Possessive Boss

There’s no part of him that thinks Darin is innocent anymore.

Clearly, he’s been thinking about this. Of course he has. I bet he’s been doing a little digging and he already convinced himself, at least to some degree.

And it hurts. It kills him. And it kills me to see him so torn.

“We’ll figure that out,” he says. “I don’t want to lose a friend if I don’t have to. Just… thinking about this is bad enough. I don’t want him finding out if he does happen to be innocent. I want to clear his name and move on. Or I want to give him the punishment he deserves.”

I nod slowly. “Okay. We can do that.”

“You won’t report to your bosses?”

“I have to give them something.”

“Then we’ll figure out what together. For now, it’s all onboarding and data crunching, but nothing of interest.”

“Okay,” I say, and as I say the words, I know I’m staying far off the path. “I can do that.”

“Good.” He steps toward me. “Come here.”

I go to him and tilt my chin up. He kisses me softly. “Are we making a mistake?” I ask. “Getting involved. And doing this together. It has to be…”

“Dangerous?” He smiles. “Don’t worry. You’re mine now, little Valerie. And I don’t let people break my favorite toys.”

I bite my lip. His toy… his favorite toy, but still a toy. I don’t know what it means… or why it seems to excite me so much.

He puts his arms around me and hugs me close against him. I feel his weight, his power, pushing down on me and I think I love it. I don’t know what it is about this man, but his magnetism pulls me closer and closer and I feel like I can’t stop it. I’m stuck in his riptide, getting pulled into his depths.

And I don’t want to fight it. That’s what they say, right? Just give in. Let it take you.

“Before we go further,” I whisper, “I need to know something.”

“Go ahead.” He pulls back and looks into my eyes. “Ask me.”

His face is hard, like he knows what I want to ask already. “Are you involved at all?”

He shakes his head. “No.”

“Did you know? About Darin?”

“If it’s true, no.”

“Am I going to find anything… anything about you?”

He leans closer to me. “No,” he says.

I feel relieved. I know he might just be lying to me, but I’m not so sure. I don’t think he’d look me in the eye like that and make things up. I have this strange trust for him already, even if I shouldn’t, even if he doesn’t deserve it yet.

“But despite all that, I’m still his friend,” he says. “I’m still loyal to him, even if I’m not sure he’s loyal to me.”

“I understands.”

“I’m going to be honest with you. I’m going to look into him. But I still very much want this to turn out to be nothing.”

“I know you do.” I touch his face on a whim. He smiles as my fingers slowly move down his cheek. “I’m afraid it won’t be, though.”

He catches my hand and holds it tight. “I’m afraid of the same thing.”

We linger there for a moment. My body aches for him, my heart racing, my muscles tense. I want him to kiss me so badly it almost hurts. He leans down and his lips brush against mine just as his phone begins to ring.

It vibrates on a glass table, making a horrible grating sound.

He hesitates. “I should—”

“I know. Go ahead.”

He looks back at me and I can tell walking away is the last thing he wants to do. But he pulls back and grabs the phone before it can go to voicemail.

His face looks pained and he glances at me as he answers it. “Hey, Darin,” he says.

I go still. I suddenly feel exposed, standing in front of all these windows. I know that’s silly, since Darin isn’t even in the city, or at least my boss didn’t mention it. And that’s something they’d tell me.

Still, Ficino is connected. I don’t know what kind of men he has watching Jacob or Jacob’s hotel room. Maybe Ficino knows who I am somehow. I can’t say how, but it’s possible he figured it out. Now he’s calling Jacob to warn him… or to do something worse.

“You’re doing what?” Jacob asks. He frowns a little. “Oh, yeah. Look, about that.” He listens for a little bit. “Well, it’s an unusual arrangement.” Jacob looks tense and uncertain. I pick up my wine and drink it, unable to help myself. “Fine. I can take care of that. But Darin—” He listens for another moment. “Darin. Who are these guys?”

I go still. I know what they’re talking about. I motion for him to put the phone on speaker. He hesitates but does it.

“—totally above board,” Darin says. “My father put me in touch with them. They’re just private people.”