Shattered Trust (Colorado Trust 4)

Best to get some of his own work done. He strode through the connecting door and left her alone. After the third glance into her office, he blew out a frustrated breath and ran his hands through his hair.

All the reasons why not were ruthlessly repeated in his head until he was sure he had any wayward thoughts under control. He even managed to finish a few things so that when Bonnie came in at seven-thirty, he handed her his notes and asked her to get started on the presentation booklets and PowerPoint.

Vince arrived at eight, but even with other people in the building, Justin avoided Marley’s office. Jordan stopped in to say good morning with a steaming cup of coffee for Justin.

“You snuck out early this morning.”

Justin set the cardboard cup on his desk and reached for a file folder. “Marley came in early.”

“You sure you know what you’re doing with her?”

“What I’m doing is none of your business.”

“Technically, it’s half my business,” Jordan argued.

“Nothing’s going on.”

“Didn’t look that way last night.”

Justin opened his mouth to tell Jordan where to stick his concern but Marley’s voice from the doorway made them both jump like they’d been doing something wrong.

“Hey. Morning, Jordan.”

“Hi, Marley.”

Justin watched his brother do a quick scan of Marley’s slim form.

“Don’t you look nice this morning,” Jordan added to his greeting with a charming smile. “I like your hair like that.”

Justin couldn’t believe his ears. If looks could kill, his brother would be on his way to the morgue right now. Marley accepted Jordan’s shameless, inappropriate, backstabbing, underhanded flirting with a grin.

“Thanks,” she replied. “I like your…shirt, too. That’s a go

od color on you.”

Justin wanted to throw up. Black wasn’t even a color.

“Justin?”

He cleared his expression and looked at her.

“Two additional people, remember?”

In other words, Bonnie’s busy, so get the hell in here.

Who was the boss? He was. Who had the authority to give imperious orders? He did. Who needed her to get the model done by tomorrow? They all did. So who was going to ask frickin’ “How high?” when she said, “Jump.”?

He was, damn it. And he hated Jordan right now.

“I’ll be right there,” he said through gritted teeth.

He rose and stalked after her. Instead of going into her office, though, he shut the door and faced Jordan. “What the hell was that?”

“That, my friend, was you taking orders from your employee,” Jordan said with a wide grin.

Justin’s eyes narrowed. “Our employee.”

Jordan’s smile faded as the warning registered. “I was being friendly.”