Page 74 of Sexting My Best Friend's Brothers
Slowly, the red haze lifts.
Reality crashes back in.
I am lying on top of my employee. On my desk. In a glass room where anyone could have walked by.
I pull back, bracing myself on my elbows.
Tessa looks wrecked. Her lips are swollen, her chest is flushed, even her dress is ruined. She’s shaking violently, her thighs trembling as her body betrays her.
She looks at me. Her eyes are soft. Vulnerable.
“Ethan?” she whispers.
I stand up and fix my clothes, zipping my fly and buckling my belt. My hands are steady now. The tremor is gone.
But a new feeling has replaced it.
I just slept with her. After telling my brothers not to. After telling her not to.
I broke the code.
She tries to pull her torn panties together, then gives up, peels them off, and smooths her dress down.
I turn away from her and walk to the window, staring out at the dark city.
“Go home,” I say.
“What?”
“Go home, Tessa.”
“Ethan, you can’t just…” She slides off the desk. I hear her bare feet on the carpet. “We just had sex.”
“We made a mistake,” I correct her. I turn to look at her. I summon every ounce of coldness I possess. “A lapse in judgment. Adrenaline. Alcohol. Call it whatever you want.”
She flinches as if I slapped her. “Is that what I am? A lapse in judgment?”
“You are a liability,” I say. “I told you that on day one. And tonight proved it. I lost control. I jeopardized this company.”
“You didn’t jeopardize anything! No one knows!”
“I know!” I shout. “I know, Tessa! And that is enough!”
I run a hand through my hair.
“This stops now,” I say. “Owen. Asher. Me. It stops. We go back to being professionals. We go back to work.”
“You can’t be serious,” she whispers. Tears are welling in her eyes. “After what we just did… you can’t just turn it off.”
“Watch me.”
I walk to my chair and pick up my jacket.
“I’ll call you a car,” I say, pulling out my phone. “Go downstairs. Wait in the lobby.”
“I can call my own damn car,” she spits.
She grabs her purse and her heels from the floor and walks to the door.
