by Maya Banks
Elle squeezed her shoulder in sympathy, but her eyes told Celia she was at as big a loss as Celia was as to how to handle it.
“Does everyone in the office know?” Celia asked painfully. “Have they all seen it? And what do they think?”
“Well, Ash hasn’t been back in, so I don’t know if he’s seen it. I know Brock and Jason saw it because I was in Brock’s office with both of them. Jason didn’t have much to say but Brock was pissed.”
“At me?”
Elle shook her head. “I don’t know, to be honest. I doubt it. He’s not the type to get angry before he hears your side. Besides, you got the account. It shouldn’t matter to him how you did it.”
“That’s true, I guess. It only matters to me.”
“I’m sorry, Celia. Really sorry.”
Celia put her hands over her face. “I was stupid, Elle. I was stupid, and now I have to pay the price.”
The sound of someone clearing their throat had Celia looking up toward the door. Brock stood there, an indecipherable expression on his face.
“Elle,” he said. “Would you leave me and Celia for a moment?”
“Of course,” Elle murmured as she hurried away.
Tears burned Celia’s eyes. She was holding on by a sheer thread.
“Want to talk?” Brock asked.
It was that question that did it for Celia. If he’d been angry or if he’d been indifferent, she could have handled it, but the simply worded request broke her down.
Her shoulders shook, and she lowered her head as a sob welled from her throat. It appalled her that she’d cry in front of her boss. But there was no holding back the release of the crushing pressure that had been building over the course of the last few weeks.
Brock didn’t say or do anything. He just stood there while she gathered herself together again. When she looked up, he sat in one of the chairs in front of her desk and waited for her to speak.
“It’s not how it looks,” she said as she wiped tears from her cheeks.
He glanced at the spread out paper on her desk. “Well, it looks like you were wearing his ring, but you’re not now.”
With a sigh, she explained the whole sorry tale about her trip to Catalina with Evan and how she hadn’t felt like she could refuse when he was short on time and ready to move on his campaign.
She left out the mushy details she’d shared with Elle. Brock was, after all, A. her boss and B. a man. He didn’t need to know that she’d stupidly fallen in love with a man she’d be working with for a long time to come. It made things entirely too messy. What if they broke up? Would Evan feel weird about continuing the relationship with Maddox or would he take his business elsewhere?
There were a million reasons why she should have never ever gotten involved with Evan, and yet, she hadn’t heeded any of the warning signs.
“I overheard what Elle said about how it shouldn’t matter to me how you got the account. I won’t lie. It doesn’t. Furthermore, it’s none of my business unless you broke the law or did something to damage the reputation of Maddox. I don’t think this qualifies. My concern is for you. I know how devastated you were by what happened in New York.
“I meant what I said when I told you that you had my support. That hasn’t changed. I’ll make sure to put an end to any speculation going on in the office, but I can’t control what people think or say outside the work area. I don’t imagine this is going to be easy for you to deal with in the next little while, but Maddox Communications stands behind you.”
“Thank you, Brock,” she said in a shaky voice. “That means a lot to me.”
“Any idea who would have done this?” Brock asked.
She frowned and stared down at the pictures. Then she looked back up at Brock.
“These pictures were on my company computer. Evan’s mom sent them here. They’ve only been here. I don’t imagine Evan’s ex has any love for me, but she and Mitchell left immediately on their honeymoon. They haven’t even seen the photos yet. So other than me, and maybe Evan if his mom showed them to him, the only other person who’s seen them is his mom. These weren’t taken by the professional photographer. Evan’s mom shot these with her digital camera, and I don’t believe for a minute she’d go to these lengths to discredit me. She was too damn excited over our supposed engagement.”
Brock swore long and hard. “Are you sure this is the only place you had them?”
Celia stared back at him. “You don’t think … surely not. No one here would do something like that.”
“I don’t know, but I’ll find out,” he snapped.
He rose and stalked to the door. Then he paused and turned back for a moment. “Don’t let this get you down, Celia. I have a feeling that whoever did this intended just that. You did a damn good job on this account. No one can take that away from you unless you let them.”
Then he was gone, leaving Celia sitting there like a deflated balloon.
She was supposed to meet Evan in just a few hours. Their evening was already planned, complete with the sleepover at his hotel and his driver taking her to work in the morning. She’d already had reservations about it all, but now the idea made the knot in her stomach grow even larger.
Who the hell had released those pictures? It made her furious. Why would anyone even care or go to such lengths to discredit her?
She wouldn’t put it past Athos Koteas. He’d made it a point to tar Maddox Communications any way possible, but how would he have gotten his hands on those pictures?
The idea that one of her coworkers was responsible made her want to puke. She couldn’t believe it and work here another minute. She had to push that possibility out of her mind or go insane.
How sick was it that she didn’t even want to venture out of her office now? She couldn’t face everyone knowing that they’d seen that damn article.
She laid her head on her desk and tried to ignore the painful ache that had developed around her temples.
She knew what she had to do, and it hurt far more than those damn pictures. But she hadn’t worked this hard to rebuild her reputation and her career to have it go down the toilet over one torrid affair.
The rest of the day was spent sequestered in her office. She only spoke to Shelby to tell her she wasn’t accepting any calls and the rest of the time she spent in brooding silence.
At five, she stared out the window, watching as her coworkers left the building. She purposely waited until everyone else had left before she locked up her office for the night.
Though it was well past seven, she dragged herself down six flights of stairs just on the off chance any stragglers were in the elevator. She was pathetic and spineless but she didn’t care. She’d face them all when she had some semblance of control over her emotions.
She drove to her apartment with her fingers curled tightly around the wheel. She battled bouts of fury and the impulse to break down into tears. By the time she reached home, she was mentally exhausted.
To make matters worse, Evan was waiting for her by the door. He wore a deep frown, and his brow was creased with concern.
“Where the hell have you been?” he demanded. “I was worried. We were supposed to meet here an hour and a half ago.”
She couldn’t even meet his gaze as she jammed her key into the lock. She shoved the door open, and went inside, allowing the dark to swallow her up.
“Hey, Celia, what’s wrong?”
He flipped on the light, and she winced. He was in front of her immediately. He grasped her arm and tilted her chin up with his other hand.
“What the hell? Have you been crying?”
She closed her eyes and tried to pull away, but he held tight.
“Talk to me, dammit.”
“We can’t see each other for a while,” she blurted out. “Okay? We need to cool it. Things are crazy. My life is crazy.”
Her words did what she hadn’t been able to do. He let go of her arm and took a step back.
“Want to run that by me aga
in? In a way that I understand?”
There was a wary look in his eye that warned her this wouldn’t be easy. But then he didn’t give a damn about what people thought. He wasn’t ruled by the opinions of others. As she had so many times before, she wished she could be like him.
Instead of answering him, she rummaged in her bag for the stupid gossip rag and then she thrust it at him as if it was self-explanatory. And it was in a way.
He glanced over the paper and then looked back up at her. “So? What’s the problem?”
She knew he’d react that way. Positively knew it, and it drove her crazy. She wanted to scream and rail at him, but she’d come across as some hysterical banshee, and then he’d never take her concerns seriously.
“That’s not all,” she said stiffly. “It’s all over the Internet. An advertising community site has it on their blog along with some snotty little line about how I got the account after the announcement of you signing with Maddox.”
He looked blankly at her. “I fail to see what the big deal is, and I damn sure don’t see why it’s any cause for us not to see each other anymore.”
She gritted her teeth. “You fail to see. Well, I don’t, Evan. This is my career we’re talking about. My reputation. Which I might add is in shreds now. Everyone in my office saw that. Everyone in the advertising community saw it. Everyone knows, or thinks they know, just how I got you to sign with Maddox. It doesn’t matter if it’s true. It’s what everyone thinks. Our announcement of our agreement will be posted in Advertising Media. Right on the heels of those pictures. Do you know how that looks?”
She stopped and swallowed back the damning sob that welled up in her throat.
“How am I supposed to go out on my next client call? What if the client is male and what if he expects the same favors I granted you? Or maybe he’ll agree to sign with Maddox if I sleep with him.”
“I’ll kick his ass,” Evan growled.
“You can’t be there to kick everyone’s ass, Evan. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. The best thing you can do for me is to back off until the smoke clears.”
He blinked and then his eyes went cold and hard. “Is that what you want, Celia? What you really want?”
She was afraid to answer, afraid to confirm after that terrible look that had come over him. But she wouldn’t lie.
“Yes,” she whispered.
His lip curled in derision. “I won’t be anyone’s dirty little secret, Celia. I’m tired of running around like two people having an affair behind their spouses’ backs. I made the mistake of settling once. I’ll never do it again.”
“Evan, please, it’s not like that. I just need some time,” she pleaded.
“It is like that, Celia. It’s very much like that. It’s apparent to me that I’m definitely not first on your list of priorities. Or even second or third. There’s a hell of a lot of things that rank higher than me. I don’t give a damn who knows that we’re sleeping together. And I damn sure won’t continue to sleep with someone who does.”
He turned and stalked toward the door. He flung it open and caught it with one hand, turning as he stepped out.
“If you change your mind, don’t bother to come crawling back. I think you’ve made it abundantly clear what I’m good for.”
The door slammed, and Celia’s heart shattered into tiny little pieces. She stared numbly, hoping, expecting that he’d come back and tell her they could work things out, that he’d wait.
Minutes passed, and the sickening realization hit her that he wasn’t coming back. Not only had she lost her reputation, and possibly her career, but she’d lost the one man she loved enough to have risked it all in the first place.
Eighteen
Tuesday morning, Celia took the coward’s way out and called Brock to schedule vacation time for the rest of the week. He didn’t like that she was hiding. It was no way to face the issue, but after hearing how horrible she sounded, he didn’t argue the matter further.
The rest of the day she spent moping around her apartment, alternating between anger and fits of upset.
Wednesday, she packed a bag and headed for the one place she knew she could lick her wounds in safety. Her dad’s house.
He took one look at her and held out his arms for a giant bear hug. She needed it. Never had the comfort of home felt so good to her than now.
He sat her down and cooked her a huge breakfast, because in his book, there wasn’t anything that couldn’t be cured by a big, home-cooked breakfast.
All the time she ate, he sat beside her, eating his own food in silence. He didn’t pry or demand answers. It was what she loved most about him. He never intruded into his children’s lives. No, he didn’t have to. He just waited for them to come to him, and then he’d move heaven and earth to make everything right again.
Only this time he couldn’t fix it.
She spent the afternoon on the couch, watching television with him. He babied her endlessly, fixing her a snack in the afternoon and even baking her favorite cookies. Chocolate chip with no nuts.
By the time evening rolled around, it was obvious her father had spent the afternoon on the phone with her brothers. They arrived, one at a time, and made it a point to shower her with lots of hugs and endless pampering. Or at least Adam and Dalton did.
When Noah showed up, he took one look at her and demanded to know what the hell had happened. She burst into tears which prompted Adam, Dalton and her dad to threaten to dismember him for upsetting her.
“Well hell, Dad, I didn’t upset her. It’s obvious that someone did, but it sure as hell wasn’t me!” Noah protested. “Hasn’t anyone asked her what’s wrong yet?”
“We were waiting,” her father said gruffly.
“Waiting for what?” Noah asked in exasperation. “For her to cry?”
Celia wiped at her eyes and tried to stop the sniffling. She knew her brothers hated it when she cried. Especially Noah.
Noah turned to her, his eyes softening at the signs of her distress. Then he sat down on the couch next to her.
“This doesn’t have anything to do with Evan Reese, does it?”
Despite her vow to cease and desist, his question spurred another round of tears.
“Good going, bonehead,” Adam growled.
“Anyone ever tell you that your skill with the opposite sex sucks?” Dalton asked.
Noah put an arm around her and squeezed comfortingly. “What happened, Cece?”
“Oh God, Noah, it was awful. The paper printed these horrible pictures and this blog said horrible things. My career is shot to hell. My reputation is in shambles and Evan doesn’t want to see me anymore because I asked him to back off until the smoke cleared. He thinks I think he’s my dirty little secret, and he hates it. And me.”
She dug her palms into her eyes and rubbed until it felt like she was scraping her eyelids across sandpaper every time she blinked.
“Whoa,” Adam said. “Did any of that make sense to the rest of you?”
Dalton and her father exchanged helpless looks.
Noah sighed. “Maybe you should back up and start with what the newspaper printed and what the blog said and why your career and reputation have been dragged through the mud.”
“It’s a long story,” she muttered.
“We’ve got all night,” Dalton offered.
She sighed and once again poured out the whole story from start to finish, not leaving a single detail out. Except for the sex. Her brothers had a hard time seeing their baby sister as anything other than their baby sister, and telling them about her sex life would only make them turn a sick shade of green. And then they’d probably go after Evan with one of Noah’s baseball bats.
“That’s crazy,” Adam huffed.
Dalton nodded his agreement. Noah, who was a lot more tuned in to just what bad press could do to a career and reputation, was a lot more subdued. Concern flared in his eyes when she got to the explanation of the article and blog.
“That sucks,�
� Noah said.
Celia nodded. “Tell me about it.”
“So where does this Evan person fit in?” her dad asked. “I mean, there seems to be a big piece missing here. You were pretending to be his fiancée and this paper prints stuff about you, and you said he’s angry because he thinks you think he’s your dirty little secret. Am I missing something?”
She sighed. “I’m in love with him, Dad. And now he hates me.”
All four men’s mouths rounded into Os.
There was marked silence, and she regretted having blurted out that fact. Love was girly stuff, and none of the men looked like they had a clue what to say or do next.
“Look, I appreciate you guys. I love you all to pieces. I don’t know what I would do without you. I don’t expect you to fix this for me. I’m thirty years old. Not a little girl anymore. The days of me coming to you with my scrapes and boo-boos should be well behind me. I’ll figure out something. I just needed a place to lick my wounds and regroup.”
Adam frowned. “Now, you wait just one damn minute. You’re family, Cece. I don’t care how old you are.”
Even Dalton scowled and nodded his agreement. Noah merely squeezed her hand and told her bluntly to shut up.
“You’ll always be my little girl and their little sister,” her dad said in his soft, gravelly voice. “That don’t change because you go away to college, get a fancy degree and get a job that beats you down every chance it gets.”
She winced at the direction this was heading.
“We love you and we’ll always be here for you to come running to. You got that?”
“Yeah, Dad, I do.”
“Now come here and give your old man a hug. Sounds like you’ve had one hell of a week.”
She scrambled up from the couch and threw herself into his beefy embrace. She squeezed for all she was worth and inhaled his scent.
“Love you, Dad,” she muffled out against his shirt.
“I love you, too, Cece. Don’t you forget it, either. Now back up and tell me more about this Evan fellow and if I need to round up your brothers to go beat him up.”
* * *
Evan’s office staff was avoiding him. Not that he could blame them. He’d arrived back on Tuesday, acting like a bear with a sore paw. He’d briefly touched base with his assistant, long enough to tell her not to hurry back in to work and to remain with her granddaughter as long as she was needed.
