Page 36 of Off Limits Silver Fox

With us meeting after work hours and on weekends at her place, it has been easy to fly under Hunter’s radar. The damn man snooped around the office a week ago in the name of monitoring how things are going, but I know it’s to get juicy gossip about me. Luckily, he gave up when he got nothing. I’d like to keep it that way. Besides, no one has spotted me in her neighborhood. But it looks like my explanation wasn’t satisfactory to her.

This feels like déjà vu, and I hate it.

“Gareth?”

I wipe my hands at the sound of Susan’s voice. It’s time for my next meeting. I’ll deal with Hailey later.

CHAPTER17

HAILEY

“Thanks for a nice evening, Brad. You didn’t have to come to Brooklyn with me, though.”

Brad gives me a cheeky smile. “And worry if you arrived home safely? Nope. I always see my dates to their homes.”

I let out forced laughter, hoping he doesn’t notice. We had dinner in Gotham. The meal was delicious, and the general ambiance was soothing. I tried my best to be cheerful throughout our date, although all I wanted to do is get home, crawl into bed, and cry my eyes out.

It has been an awful day. When I woke up that morning with the decision to break up with Gareth, I didn’t have any idea how I would do it. Unfortunately, I took the coward’s way out by making him figure it out himself. Brad, ever cheerful and flirtatious, served as the tool I used to pass my message to Gareth.

Looking at his smiling face now, I regret using him to break up with Gareth. I led him on. When he asked me for a date this morning, I jumped at the chance, thinking that being with him would help me forget about Gareth and his family.

I was wrong.

Even though Gareth was mean, I can’t stop thinking about him. Just because I finally smiled back at Brad and encouraged his flirtation, he thinks we’re best friends. Ever since I started working at Payne technologies, Brad has been trying to get me to go out with him. Today is the first day I ever responded to his constant invitation.

He’s a nice guy, but there’s no spark between us. He makes me laugh, but that’s it. I only see him as a friend. I can’t imagine him kissing me, touching me, making me moan and…. Gareth was right. Brad can’t make me feel any of those things.

“Are you alright?”

Brad’s voice startles me, and I jerk. So lost in my thoughts, I forget he’s seated beside me in the cab.

“I’m sorry. I was miles away.”

“It’s alright. You zoned off a couple of times during dinner, too.”

“I did? I’m so sorry.”

“What’s wrong?”

I quickly think of an excuse not to hurt his feelings. “I’m worried about the project. The election is around the corner, and I want it to be a good one.”

He reaches out to take my hand and squeezes it. “Don’t worry. Everything will be fine. We’ve never had a failed project before, and we won’t start now, not with our beautiful and intelligent cyber security expert.”

I laugh softly. Life is unfair. Here is a young, handsome, and successful man who is single and ready to mingle, but I don’t feel a thing for him. Yet I’m in love with a man seventeen years older than me, way out of my league, and whose wife saw me through school.

I look out of the window at the bustling, hip Williamsburg neighborhood. Shops, cafes, restaurants, bars, and vintage shops line the streets along with colorful street art.

The taxi pulls to a stop outside of my apartment building.

“Here we are. I believe I’ve seen you safely home.”

Feeling guilty at the disconcerted way I’ve been all evening, I want to make it up to him.

“Would you like to come up for a cup of coffee?”

He stares at me with surprise before nodding. We get out of the taxi into the icy night. I pull my jacket securely around me to ward off the cold.

“I love your neighborhood. It’s full of life,” he says as he sidesteps two boys racing on scooters. The sound of music coming from a bar fills the cold night air. I smile. The neighborhood grows on you.

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