Page 26 of Sin

“And yet here I am. In your office.”

“Yes,” I say, folding my hands on the desk. “Here you are.”

His jaw tightens, but only barely.

“I don’t appreciate being ignored, Ms. Cross.”

I tilt my head. “Interesting. Neither do I.”

The air between us sharpens. For one second, neither of us says anything. His gaze holds mine, and I feel it like a hand at the back of my neck. Then he closes the door. The click of the latch sounds louder than it should.

My spine straightens. “I left that open.”

“I saw.”

“Then you also saw that I wanted it open.”

“Do you need a witness?” he asks.

My pulse trips. I hate that the question lands somewhere low in my stomach before my brain catches up.

“No,” I say. “I need boundaries.”

His mouth tightens at that. Good. Maybe he does understand the word after all.

Mason steps closer to the desk, lowering his voice. “Then let’s establish some.”

I lean back in my chair even though every instinct in me wants to lean forward.

“Perfect,” I say. “You first.”

Mason doesn’t answer right away. He takes his time looking at me, like he’s deciding whether I’m a problem to solve or a fire he should stop standing so close to.

Finally, he says, “Jack is no longer assigned to Lust.”

“I gathered that.”

“He’ll return to his regular duties.”

“Wonderful. Glad we established the thing you already did without speaking to me first.”

His eyes narrow. “It wasn’t a request.”

“No. It was an announcement.”

“It was a business decision.”

I laugh once, but there’s no humor in it. “Right. Business. For the record, Jack was helping because I needed an engineer who understood the mechanics. He was useful.”

“I’m aware of Jack’s skill set.”

“Are you? Because from where I was standing Friday night, it seemed like you were more interested in embarrassing him than evaluating his contribution.”

“Jack overstepped,” he says.

I sit forward. “No, he didn’t.”

“He was alone with you after hours.”