Page 50 of One Night in Paris

Shrugging, I said, “Well, I’m kind of shit out of luck now, Kylee. I mean, what else can I do? We can’t work with this asshole, and I have no idea how to get the pictures back.”

Kylee tapped her chin for a second, thinking about what our choices might be. Eventually, she asked, “What if you agreed to work with them but just did a really shitty job?”

That actually made me laugh for some reason. “No, Logan would never do that. His company has a reputation to uphold. This project has a lot of other firms working on it, and if they all thought that Winters Architectural Firm wasn’t doing a good job, they wouldn’t want to work with us on other projects. They might even spread rumors about us in the industry.”

Kylee nodded and blew out a deep breath. “Would you even want to work with those other companies if they’re willing to work with this Dave asshole?”

Shrugging, I reminded her that they weren’t the only ones we had to consider. “If they talk to other companies and say thatwe’re doing a bad job, it would be bad all around. No, Logan would never want to handle the situation that way.”

“Well, you should be careful, sweetie.” I could tell she was really concerned, which made my heart fall. I was really hoping she’d tell me it wasn’t a big deal, that I was worrying about nothing. But it seemed like Kylee was even more concerned about this situation than I ever could’ve dreamed.

Tears sprang to my eyes, but I sniffled them back, not wanting to cry about this. It wasn’t as if I didn’t agree with what Logan had decided to do. I did—completely. But now I was worried, not so much for me but for my mom. If she heard about people saying such things about me, she would be upset. That was the last thing she needed right now when she was still trying to fight this cancer. Granted, her new treatments were going well, and we were both hopeful that this would be the last time she had to battle this monster. If I did something to make her feel worse, or make her cancer flare up somehow, I could never, ever forgive myself.

“How are things between you and Logan anyway?” Kylee asked me. “Are the two of you still maintaining your professional relationship at work?”

“We are,” I told her with a nod. “It’s difficult, at times. Especially when he smells particularly yummy or wears a suit that makes all of his rippling muscles visible.” I felt a tingle of lust shoot through my body just thinking about him, but I didn’t even adjust the way that I was sitting for fear Kylee would read the signals that I had it bad for this dude. “But I’m pretty sure no one else at work knows that we’re seeing one another.”

“Get ready for that to be public information,” she said with a tone that let me know exactly how serious it would be. “Some people might think less of you for it and assume that anything you accomplish on your own comes from sleeping with the boss.”

Immediately, I shook my head. “Logan said that no one will think anything bad about me, that everyone in the office knows he’s the boss and respects him, so they would never think anything like that.”

Kylee’s eyebrows were raised in skepticism. “Well, if that’s the case, your office is completely different than any office I’ve ever worked in.”

“You’ve only worked at one place,” I reminded her.

Shrugging, Kylee said, “It’s a big company with lots of different departments. I hate to say it, sweetie, but there’s always a bad apple in every bunch. Someone will say something. It’s inevitable.” Reaching across the couch, she squeezed my hand. “Just be careful. I don’t want to see you get hurt. If I were you, I’d tell Logan to reconsider letting these pictures leak. Is he even giving you anything for your trouble?”

I nodded. “Yes, he is. I’d told him that wasn’t necessary. But honestly, I need the money. He called it a work performance bonus.” Now, I felt like it wasn’t work-related at all.

“That’s something at least. I’ll be here for you, Harper, no matter what.”

“Thank you, Kylee.” I let everything she’d said sink in, but after a few moments, I found myself shaking my head. “I trust Logan, Kylee. He cares too much about me and his company to handle this poorly. No, it won’t be easy, but he’ll make it all work out. I know he will.”

Kylee offered me a smile that didn’t meet her eyes. “I hope you’re right.”

27

LOGAN

Nothing had happened—so far.

By Saturday, when I went to pick up Harper and Kylee to go skydiving, Dave hadn’t done anything with the pictures. At least, if he had, I hadn’t seen or heard anything about it yet. I wasn’t one to check the tabloids or even online to see if anyone was talking about me. For the most part, I didn’t give a rat’s ass what anyone said about me. But I was worried about Harper.

I figured, as long as I hadn’t caught wind of it, if he was actually saying things, it wasn’t enough for me to be concerned about. Once a rumor got to the level that people were coming to me with it or I overheard it somewhere, then I knew it was a problem.

Fingers crossed this wouldn’t turn into that.

In the meantime, I had called someone I knew in California who might be able to look into whether or not Dave was doing something illegal with this project he’d taken on for the city of San Francisco. If that were the case, he deserved to be prosecuted for it.

Kylee’s apartment was in SoHo, not too far away from my own apartment, although with traffic, it could take up to an hour or more to get there. Luckily, this time of day, on the weekend, there weren’t as many cars on the road as one might think, so I wasn’t late.

The girls were waiting in the lobby for me to save time. I gave Harper a hug and waved at Kylee, and they got into my SUV. I figured we could use the space today. “Where’s Trev?” Kylee asked, climbing into the back seat while Harper rode shotgun.

“We’ll pick him up on the way to the airport,” I told her. “The regional airport isn’t too far from his house.”

“It must be where all the fancy rich people keep their jets,” Kylee said in some sort of an accent that might have been an attempt at British, but I couldn’t tell.

Harper turned around and looked at her, chuckling under her breath slightly. “You know, Trevor is like a billionaire, right?”

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