Page 110 of Role Play
Ash
Iwas so damn angry, I couldn’t even see straight. The walls around me felt tighter, constrictive, like I was walking through a collapsing tunnel. Pausing, I placed a hand to the wall and took a deep breath. I needed to pull my shit together. So what? The first girl I liked enough to consider something more than a one night stand since my wife died is actually fucking my boss. No. Big.Deal.
Except it was. A big fucking deal. But it was my own damn fault. For trusting a twenty-two-year-old. For opening my heart after only a few weeks. And for thinking anyone could be what Brie once was tome.
When Kelly arrived at our meeting and told me that Lucy was with Richard, I’d had a bad feeling. And stupidly, I ignored that impending doomsday feeling needling my gut as I walked the hallway to Richard's office to grab Lucy for the meeting, only to find the door had been leftajar.
It all made so much more sense now. Richard’s dry cleaning in her back seat. The text messages from him I’d gotten a glimpse of that night at my house. Even Rich’s reaction to Lucy standing in with me half naked. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to push the image out of my head; her standing in front of him, his hands cupping her jaw tenderly, his lips brushing herforehead.
That kiss that suggested a history. A comfort. Like they had been fucking for awhile.
I was torturing myself with the vision burned into my retinas. Well, now I knew why she wouldn’t sign a fucking consent contract. Why she was so paranoid about the fact that we would have to meet with HR or with a superior for aninterview.
Yep. Now I knew why. But knowing didn’t make it anyeasier.
I inwardly snorted and shook my head. She didn’t want people to think she was sleeping her way to the top? Bull fucking shit. She was already sleeping with the president of the company. What the hell did she need mefor?
“Ash,” Lucy said behind me. The plaster walls were smooth and cool against my palm; reluctantly, I pushed off, stalking down the hallway toward my ownoffice.
Lucy was quick and caught up to me in moments. “Ash, wait,” she whispered, actually sounding angry. What in the fuck didshehave to be angryabout?
I swallowed the burning pain down. Pain about what? How fucking stupid to be so upset about someone I hardly knew. “There’s nothing to explain,” I said, trying to keep my voice lighter than my heart. “I didn’t realize you and Richard were athing.”
“Me and Rich?Ash—”
I couldn’t bear to hear the excuses. She didn’t fucking owe me anything. I laughed in spite of myself, and looked up into the hallway light. And there was that burning sensation again. This time in my throat. “Don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me. I won’t tell anyone about Rich and I won’t tell anyone about us, either. Ironic, though. Yesterday, if someone had asked me which costume designer would be sleeping her way to the top, I would have guessed Kelly, notyou.”
Lucy gasped and the sound of her flats slapping the marble floors ceased. I cringed, my gut twisting. The second the words left my mouth, I regrettedthem.
“What did you just say tome?”
“Lucy,I—”
“I amnotsleeping my way to thetop.”
I held in my snort. “Right. And here I thought I was too old for you, yet you’re sleeping with someone ten years older than me. What do you have? A daddy Dom fetish orsomething?”
Her hand moved so quickly, I didn’t even see it coming. Her palm connected with my cheek, leaving a stinging mark at the hollow of my cheekbone. “Fuck you,” she whispered. Then, she smacked me a second time. “And that one is for Kelly,” she hissed. “Becauseneitherof us is sleeping our way to thetop.”
In her right hand, she held a crumpled piece of paper that she shoved into my chest. “Were you planning onevertelling me?” shewhispered.
I narrowed my eyes at her. “Telling youwhat?”
“That training a submissive—that trainingme—was an assignment from Rich for the movie?” She pushed past me, pausing briefly with her flattened palm against my closed office door. “You can just throw that out now,” she said, jerking her chin toward the crumpled paper in my hand. Then, she opened my door and stompedinside.
I opened the wrinkled paper, smoothing it in front of my nose. The consent contract. Signed by LucyandRichardBlair.
* * *
Kelly was smiling.Actually smiling, which was the first time I’d seen her actually laugh since I slashed her budget. She even smiled at Lucy, and I narrowed my eyes at them, wondering when the two managed to become cordial. Beyond cordial. They almost looked like…friends.
“Andrea,” Jon said, standing and circling the emerald green gown that was draped on a mannequin. “These designs arespectacular.”
I sat back, a part of the meeting, but no longer in charge. I had no say in whether or not Andrea was hired for the gig. If I truly had disliked any of her designs, sure I would have spoken up, but ultimately, if Jon had made his decision, I would have to honorthat.
Lucky for all of us, Andrea was a brilliantdesigner.
Jon looked to me, then to Kelly. “Am I speaking out of turn if I say that we’ll be sending over some contracts to Andrea first thing tomorrowmorning?”
