Page 14 of Not Safe for Work
“In fact, quite a lot of it was strange.”
“He recorded our sexual escapades and then made you watch with him. I imagine it qualified for the weirdest thing that’s ever happened to anyone.”
“Well, yeah. That is true. But there was something else, too.”
He raised an eyebrow again.
Only this time, there was that devilish gleam in his eye.
“More weird than his usual weird?” he asked, with just a hint of amusement in his voice. God, she loved it when she heard that amusement in his voice.
“A little, yeah. I think . . . I think he sounded . . . almost jealous.”
“Did he, indeed. Well, isn’t that interesting.”
“You don’t seem as surprised by that as I thought you would be.”
“No, not surprised in the least, to be honest.”
“So . . . did he . . . has he . . .” She swallowed thickly, heart thumping. Her mind racing over the idea that Hartford really did want Abel. “You know. Suggested this to you before?”
“Oh yeah, lots of times. Even when he doesn’t know he’s doing it.”
“But there are times when he does know?”
“I suppose you could say so, yes.”
“Like, he made an actual pass at you?” She saw Hartford doing it in her mind’s eye. His hand on Abel’s thigh, those blue eyes hot with lust.
But before the tingling sensation that followed could get out of control, he laughed.
“A pass at me? I thought you were talking about you,” he said.
And suddenly everything was in disarray.
She made a face that could best be described as zuh?
“That’s ridiculous. He couldn’t possibly want me.”
“Why on earth not? You realize he talks about you as constantly as someone like him can. And in a way that actually verges on praise. Last week he called you the fuel for his fire.”
“Yeah, but I was going to say the same thing to you. He can never bring himself to compliment anyone. Everything is always wrong. But he compliments you. He practically waxes lyrical about your business acumen and your loyalty.”
“Acumen and loyalty aren’t exactly pillars of romantic praise.”
“I think to him they might be. He sounded devastated when he talked about you doing all those things to me. Like you’d betrayed him.”
Abel shook his head, mild mystification all over his face. “He hasn’t said a word.”
“I don’t know what word he could say. In fact, I think he fired me just so he wouldn’t have to explain why he was so shaken and hurt,” she said, so lost in the memory of her hand reaching for his trembling shoulder that she completely missed the thing she’d just given away.
But Abel didn’t miss it. He propped himself up on one elbow, brows suddenly thunderous over those pitch-black eyes. “Wait a minute. He fired you?”
“A little bit, yeah.”
“Just for fooling around in my office?”
“That seems to be the case.”
