Reckless (Irresistible 6)

But as the minutes ticked by, I felt a trickle in the air. A slow and gradual shift in attitude as people got the time to pass by each other’s desks, talk under their breaths and basically confer with each other.

Is she really sleeping with him?

I didn’t have to hear the question to know that it was the subject of at least a handful of the hushed conversations and private texts that unfolded over the course of the next hour.

I forced myself to work through it.

It was my worst nightmare. Everything I had feared. But it wasn’t true. I had put in the work and the time. I’d watched less deserving people get promoted over me the past few years. I knew I’d earned this job.

But by 12:30, the judging quiet of the office was so suffocating that I got up to leave. I couldn’t be here right now.

And I couldn’t even care if they knew I was going straight to Adam.

36

ADAM

It was midday on a Tuesday, but instead of being at the office, AJ and I were home, the house so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

As far as the office was concerned, we were out at meetings, but the reality was that neither of us could stomach being there.

It had been four days since her promotion, and we’d had all of a few hours to celebrate it before I found myself coming home to find AJ sitting on my couch, looking at me calmly, but with wet eyes that indicated she hadn’t been so calm a few minutes prior.

“Tell me you never threatened to quit,” she said as I held her in my arms.

“Never,” I murmured, frowning deeply as I dried her tears.

I’d meant it too.

But it wasn’t till I confronted Engelman about his daughter the next day that he told me not to blame Kenzie.

“I didn’t know you were dating. But it came from your mouth, Maxwell. You said you’d leave if I didn’t reward her.”

My mind had spun and my heart had raced as I stood in that office, suddenly wracking my brain to recall my exact conversation with him.

It was the day after I’d taken AJ to Gizzy’s. The day after my mom saw us together for the first time, after five years of hearing all about her, and several years of chatting her up when she came in alone.

We signed Knox that day and I realized I loved her.

I’d had a casual conversation with Engelman about acknowledging AJ’s work with the company—about recognizing her talent “sooner rather than later, so you don’t lose both her and me.”

I had in fact said that.

I had meant it as a way of saying that if the company didn’t act fairly in promoting who was worthy, I’d have to rethink my position.

I had not intended my words as a threat or ultimatum, and AJ knew that. She assured me she did. She kissed me in the driveway when I got home that night, my car pulling in a minute behind hers. “I know that wasn’t your intention,” she told me.

Bu

t intention didn’t matter.

As much as we tried to hang our days on the fact that she had done the work to earn this promotion—that I hadn’t forced Engelman to award it—it was impossible to go on business as usual. Because the office was turning on her.

And for once, my having her back only made it look worse.

No one said anything outright, but AJ and I both knew the weight she once carried at the office.

She was the resident badass among the assistants within her first eight months of working for me. She dealt with me better than any previous hire, made me easier for everyone at Engelman to work with. She did her job, helped others and earned her respect.