Page 40 of The German's Guilty Pleasure
He smiled and grasped my chin, kissing my lips tenderly. “You never judge anyone, and that is the reason I am here telling you this. When you stopped breathing today, it brought it all back. I was scared with Lam, but today I was petrified. I wasn’t sure I could pull air into my lungs as you lay lifeless in my arms.”
I grasped him tightly, wrapping my legs around his waist and cuddling into him when he laid back on the bed with me. “I’m sorry. It should have been safe to eat. I’ll be more careful, just don’t give up on me.”
He kissed my cheeks and lips repeatedly. “I should be begging you not to give up on me. I should have been there for you today, baby. I should have been holding your hand, but I was a coward. Will you give me a second chance?”
I brushed my lips across his. “You’re here now, that’s all that matters. Stay with me tonight.”
“Not even that stubborn German across the hall could drag me away,” he promised, his lips against my forehead. “Rest now, my littleblauer vogel. Let me hold you.”
My eyes closed from pure exhaustion, but my heart pounded with the knowledge I hadn’t screwed up the one thing I needed in this world.
Him.
There was a spring in my step when I got off the elevator. I was filled with news and couldn’t wait to tell Lars about it. Sure, there was some trepidation, but I prayed he would be as happy as I was. “Is he in?” I asked, swooshing past Lexie’s desk.
“Morning, Serenity. He’s in, but listen …”
I didn’t listen, I plowed straight ahead and knocked on his door once before I pushed it open. “Lars!” I exclaimed before I was even all the way through the door. I stopped instantly when I noticed he wasn’t alone. “Gretchen? When did you get here?” I asked, confused. “I thought you weren’t coming back for another month?”
The last month had been ridiculously busy. Gretchen had left three weeks ago, but we had spent hours via Skype late into the night working on the new LGBTQ collection. She never mentioned she was returning early. I glanced back and forth between them and noticed their expression for the first time.
“Close the door please, Serenity,” Lars said, his voice low and controlled.
I pushed it closed and set my briefcase on the table. “What’s going on? Did something happen?”
Lars nodded once. “You could say that. Do you know what this is?” He handed me an iPad, and I took note of the picture.
“The Diamondback. What’s the problem?”
Gretchen stood. “The problem is, the entire project was leaked to a public website known to be frequented by inventors who like to steal other people’s inventions. It was uploaded by Lotusflower24.”
“As you can see,” Lars interjected, “That is our product. We only have one. It is locked in a room down the hallway.”
I held up a finger. “Not true, you have one, too. You made sure to describe to me in detail how you use it and that you use my picture when you do.” I was angry, and I wasn’t going to let him get away with accusing me of something I didn’t do.
Gretchen slapped him upside the back of his head and called him a degenerate in German. I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing.
“Did you upload our most technologically advanced product to a public domain website?” he asked before I could take a breath.
I threw both arms out and shook my head to hold the tears at bay. What they were accusing me of was horrifying. “Absolutely not. Why would I? What could I possibly gain from doing something that would cost this company massive revenue? We have to go on the defense and do damage control here.”
Lars pursed his lips. “The information has already been removed. How many people saw it before it was taken down, we cannot say. You and I are the only two people with keys to that room, so tell me what was going through your mind? I cannot believe you would undermine the company this way!”
A wave of dizziness hit me, and I gasped, hanging my head until it passed. “Serenity, are you okay?” Gretchen asked, taking my elbow when I swayed. I shook her away, forcing the dizziness back. My voice was shaking when I spoke. “I can’t believe you actually think I did this,” I whispered, tears pooling in my eyes. “I don’t want anything for this company but success. I don’t want anything but happiness for both of you. Doing something like that violates every personal and professional moral I have. It hurts me all the way to my soul to think you would believe for more than a nanosecond that I was responsible for it.”
I spun on my heel and ran through the door, down the stairs, and out of the building without looking back.
I held onto Babette’s arm and walked with her down the street. “Thanks for taking care of me,” I whispered, resting my head on her shoulder for a moment.
“I love you like my own daughter. You never have to question if I’m going to be here for you. It has been three days, are you feeling better about the situation?”
I laughed, and it ended in a sigh. “No, not even a little bit.” We walked in silence and I was left to my own thoughts. The situation was complicated and I had no idea what to do about it. When I ran out of his office three days ago, I left behind everything I had in the world other than Babette and the professor. All of my belongings were still at Kontakt, but since I hadn’t heard from either Lars or Gretchen in seventy-two hours, I expected said belongings would land on my doorstep soon. If they didn’t, I would have to call Lexie or Seth and ask them to get me in when Lars was gone. The last thing I wanted was to run into him while I was running with my tail between my legs.
“There has to be a logical explanation,” she said for the hundredth time since I showed up at her door sobbing and hyperventilating.
“I’m sure there is, but that explanation has nothing to do with me. I don’t even have pictures of The Diamondback. He’s the only one with the design images. I don’t get those until we’re ready to market it.”
“It’s all very strange,” she agreed.
