Page 40 of The Boss's Forbidden Assistant

He lifted a brow. ‘Mention you?’

‘By name.’ She realised how silly it sounded, and made an exasperated noise. ‘I’m sorry. I know that sounds paranoid. It’s just... I just can’t risk anyone ever finding out that we...’

His expression had grown very serious and grave, his eyes holding hers with an intensity that made it hard to focus.

‘You think I told my friend I’d slept with my assistant?’

‘Well, not Amanda,’ she said with a small smile, but Salvador didn’t return it. He was silent, so Harper sighed softly. ‘I just thought you might have said...something. I don’t know.’

‘I didn’t explain why I needed the information and he didn’t ask.’ Salvador’s nostrils flared and it was so like him, so arrogant and self-assured, that amusement rippled through her, lightening her mood.

‘Okay.’

But Salvador wasn’t prepared to let it go. ‘Why do you ask?’

She pulled her lips to the side. ‘It’s just—after Peter,’ she said with a shake of her head.

‘People found out about the two of you?’

Heat flushed her cheeks. She hated the idea of Salvador knowing about her indiscretion and, worse, her stupidity.

‘No. He made sure of that.’ The words were tinged with bitterness. ‘Because we worked together, he said it would be far better if we kept the relationship secret. I agreed wholeheartedly. I’d worked damned hard to get where I was and I didn’t want the charge of having slept my way into the job.’

Salvador’s eyes narrowed and his lips tightened, and she wondered if he found the idea of imagining her in bed with another man as unpalatable as she found it whenever the subject of his wife came up.

‘You never considered reporting him to HR, though? You could have done so confidentially.’

‘Believe me, there’s no such thing. Besides, what would I have reported him for?’ she said with a shrug. ‘The relationship was consensual. He didn’t pressure me. He didn’t make me feel obligated to sleep with him.’

‘You loved him?’

She frowned. She’d thought maybe she had, once upon a time, but since then she’d grown up and seen the relationship properly. ‘I was impressed by him,’ she said after a beat. ‘He was very smart. I like smart.’

Salvador was quiet, his eyes difficult to read. They sipped their drinks in silence.

‘And since him you’ve been single,’ he said thoughtfully.

‘Yes.’

‘Why?’

She looked over his shoulder, trying to put that into words. ‘I guess... I just haven’t met anyone I was interested in. I work long hours. I like my job. I don’t really go out anywhere like bars or clubs.’

‘But you have friends?’

She nodded. ‘I’m just not looking for a relationship.’

He frowned.

‘Is there something wrong with that?’

‘No...’ He hesitated, though, so she knew he was puzzling over her circumstances and wasn’t likely to let it go unless Harper gave him a little more information.

‘My mum was devastated when Dad left,’ she said in a low voice. ‘She dated lots of guys. Lots and lots. And lots. Always looking for the man who was going to make everything better. And her heart was broken. Again and again and again. I was only a kid, but it was up to me to pick her up off the floor, to try to help her feel better. I hated—hated—how she would give these men such power over her. Like her worth was determined by whichever man she was dating at the time. It’s not like I made a conscious decision to stay single, but I knew I couldn’t ever live like she did. I didn’t ever want to give so much of myself to another person that I risked getting lost, if that makes sense.’

‘Perfectly.’

Their eyes met and the air between them crackled and hummed with mutual understanding.

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