Page 95 of Plus Size Player

The floor fell out from under me.

Well, damn.

My stomach twisted. Even though I’d just said the same thing to Aaliyah earlier, hearing him say it was an unexpected gut punch. When I hypothetically mentioned it would be the only solution, it hurt. But the reality of ending things with him rocked me.

“We can’t let anyone know that we know each other,” he continued.

“I, um… yeah,” I agreed softly. “There’s a lot at stake. It’s the only way to protect us both.”

He didn’t say a word.

His chest rose and fell as he stared straight ahead. “This could ruin me,” he uttered after a minute.

Me too.

He swallowed hard before turning to look at me. “I have to meet with the inspector before my flight. But I’ll make this whole thing go away. Everything will be fine.”

“It’ll be like it never happened.”

He stared at me with a blank expression on his face, so I elaborated.

“With no evidence of a connection between us, there would be nothing they could find suspicious. It’ll be like it never happened.”

He shifted his eyes, remaining quiet for a moment.

“I think Remedy is… suspicious,” he admitted, sliding his phone into his pocket.

His sentence hung in the air as I wrapped my mind around what he had said.

No wonder he was so freaked out.

Staring at him, I willed him to say more words. When he didn’t continue, I whispered, “What?”

“After the meeting, when it was just the two of us, I asked her about you. She made a joke about the way I looked at you.” He ran his hand over his beard. “About how I seemedparticularly interestedin you. Those were her exact words: particularly interested.”

What does that mean?

He wasn’t telling the story fast enough.

“Is she going to take her suspicions to HR?” I asked as he headed to the door.

He shook his head, stopping at the front door. “No, she wouldn’t do that.”

I wiped my palms down my thighs. “So, if we do our part and pretend like we don’t know each other, her suspicions won’t be validated and we’ll both be protected.”

And employed.

His hand was on the doorknob, his body still facing me. “Right. We just have to play it cool.” His eyes dipped to my lips and lingered for a beat too long. “And keep our distance from one another.”

Blinking up at him, I felt the pull deep within. It was the first time I’d been around him, felt the pull, and actually resisted it.

We couldn’t continue and we had to keep our distance. I knew it was the right thing to do. I knew it was too big of a risk. But it didn’t feel right.

“Well, Mr. Long”—taking a step back, I stretched my hand out to him—“it has been a pleasure getting to know you this summer.”

He slipped his hand over mine, gripping it firmly. “The pleasure has been all mine.”

Hearing him say “mine” flashed me back to that morning. It was only a few hours ago that he’d asked me to be his.

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