Sleeping With My Boss: A Standalone Novel (An Alpha Billionaire Romance Love Story) (A Dirty Office Romance) (22 page)

CHAPTER 28

Lilah

As I walked out of Asher's office, my throat began
tightening up, and the sting of tears threatened the corners of my eyes. I
rarely cried, but after this, after everything that had happened, it just felt
as if things had reached a tipping point and everything had just come crashing
down. Facing Asher had been much harder than I'd imagined it would be. I just
needed to be alone and my office was locked.

I walked as fast as I could, without drawing attention
to myself from other people on the floor, and headed straight to the women's
bathroom.

Thankfully, it was unoccupied, so I went into one of
the stalls and locked the door.

I gave myself a minute or two to let the tears and
emotions out, and boy, did they come out. I sobbed and sniffed, and the tears
rolled down my cheeks and dripped onto my blouse and skirt. Thankfully, I’d
worn a dark outfit, so the tearstains weren’t noticeable. It was one my favorite
“power suits” and I’d chosen it specifically because I'd suspected that a
confrontation with Asher was in the cards.

After I
had finished
crying, I stood and dried my eyes and cheeks. I was about to exit the stall
when my phone buzzed in my bag. I took it out to see who the message was from.
Meghan.

Hey,
Lilah! Happy Monday! How has the start of your week
been? You still need to tell me all about Friday night!

I typed out a quick reply.

Hi,
Meg. It's not going well at all. Have a minute to
talk?

Almost as soon as the message had been read, my phone
started to ring.

“Hey, Meg.”

“Hey! What's wrong, Lilipop; are you all right?”

“Not really. It's been a hell of a Monday morning
already.”

“Wow! You’ve been at work fifteen minutes. What
happened?”

“Asher confronted me about Friday night,” I explained.

“Umm, how did he know?”

“I figured you might have seen it, but there was a
huge glowing picture of me and Brendan on the social page of
The Times
Saturday.”

“Ohhhhhh,” she let out.

“Yeah. So, we got into it and I kind of told him that
Brendan was interested in me not just professionally, but also romantically.”

“Oh my God,” she exclaimed. “You have not one but
two
billionaires lusting after both your body and your genius brain?! Wait.
Sorry. I know on the surface it would seem like every girl's dream, but I can
totally see how this can be pretty overwhelming to deal with. So, what happened
on Friday night
after
the restaurant?
Brendan wanted to take you back to his mansion, didn't he?”

“He did.”

“Oh my God, and did you let him?!”

“No!”

“Thank God. Did you let him kiss you goodnight?”

“Nope. I didn't even let him give me a peck on the
cheek. Even that would have felt like I was cheating on Asher. Not that Asher
and I are together. Although, it feels like we are. Ugh! You know what I mean!
Anyway, I told you already, my interest in Brendan was strictly professional.”

“But, you knew from the start that
his
interest
wasn't strictly professional, didn’t ya?”

“Yeah, and I feel bad about that. But I really wanted
to see what kind of job offer
he
would
make me.”

“And, what kind of offer did he make?”

“A very tempting one, I'll say that much.
He
's offered me a higher salary than Asher pays
me, a corner office with a killer view, bonuses, and shares in his company, and
a company car—a luxury vehicle from his friend's dealership.”

“Wow. That does sound tempting.”

“It is. But the truth is, I really love working here.
And that has nothing to do with my personal feelings for Asher. I mean that on
a strictly professional level. The camaraderie here is fantastic, the team is
inspiring and passionate, there’s no backstabbing, and Asher is a brilliant
leader. I feel like I could really grow and develop here and build a stellar
career for myself.”

“Well, here's what I think you should do. Go and talk
to Asher. Tell him exactly what Brendan has offered you. Leave out the romantic
interest bit, obviously. Keep it professional. But tell him that this is what's
waiting for you. See if he makes a counter-offer
to keep
you in his company.

“I mean, yes, you love the environment there, and
you're working with a great team, but it sounds like Savage would be bumping
you a few rungs up the ladder. More than you could achieve even after a few
years at Sinclair.

“Just keep it as professional as you can. Don't let
your feelings for Asher–or his feelings for you–get in the way.”

“You're right. You're exactly right. That's exactly
what I'm going to do. Thanks, Megs. I'm so glad I can always count on you. You
rock.”

“Yes, yes I do!” she chided. “Anything for my best
friend. Now, go! You walk right in there and let Asher know what's what.”

“Yes, ma’am. Thanks again! Bye.”

“And, call me later. Bye.”

I put my phone away, exited the stall, and went
straight to the mirror to clean up my face and touch-up my makeup.

“All right, Lilah,” I said to my reflection in the
mirror, “you can do this. You can do this!”

I marched out of the restroom and headed straight to
Asher's office. I knocked on the door and stood tapping my foot impatiently
outside.

“Come in,” his voice echoed through the door.

I flung open the door and strode in with confidence.

“Lilah,” he stated, sounding and looking surprised and
a little nervous. “Did you come back for the key?”

I closed the door behind me, marched straight up to
his desk, sat down, and explained in clear terms everything Brendan Savage had
offered me. I also told him that I loved working at Sinclair, but that, as any
reasonable person could understand, Savage's offer was beyond tempting. I
informed him that he'd need to make some concessions to keep me at Sinclair.

He sat in silence for a while after I'd explained
everything to him, simply nodding with his hands clasped together on his desk.
I could see that he was contemplating everything I'd just told him.
Eventually,
he spoke.

“Very well,” he said. “I'll match Savage's offer,
term
for term, to keep you here. With exception
of the corner office, as that would mean displacing someone who has been here
far longer than you. I hope you understand that I can't and won’t do that;
talent is important, but so is seniority. I'm not going to sell someone out who
has been loyal to this company for years just to appease the demands of someone
who has just arrived.”

I nodded. “I can understand that and I wouldn’t want
you to. I'll stay then.”

“Good. We need you here.”

“I know you do.”

He chuckled. “Don't get too big for your boots now,
Lilah. You're extremely talented, but it's still early. A lot of people get
burned out in this line of work. Your streak of genius might not last forever.”
“Well, it's burning
brightly
now, and I
intend to keep it that way for as long as possible.”
 

“I hope you do. Well, now that we've cleared
everything up, is there anything else you'd like?”

“Yes, there is one more thing.”

“Name it.”

“The relationship between you and I… I know we’ve had
this talk before, but it’s just too much to navigate while trying to balance
with work. We're going to have to keep things strictly professional. And before
you ask, no, it has absolutely nothing to do with Savage. I have no romantic
interest in that man whatsoever. But I'm here for the sake of my career, and my
career is always going to come first. Always. Can you understand?”

I recognized a flicker of pain concealed beneath his
calm expression. It was the same pain I felt twisting my insides like the blade
of a rusty knife. This was how it had to be, though.

“I understand. Strictly professional,” he said in a
wounded, soft voice.

“All right then. If you’d be so kind as to give me the
key, I’ll return it at the meeting later.”

Asher handed over the key, I turned on my heels and
left, with my mouth dry and my heart pounding.

It was done.

***

The rest of my day had been nonstop meetings and
conference calls with Paris. I was glad to be home and looking forward to
unwinding. I had just stepped out of the shower when my phone buzzed. I figured
it would be Meg since I had promised I’d call her to fill her in on how
everything had gone. I wrapped a towel around myself and picked it up. On cue,
it was her. I opened the message and read it.

You guys at Sinclair are in hot water, Lilah. Do you
know anything about this??

Attached to the message was a link to a blog post
which I opened immediately. The title hit me like an uppercut to the chin.

“
Sinclair
Agency Posts Transphobic Tweet and Sets off Twitter Storm!”

What the hell? That wasn’t
what I was expecting. It
was bad.
Really bad. I typed out a quick response to Meg.

Thanks for the heads up. I do NOT know anything about
this, but I suspect Brendan Savage might
—
and
I intend to find out exactly who is behind this. Looks like I’m going to have
to fill you in later. I have a phone call to make.

CHAPTER 29

Asher

My palms were clammy and cold as I clicked on the link
Lilah had just sent me. The headline alone was enough to send chills of dread
running down my spine: “
Sinclair
Agency Posts Transphobic Tweet and Sets off Twitter Storm!”

Of course, the first thing I'd done when Lilah had
sent me the link was log on to Sinclair's Twitter account and delete the
offending tweet. It had been a phrase we'd been tossing around for one of the
new campaigns for a new men's cologne.

The offending phrase had been: “Conjures
up images of a time when men were
men.
” It had only been a rough idea,
part of a larger ad idea that wouldn’t have been offensive in the least had it
been seen in the context of the other ad which referred to dignity,
responsibility, hard work, and such. It had nothing at all to do with gender.

Someone in our company, however, had taken that
isolated phrase and tweeted it. Minutes later, a transgendered blogger had
caught wind of it and hammered out what I could only imagine could have been a
sensationalist piece.

Luckily, the blogger didn't have many followers, and
it appeared that nothing had gone viral–
yet.

I hoped it would stay that way. I sent a private
message to the blogger, explaining how the phrase had been taken entirely out
of context, and that when taken in context, there was nothing that referred to
gender, and I asked very nicely that they take their article down. I waited for
an hour. The message had been marked as read, but no reply came. It became
apparent that the blogger wasn't going to take their article down.

At that point, all I could do was wait. Wait and pray
the situation did
not
go viral because then we'd have a real mess on our
hands. I shot Lilah a text to keep her up to date on what I hadn’t heard from
the blogger.

Keep me
posted.
She’d texted back.

I found my thoughts drifting to my conversation with
Lilah in my office that morning. It had been good to clear the air between us,
and I'd been relieved to find out that she hadn’t been romantically involved
with Savage in any way. I was especially reassured by the way she’d said she
had absolutely no interest in him. I wondered what that meant for me, about me.

Did it mean she had strong feelings for me? Is that
why Savage never stood a chance? But if it did, why did she insist on keeping
our relationship strictly professional? That had been the hardest of her
demands to give in to. The other things–the salary, the company car, the
promotion–they'd been easy. She was talented enough to deserve it all, even if
she had only been at the company for a short time.

But in that short time, she'd done way more than
merely turn my company's fortunes around. She'd turned my life around, inside
out, and upside down.

And, I could have sworn that these intense feelings
she'd awoken in me weren't one-sided. I knew it wasn't just me! It was there in
her eyes; I could see it every time she looked at me. I felt it when we kissed,
when we
touched
.

That’s not something you can fake.

And even though her words had said that she wanted
nothing to do with me, her eyes conveyed an entirely different message.

But despite the connection I’d felt even as she told
me, despite what I had seen in her eyes, what could I do? She had laid down her
demands—a strictly professional relationship between us being one of them—and
that was that. I had to honor her wishes and pray someday she’d change her
mind.

I wasn't sure how I was going to cope. It wasn't
something I had much experience with.
Usually,
it was a girl falling for me and
leaving me to
be the one who had to draw a line or end the relationship.
The whole
experience was new to me. I'd never felt like this with anyone else.

And I knew, somehow, I just
knew
she felt the
same. It was the strongest gut feeling I’d ever known. But until she would
admit it, I was at her mercy. I was her boss. Nothing more.

I sighed, poured myself a glass of whiskey, and went
up to my turret to look at the stars.

***

I called Lilah into my office first thing that morning
to talk about the Twitter disaster. As far as I knew, nobody else in the office
knew about it. Luckily, nothing had gone viral just yet. It seemed that Lilah
and myself were the only ones who were aware of the near catastrophe, and I
intended to keep it that way.

“Morning, Asher,” she said as she stepped in. “You
wanted to see me?”

She seemed to be playing things very coolly, keeping a
decent distance between herself and me. All I could do was to play
along
and try to keep my burning desires
bottled up. Which was precisely why I avoided making eye contact with her for
longer than a millisecond.

“Have a seat.”

“So, it's about the tweet, right?”

“Yup. In all the panic last night, I forgot to ask how
you found out about it?”

“My best friend Meghan, she's an attorney. Last night
she was doing some research for a case she’s working on regarding transgender
issues. When she saw the Sinclair name pop up on a transgender message board, she
contacted me.”

“That was a lucky break for us. Thanks to
her
quick response, and yours, I was able to
delete the tweet quickly enough. Nothing has gone viral.”

“Good. But how in the hell did that get
tweeted
to begin with? That campaign isn't even
finalized yet!”

“Exactly. And I have no idea how that got out,” I
explained.

“Who has access to that Twitter account?”

“Myself, Janice, and all of the senior members of the
team.”

“Have you questioned any of them yet?” she asked.

“Not yet. I thought I'd speak to you first. Got any
theories?”

It looked like she wanted to say something, and she
opened her mouth–then paused.

“Aside from the obvious theory that we’re being
sabotaged, no, not really,” she said.

I stared at her for a while, long enough to make her squirm
uncomfortably in the chair.

“All right then,” I said slowly. “I’ll let you get to
work. I'll talk to each member of the senior team individually and see what I
can find out. Thanks for your help–and thanks again for bringing that tweet to
my attention so quickly.”

“I just did what I had to do.”

“I appreciate it,” I added and our eyes met for a
moment longer than I had intended.

She forced her gaze to the desk, got up rather quickly,
and headed for the door. I knew she had an idea about who was behind this,
likely the same idea I had, but I couldn't fathom why she wouldn't just tell
me. Perhaps she needed proof before she made any accusations. I could
understand that. Still, this was an urgent matter and if it went viral we'd be
in hot water. Boiling hot water. I'm not sure how well we could weather that
storm
.

There was, of course, still the matter of the break-in
to consider and how it’s possible our social media accounts may have been
compromised because of it. Granted, every password in our system had been
changed, but it was possible. And so far, the PI had still not been able to
conclusively link Savage to the intrusion, although he said he was working on
some good leads.

With these thoughts swirling around my head, I pulled
in a deep breath and called the first member of the senior team in for
questioning.

***

A few hours later, I stood and stretched as the last
member of the senior team left my office. It had been a long morning. The
interviews, or interrogations, as Janice had called them, had taken a lot
longer than I'd thought they would. In the end, I still had nothing. It seemed
nobody had any idea about how the tweet had gotten out, and if they did, they
were concealing it extremely well.

I glanced at my watch to confirm it was time for lunch—something
my stomach already knew.

I stepped out of my office, headed toward the
elevator, and turned the corner that would take me past Lilah's office, only I
didn’t make it past her office. I stopped dead in my tracks.

There, standing in her doorway, talking and smiling as
she held a huge bouquet of flowers, which, presumably, he'd just brought her,
was none other than Brendan Savage.

“What the hell are
you
doing here?” I hissed.

Brendan turned around, a smug grin plastered across
his face. Lilah simply looked away, blushing furiously and looking as though
she’d prefer to slink into a corner.

“I'm just visiting a friend. Aren't I, Lilah? It's a
free country, Sinclair. I'm not breaking any laws.”

“Get out,” I growled.

He smiled arrogantly.“Or
what?”

Or I'll uppercut that smug grin right off your
face
and roundhouse kick your head through the
damn wall–is what I
wanted
to say.
Actually, it’s what I wanted to
do
in
place of speaking. However, I managed to hold my tongue.

“Or I'll call security and have you removed. This is
private property, you are not welcome, and you're trespassing. The law is on my
side here, Savage, and whatever lawyer you hire to defend you, I'll hire a
better
one to sue your ass. Now leave.”

He chuckled sarcastically. “All right, all right. I'll
leave. This place is kind of a dump, anyway. You should see my building, Lilah.
Makes this trash-heap look like a ghetto. See you around, beautiful.”

Lilah said an awkward goodbye and then hurried into
her office. I simply stood in the doorway, arms crossed aggressively across my
chest
until Savage slunk away. I wanted more
than anything to follow him into the elevator and kick his ass–especially after
seeing him with Lilah–but I remembered Colonel Tanaka's lessons on self-control
and took minor consolation in the fact that I'd been the bigger man.

As much as I hated to admit it, his presence was
causing me to have doubts about what Lilah had told me. What had that man been
doing here, under my nose, bringing her flowers? I shook my head. I could just
walk in and confront her about it, but it wasn’t the time or the place. The
answers to those questions would have to wait. I had way too many other things
on my plate to deal with at the moment. I put my hands in my pockets and
trudged out to get some lunch.