanted input. There it is.”

She might be right. Bumping up our personnel also means better coverage for the cameras, without anyone skipping out on checking footage to finish long patrols.

“Why else?” I push back. “You must have another reason.”

I’m leaning into this mentorship thing, wanting her to make her case as tight as she can.

For a second, I think she’ll tear my throat out for hounding her, but she swallows hard.

Her throat tightens and I think she clasps hands under the table.

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