Page 52 of Off-Limits Bosses
“It wasn’t cheating,” Landon answered quickly, as if he was offended on my behalf. “We hadn’t been exclusive.”
“Are you exclusive now?” Bryant’s replies were fast and hard-hitting. My heart began to race and my palms felt sweaty.
Landon and Nolan might not have known why he was asking that question, but I did. I couldn’t look at any of them. I could hear my pulse deep in my ears and my body felt like lead.
“Why do you want to know that?” Nolan asked, and I could sense his eyes turning to me. “Adriana? What’s going on?”
“So they really don’t have any idea, huh?” Bryant sounded almost like he was about to let out a dry laugh, but he didn’t.
My jaw clenched and my mind went blank. I couldn’t answer. I couldn’t talk. I was about to lose them all, and my job on top of it. This was bad.
“Adriana.” Landon’s tone this time was lower than before. “What is he talking about?”
I was completely frozen as they watched me carefully, waiting for some kind of explanation. All I wanted to do was to run away and pretend that none of this had ever happened. I was well aware that I couldn’t; I had to face up to what I had done. But that didn’t stop me from wishing it.
“I didn’t plan any of this,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. “I swear. I didn’t mean for it to get this far.”
“What?” Nolan was stunned, and when I looked at him, his expression was difficult to read. It seemed as if he was actively building walls as this conversation was unfolding, like he was turning to stone right here in front of my eyes.
It made my heart fall to my shoes.
“Adriana— Have you been seeing Bryant, too?” Landon’s question slammed the breath right out of me.
“I’m sorry.” I had no idea what else to say. I didn’t want to give away all of the details of everything that had happened. Whatever I told them, I was sure it was only going to make me look worse.
Why hadn’t I listened to Sierra?I chastised myself.Why had I allowed myself to fall into such a dangerous fantasy? Now I was going to lose everything.
“Since when?” Nolan’s voice was tight, but nobody was yelling yet.
I wasn’t sure that this could be salvaged, but maybe I could at least keep my job. I doubted that, although I had been wrong before.
“Not long,” I answered shortly, hoping they wouldn’t make me say more.
“Did you know about us?” Landon shot at Bryant. “Before today?”
I glanced at him, sitting behind the desk with a look on his face that told me he was both watching and thinking. “I had an inkling. But neither of you did, did you?”
I wondered why he was bending the truth. He absolutely knew about the two of them. I’d told him everything, essentially. Washe playing some sort of game, or trying to see how they would react? Was he trying to punish me?
“No,” Landon and Nolan both said at the same time, turning to face me as they each took one step back.
“Why, Adriana?” Landon added, and something started bubbling up from inside of me.
I could feel my calmness slipping away and crashing over a cliff, and it took everything I had to keep it all under control.
“I’ll be honest,” Bryant said before I could answer, and got up from behind the desk. He walked around it to lean against the front. Of all of us, he was the one who seemed the most at ease. I couldn’t sense any anger at all from him, and I didn’t know if that was a good thing. “I have to say, I’m not surprised.”
Everyone was staring at him now, including me. Mostly because I had no idea where he was going with this.
“You’re beautiful, smart, driven,” Bryant said, counting each word on his fingers as if he were creating a grocery list. “Not to mention how incredible you are when you manage to let loose. Any man would be crazy not to want you.”
I noticed in my periphery how both Landon and Nolan reluctantly nodded in agreement. I didn’t get it. Bryant wasn’t put off by the fact that there were two other men in my life at all. In fact, it looked like he was trying to convince them to share me with him, too. Was that idea something that excited him?
“You might be too much for one man, anyway,” Bryant continued flippantly, as if he had prepared this argument beforehand. “Or not. Either way, it really is up to you, isn’t it?”
“So, you have been with him, too,” Nolan muttered, clearly not convinced of Bryant’s ideas.
“Why won’t you speak up, Adriana?” Landon added on, and I noticed him folding his arms from the corner of my eye. “Don’t you think you at least owe us some kind of explanation? Don’t you have anything to say?”
