Page 68 of Protecting Bianca

“All right, everyone. We have two hours to get this into a presentation. I’ll work on the press release in the meantime.”

The five team members stood and left my office, discussing who would take which slides of the presentation. Jeremy lingered in the doorway. “Do you need some help with the release?”

“No. I’m good. Thanks.”

He rubbed his lips together. On someone else, it would have suggested nervousness, but Jeremy didn’t look nervous. “No worries.”

When he left, I opened my laptop to start working on the announcement. The time caught my attention. It was nearly noon and Jager still hadn’t arrived at the office. I was starting to get concerned about him.

I was just about to text him when his tall form marched off the elevator. Pressing my foot to the ground, I stopped myself from running up to him. I wouldn’t do that if we weren’t seeing each other. So, I leaned back in my chair and tapped my pen on my notebook while I waited for him to come to me.

He went into Towers’ office first. I tried focusing on the press release, but the expression on his face when he stepped off the elevator earlier had me looking up every ten seconds to check on him. I hadn’t seen Jager in more than a decade, but I felt I knew him pretty well.

More than twenty minutes later, he walked up to my door. “Hey.”

He wore a dark gray suit, black shirt, and a gold watch. He could have modeled that suit for Armani the way it hung so perfectly on him.

I swallowed back my lust. “Hey.”

Then, reading the look on his face, I added, “What’s wrong?”

He rubbed his lips. “I met with Khan and Chaudhary this morning.”

“Yes.”

“We’ve found some information that I can’t share with you yet, but…”

He turned toward my door and took a couple of steps to shut it. Now, I was worried.

“What is it?”

“I want you to stay away from Jeremy Tagert.”

“Ok.”

He had both hands on his hips, and it looked like he wanted to say more.

“I don’t see Jeremy outside of the office, only at events.”

“And the next event is the launch?”

“Yes. Next Friday. Why are you telling me this?”

He closed the distance between us but kept his hands to himself, clasped in front of him, like he was delivering a debrief. “I found some photos on his computer of you.”

“Of me?” His words shocked me. “Why? How? When?” I sputtered.

“I don’t know why. He took them at events. I spoke to Towers about it, but he didn’t feel there was enough there to file a complaint with HR. But has Tagert ever said anything to you that’s made you uncomfortable?”

I leaned against my desk, suddenly feeling off balance. “I’ve gotten strange looks and the ick from him, but I can’t remember him saying anything inappropriate.” My mind went back to the images. “What was I doing in those photos?” It bothered me that he had taken photos of me and saved them on his computer. It was strange and confusing, and frankly, a little terrifying. What did he do with those photos?

“You were working. Maybe I’m being overprotective, but they set alarm bells off in my head and after some information Ifound out today, I think he could be more dangerous than just some guy who has an office crush.”

“Yeah. I don’t feel comfortable knowing he took those photos of me. Can I do anything about it?”

“You can file a complaint with HR yourself.”

“What do I say? That you found some photos on his laptop of me at events? That isn’t much to go on since he was supposed to take photos at the event.”

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