: Chapter 9

The menace behind his question rattled through me with doom, mostly because he no longer seemed so welcoming. Now he was distrustful and guarded. He wouldn’t soften toward me until I at least answered him with a name. But the only name I could give him would tear us further apart.

I suddenly felt as if I had deceived him in the courtyard, even though I’d had no idea who he was when we’d met out there.

He’d never believe I wasn’t one of Lana’s spies if he learned who I was. It was best if we just stopped things here and now while he was none the wiser.

“Can’t we just let tonight become some nice, amusing memory and leave it at that?” I asked even as I took a step backward away from him.

Except he hissed, “No,” and prowled after me. “Tell me who you are.” When I shook my head, he grinned. “Maybe I need to kiss the truth from you then. Huh?”

My lips parted on a silent exhale. I knew I shouldn’t care, but the knowledge that he still wanted to kiss me was intoxicating. I remained stupidly rooted to the spot when he reached out and slid his fingers along my cheek. He leaned toward me; I found myself leaning back toward him.

I wanted to feel his mouth against mine more than anything.

Just one more kiss, I promised myself. Then I’d go. And he’d never hear from me again. I mean, until I approached him when I was ready to buy out his half of the company… Or if he saw me at a meeting, since I was going to be a paid employee and could finally attend them… Or if he ran into me in the hallway, now that we’d be working on the same floor… Or—

Oh geez, there was no way to avoid him in the future, was there?

Which was exactly why I could never kiss him again. He was bound to find out my identity one way or another.

I jerked away right before he made contact. “I’m so sorry, but I can’t. Please just… Let it go.” Pressing my fingers against my own lips because they grew angry at me for not giving them what they wanted, I sent Ezra a pleading look, hoping he’d forgive me for this, right before I spun away and dashed off.

“No! Wait.”

He followed. Damn persistent man. But I was desperate and fast. I couldn’t face this right now. I wanted one more night to dream about the magic we’d made in the courtyard before he hated me forever.

When I realized I was headed toward the ballroom and could already hear the music and talking from inside, I darted right toward another entrance back into the dark courtyard.

“No!” he cried, probably realizing the same moment I did that once I slipped into the night, I could probably escape him for good.

I dashed through the doorway, hurtling myself toward the bushes. It felt as if he were right on my tail, but by the time I reached a shadow and crouched down before turning back to check, he’d just reached the doorway.

“Dammit,” he muttered, while I silently cheered. I’d successfully evaded him. Yes!

His arched horns and cape made a daunting silhouette as he cursed in the lighted entrance of the courtyard. When he stepped outside, I huddled down and held my breath, trying not to breathe.

“This isn’t fair,” he called as he let the door fall shut behind him, casting more darkness around us. “You know that, right? What you’re doing to me. It’s not right. I don’t even have a name to remember you by.”

When I didn’t answer, just pulled myself taut as he walked past within five feet of me, he let out a harassed sigh.

“Fine. You don’t want to talk? Then maybe you’ll listen.” He entered the clearing where my mother’s statue was, and moonlight sprayed down onto his horns. “I don’t know what’s going on here or what frightened you off, but it started the moment you learned who I was. So I can only assume you work for JFI and got spooked when you realized you’d just kissed the boss. Am I right? I mean, we’re at an office party. It makes sense.”

He waited a moment after that declaration, as if waiting for me to confirm or deny his suspicions. When I remained hidden and silent, he cleared his throat.

“Okay then. I’ll continue with that theory since I’ve got nothing else to work with.” He gave another slight pause, letting me jump in and say something. Then he shook his head. His voice took on a compassionate tone. “I admit, I should’ve known better. I have no idea what I was thinking by kissing you; you have to be somehow affiliated with the company, either as an employee or friend of one. But… But now that it’s happened, I don’t regret it. And I don’t want to stop with just that.”

He made a frustrated groan before blowing out a long, calming breath. Then he murmured, “I understand, you know. I’ve never made out with an employee before. This is unchartered territory for me too. My guts are tied in knots with all kinds of different concerns. But I don’t think it’s something we have to run from or hide. We can deal with this. I know it.”

It was crazy how freaking sweet and understanding and wonderful this man was. I squeezed my eyes closed, wondering if maybe I should just face him head on, tell him everything.

“You don’t report to me directly,” he went on. “You can’t, otherwise I’d know who you are. We’ve never crossed paths in the office, so we can just keep it that way. Your direct supervisor can handle doling out your duties, and I will take no part in it. We can stay professional at work and leave everything personal for after hours. I’m not looking for some secret tawdry office affair. I just want an open, honest, let’s-see-where-this-goes date. I mean, don’t you?”

Yes, I did. I wanted to get to know this man and see if all the chemistry between us could bloom into an actual relationship. There was just one problem. I didn’t want to remain a subordinate employee. Someday, I wanted his job.

“Yellow?” he said. “Are you still out here?”

I nodded my head stupidly.

Tempted to stand up and gush out all my confessions, I bit my lip and squeezed my fingernails into my palms. I was a split second from calling out to him when a ding came from him, like an incoming text message.

He grumbled under his breath, and a rustle of clothing followed before I could see the glow of his phone reflect off his face as he checked the screen.

Hey. Why hadn’t he used his phone light to look for his shoe?

He probably hadn’t even considered the idea like I hadn’t… Until just now.

Oh crap, I hope he didn’t think to use his phone light to look for me now.

I sank deeper into the bushes, my heart pounding through my ears.

“Shit,” he muttered. “What is she doing here?” The light flashed off as he put the phone away, making me blink from the sudden absence. Then he called, “Yellow, I have to go. But I’m not giving up on this, I’m just… I’m letting you think it through. Okay? The ball’s in your court now.” He sighed, resigned to the fact that I wasn’t going to reply. “I have a feeling you know where to find me.”

With that, he strode off. Seconds later, I heard the door open and close again. I blew out a breath and plopped onto my butt in the grass, deflated, only to yelp when I landed on something hard and pointed.

A swipe of the hand revealed I’d found one of his high heels we both must’ve dropped during our kissing session.

Picturing him walking through JFI right now, barefoot, caused me to shake my head and smile softly.

“This is so messed up,” I murmured to myself.

After patting the ground, I found the second shoe and even my Power Ranger helmet and gloves. Putting the mask and gloves back on so I wouldn’t have too much of an armful, I hurried toward the door, after him.

Maybe he was right. We could deal with this. We just had to be open and honest about everything. I could do open and honest. That was pretty much my life motto. That, right along with kindness. I endeavored to be kind always, because that’s what everyone always said my mother had been.

With a glance toward her statue, I nodded, my mind made up. It felt cruel—and totally not kind—to keep the truth from him.

Maybe he’d agree that we should never see each other again, or maybe he’d have some idea I hadn’t considered to get past our issues. But he had the right to know, didn’t he?

Ready to confess all, I hurried after him, bundling both of his shoes against my chest as I made my way inside. When I rushed through the doorway, looking left, then right, I was almost afraid I’d lost him. But then, there! He entered a room at the end of the hall, so I turned that way in hot pursuit.

I didn’t even pay attention to where I was in the building or where I was headed until I was nearly to the entrance of the office. And by the office, I mean the office, as in Lana’s lair.

Skidding to a halt just outside the open door, I sucked in a silent curse, hoping no one inside had heard me, because yikes, there came her dreaded voice, floating into the hallway like poisonous exhaust fumes as she asked, “What exactly are you wearing?” in that condescending way only she could master.

Ezra answered in a dry, unamused tone he hadn’t used all evening in the courtyard. “A costume. There’s a Halloween party going on, if you hadn’t noticed.”

And now I understood why I hadn’t recognized him from his voice alone. He had sounded nothing like the man I listened to now. It made me realize that before this, I think I’d only heard him speak whenever he’d been addressing my stepmother, and he reserved an icy, disdainful voice for her, it seemed.

“Trust me, I noticed,” Lana sneered. “But what’re you supposed to be?”

“I figured if I wanted to go as the most frightening thing possible, I should go as you.”

A grin lit my face. I loved how so politely rude he was with her. Peeking around the corner, I barely made out Lana’s blank expression through the doorway and over Ezra’s shoulder before he added, “I’m Maleficent. You know, powerful evil queen from Sleeping Beauty.”

Lana purred out a pleased sound as she strolled toward him. Then she lifted her hand, and it was impossible to see what she did next from where I was watching, but I swear she trailed her finger down the center of his chest. “Yes, well. I’m glad you finally recognize me as the powerful queen I am.”

For a split second, I wanted to storm in there and drag her away from my man by the hair. But then I realized, he wasn’t mine. He wasn’t anything to me, and letting Lana know I had any interest in him would be my downfall.

Ezra smacked her hand away, thank God, and I could practically hear his teeth grind. “Is there a point to this summons?”

“Of course.” My stepmother airily turned away from him and tossed something onto her desk before rounding it to face him. As I ducked back out of sight, she continued. “Your grand plans to boost employee morale with your pathetic little party tonight has backfired. That’s my point.”

Ezra let out an irritated sigh before answering, “I hope you don’t actually expect me to understand what that means, because I don’t.”

“I have a security alarm set in my office. And tonight, it went off. Someone broke into my desk. I’m guessing they used your party as a diversion to cover their theft.”

“Did you have the door locked?” Ezra sounded suddenly alert. “What was taken?”

“It shouldn’t matter if the door was locked or not,” Lana snipped. “Would it make their violation into my privacy more right if I had the door hanging wide open? How dare you victim blame me!”

“God, you are impossible. Was anything taken or not?”

A slight pause followed before she admitted, “No. Nothing’s missing. They must’ve noticed the light blinking on the silent alarm and fled before they could swipe anything.”

Ezra seemed calmer when he asked, “Do you know who it could be?”

“Not yet.”

And… The irritation returned to his voice. “Then why did you call me in here? If nothing was taken and no locks were broken, I can’t exactly bar the doors and forbid everyone from leaving until the culprit confesses.”

“Actually, I wanted to know where you’ve been for the last forty-five minutes, Nash. I have it on very good authority you were missing from the ballroom for approximately that long.”

I set my hand over my mouth, unable to believe she would so openly accuse him of riffling through her drawers. Knowing who’d really been in her office, I was tempted to charge in there and set the record straight, defending him.

But revealing myself now would cause all kinds of problems. First of all, Lana wouldn’t believe me, and secondly, it would only alert her to my new standing with Ezra. Thirdly and worst of all, it’d reveal to him who I was.

And now that I was near my stepmother, freshly reminded what a viper she was and how much she could hurt both me and Ezra if she knew what we’d been doing together, I was back to wanting to keep my identity a secret from him. For both our protection.

“Keeping your moles busy tonight, I see,” he said to Lana with bitterness thick in his voice. “I’m surprised you didn’t just have one of them follow me to find out where I went.”

I tensed, waiting for him to add, Or did you? as if he suspected I was one of her moles. But thank goodness, he didn’t.

“Did you break into my office or not, Nash?”

I darted another quick peek through the doorway to see him folding his arms over his chest and bracing his feet wider apart. “Why don’t you just pull up the video on your handy little security system and find out?”

There was a lengthy pause before Lana reluctantly admitted, “Because I didn’t have a camera installed. It’s motion-censored only.”

“Ah. So it could have been a draft, or a mouse, or a fly that set off the alarm. Not an actual human being.”

“It was a human,” Lana bit out stubbornly.

Ezra snorted. “We’re done here.”

He was still barefoot so I didn’t hear footsteps but I knew in my gut he was headed my way. Dashing back toward the shadowed spot I’d hid in from Hayden earlier, I ducked down just as Ezra entered the hall looking murderous, his jaw clenched and eyes narrowed.

He didn’t notice me, didn’t even look for me, so I held my breath and watched him storm away.

From inside my stepmother’s office, I heard her throw something against a wall and growl a curse before the sound of breaking glass followed.

This was my best chance to get out of there without being spotted. Acting on impulse, I took off down the hall, once again grateful for my light, padded slippers.

When I rushed into the ballroom seconds later, my gaze was frantic, searching for two men: Ezra, in the hopes he wasn’t here and didn’t see me, and Brick, hoping he was here and did spot me.

I couldn’t find either, and my distress mounted. Where the heck was my stepbrother?

And that’s when I finally found him leaning against the wall, making out with a slutty barmaid-looking woman with white knee socks and a red cape flowing down her back.

Groaning, I hurried toward them. What was he thinking? We had no time for this.

“Brick,” I said as soon as I reached them, only to realize the woman was none other than Sabella from Belts.

I guess he hadn’t avoided her too well, after all. Whoops.

Neither seemed to notice my arrival.

Desperation made me lift my voice. “Brick!”

Nothing.

“Oh my God, Brick!” I screeched and smacked his arm with one of Ezra’s high heels, making the couple finally startle apart. “We have to leave. Now.”

“Hey.” Brick grinned with glassy-eyed amusement before licking his bottom lip and wiping the back of his hand across it like a man satisfied with what he’d just tasted. “Where you been, kid? I looked—”

I jostled his arm trying to get him to hurry. “You don’t want to know. Suffice it to say, we need to go. Right freaking now.”

He straightened, his gaze growing alert. “Why? What’s wrong?”

I waved to Sabella as I began to drag him toward the door. “Sorry, Sabella. You can have him back as soon as he drives me home.”

“Whoa, hey,” Brick tried to protest. “Where’s the fire? What’s going on? It’s not even midnight yet.”

When he refused to budge, I ground my teeth and spun to him, but he couldn’t read the death threat expression I was sending him from inside my mask, so I said the first thing that came to mind that I knew could scare him off.

“Your mother’s here.”

No other words were needed. With a shudder of revulsion, he gripped my arm and whisked me from the building.