He took in her beautiful face, realizing she would never again look at him with curiosity, or kindness, or wonder, and certainly not with the kind of desire she’d scorched him with last night.
“Kane Foods has a very strict policy about company romances.” It sounded every bit as weak and pathetic as he feared it would.
“You mean your father has a very strict policy about company romances,” she accused, “especially with the daughters of his disgraced former employees.”
“As badly as you need this job, I’d think that would make you even more concerned.” Samuel turned from her, ducking slightly to check his reflection in the mirror. “Our personal history notwithstanding.”
“And how would you know how badly I need this job?” Her voice was thin ice. Cold, brittle, imminently dangerous.
Samuel said nothing.
“You researched me,” Arlie said accusatorially. “Didn’t you?”
“I perform due diligence on all potential hires.” Retrieving his phone from the nightstand, a high, static buzzing bloomed in his ears. Twenty-three unread messages.
She stepped down from the bed, the rumpled sheet around her somehow lovelier and more striking than a couture gown.
“And because I’m so hard up for work, I’ll just pretend last night never happened. Is that it?”
That wasn’t it at all, but he couldn’t bring himself to say the words circling inside his head like a horde of hornets.
I only hired you to get rid of Mason.
I had effectively erased you from my memory.
“That isn’t it,” he said.
“What is?” she asked.
He could turn his back and leave. Now. Right this second. Give her no answers. No explanations. Let her think the worst.
He faced her.
“When I’d heard what my father said to you—”
“That’s what this was?” she asked bitterly. “An apology? Believe me, Samuel Kane, I got used to that treatment from him a long time ago, and didn’t need your pity.”
“That’s not what—”
“Even so, I’m surprised you’d deign to sleep with me after what happened at Gastronomie. You’re aware of that, I’m assuming?”
Samuel blinked at her. There were many things he hated, but being blindsided ranked near the top. “They didn’t.”
“Corporate espionage. That’s what got me fired from my previous company.”
Samuel’s mouth opened. Closed. Opened again.
“Does that surprise you?” Arlie paced the length of the room, the sheet trailing behind her like the train on a wedding dress. “We settled out of court, so I imagine it didn’t appear on whatever records you perused before reaching out to me.”
She was right about that. Her background check had revealed a severely compromised credit score and a legion of late payments, but was otherwise unremarkable.
“The best part is, I’m not the only one who knows about it.” A sarcastic smile twisted her lips. “Taegan Lynch? That night on the yacht, she demanded that I either get her information about Project Impact, or she’d go straight to your father.”
Memories of that night flashed across Samuel’s mind. Arlie’s initial flinch. Her fear. Her sadness.
His gut churned and he tasted bile boiling up from his empty, acidic stomach. “Did you give her what she wanted?”
She ceased her pacing to look him squarely in the eye. “No.”
The tightness in his chest eased slightly.
“But I thought about it,” she said. “I thought about how tired—” Her voice broke on the word as her shoulders sagged. As if the admission increased rather than lightened the burden. “How tired I am of being afraid. Of thinking about all the ways things can go wrong. Of feeling like no matter what I do, I’ll never get out of a mess I didn’t even know I was making.”
Samuel wanted to comfort her so badly that his bones ached. Wanting to gather her against him. To feel her shoulder blades in the cage of his arms. To feel the crown of her head warm against his chin.
“What do you mean, you didn’t know?” he asked.
Arlie didn’t answer. Only shuffled over to the laptop bag next to her bed and withdrew a manila folder that she pushed into his hands.
“Here,” she said. “Here’s what Taegan wanted. Fire me, tell your father whatever you need to tell him where I’m concerned.”
Hypocrite that he was, Samuel hadn’t yet decided what that would be.
Samuel absorbed this as stolidly as he could under the circumstances, wanting to comfort her so badly that his bones ached. Wanting to gather her against him. To feel her shoulder blades in the cage of his arms. To feel the crown of her head warm against his chin.
They stood squared off for the space of several breathless moments.
“You better go,” she said, letting the sheet drop and sauntering stark naked to the bathroom. “I need to get ready for our clients this afternoon.”
With the folder in hand, he unlatched her door and rested against it, trying to regain his composure before setting off down the hall.
He walked exactly three steps before stopping to thump his forehead against the wall.