Page 57 of Burn For Me

It wasn’t just because I wanted to protect her. It was because Lillian was too important to me to walk away from. Well, now I was walking away, but sadly, not by my choice.

* * *

I was not looking forwardto going to the office this morning and had slept badly, making me even grumpier. Last night before I went to bed, I texted Lillian and apologized for what I had said. She was right. I was acting no better than her ex. She deserved a hell of a lot better than him.

She has sent back a simple reply of thank you, and nothing else. I was going to send her another text but decided against it. She wanted me to keep my distance; I would keep it. Hopefully, after things calmed down, she would come back around, and we could take back up from where we’d been.

At the office, I avoided Lydia’s office, and when she called and asked me to come see her, I told her to come to my office. When she stepped in, she eyed me sternly. “Who pissed in your cereal this morning?”

“No one.”

“Yeah, right.” She snorted and took a seat. “I heard you had dinner with Greg on Saturday night. Did things not go well?”

“Things went great,” I told her as I leaned back in my seat and explained what he was planning.

“That’s wonderful, but if that’s not why you look so pissed off, what is it? They up your parking fee at the building?”

“No.” I retorted and leaned up to my desk. “Has Lillian said anything to you today?”

“She has said a lot to me, but if you are asking if she said anything about you, she did not. Is there something I should know?”

I shook my head. “No.”

She stared hard at me, and I wondered if she could see straight into my brain. “Please tell me that you didn’t sleep with her.”

I opened my mouth to tell her, no, but then words spilled out on their own. “I can’t tell you that.”

She threw her hands up in the air. “Damn you, Zack! I told you to keep your dick in your pants and leave my assistant alone!”

“Lydia, it wasn’t like it was planned.”

She laughed abruptly. “Yeah, right. You had your eye on her since before she was even sitting behind her desk. Jesus, if you fuck this up and she quits, I will take Tina from you, and you can find a new assistant.”

“She’s not going anywhere.”

She huffed and crossed her legs. “What happened?”

Did I tell her, or did I keep my mouth shut? When it came to keeping my trap shut around Lydia, it was hard. “She moved back to her apartment.”

“The same one that was broken into?” I nodded. “I thought she was going to find another place safer to live.”

“I thought that too, but she said she was safe there. She basically told me to butt the hell out.”

“Then maybe you should listen to her.”

“I’d like to, but I don’t think she is thinking clearly.”

She shifted to the edge of her seat. “I think it is you who is not thinking clearly. Stop thinking with your cock, and start thinking with that head on your shoulders.”

“I’m not thinking with my cock.”

She hiked a brow. “Since when do you not think with that head?”

“Come on, Lydia. I’m trying to protect her. She doesn’t even see that her ex was abusive.”

She startled. “Did she tell you something that makes you think he was?”

“Yes. She has told me several things that indicate that he is an abusive asshole. He was controlling and manipulative. He was also demeaning and cheated on her many times.”

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