Page 43 of Knocked Up by my Best Friend's Brothers

His tone is different when he says my name again. “Christa.”

I try to find a decent excuse, but my brain isn’t working. All Cassius has to do is come around and look at my screen. He’ll recognize the program’s name, now bright green at the top of a black window. I told him about it. He knows what it does.

My heart is already bleeding.

“I’m sorry. I just had something I really needed to do tonight,” I manage with a weak smile. He doesn’t buy it.

“Christa, you’re really pale,” he says.

And nauseated. And sweating bullets. Heart palpitations. WebMD might tell me I’m going to die sometime in the next ten minutes. Shame could kill me first.

“I’m okay; I promise.” I try to keep him away, but to no avail. “You can head out. I’ll join you in a minute, Cass.”

“Christa.”

“Dammit,” I hiss as he finally reaches my desk and looks at one of the computer screens.

Cassius stares at it for what feels like the longest second of my life. I’m getting ready for the fallout because there will be fallout. I was about to skip town without so much as a goodbye to anyone. I’ve been telling myself it’s for their safety, but truth be told, I simply cannot face them, not with my truth, not with my past.

“You’re wiping something out of our systems,” Cassius grimly concludes.

I can’t lie to him. Not anymore. Not without destroying absolutely everything there ever was between us. “I am,” I mumble, lowering my gaze.

“What are you wiping? What are you trying to make disappear, Christa?”

I can’t answer that. Not without having to explain everything.

The tension between us thickens to the point where I can barely breathe.

“Look at me,” he commands.

I am unable to disobey that stern, angry voice of his, so I look up. My gaze meets his. And a familiar heat of shame and anguishblows through me, making my cheeks burn red.

“Me.”

“What?” he asks, his brow slightly furrowed.

“I’m wiping myself out of your systems.”

“You’re running away.”

“You wouldn’t understand, Cassius.”

He leans forward, hands firmly pinning mine to the armrests of my chair. His warm breath tickles my face while his cologne short-circuits my senses altogether. His lips part as he glares into my soul.

“I think it’s time for us to talk,” he says.

I’m screwed, and not in a good way.

12

Nathan

Iwas already on my way to the office when Cassius called.

The Hawthorne cybersecurity system alerted me to an unauthorized protocol running from one of our executive offices. I was already annoyed with Christa even before my brother told me what had happened.

“What’s going on here?” I ask as I storm into Christa’s office.

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