“My dog can do a better job than him.” I braced my hands over her desk. “And I don’t even have one. A word?”
“Oh, no. Smells like a canned item in the making.” Kate and I walked to the conference room, and I shot a look at Judith to see if she’d followed us with her eyes the way I followed her everywhere she went in the office. She was typing away, looking at her monitor. Kate caught my ogling and smirked. I rarely spared my employees a look. Her eyes joined mine on Jude.
Did I fuck up by not giving Jude a heads-up about my situation? Yes. But did I think my one-night stand was going to end up being my employee? Hell no.
“She is pretty.” Kate leaned her head over my shoulder. I shrugged.
“Arguing with that would imply that I’m blind, which I’m not.”
“She’s also kind, smart, and funny. A natural in the newsroom.”
“Get to the point sometime this calendar year, please.”
“You’ve got it hard for her, Célian.”
Kate ran a hand over my shirt, and I had to clear my throat, because this was wrong on so many levels I couldn’t even begin to count them. My job was to expose unethical behavior and bring factual news to the table. I wasn’t going to piss all over it for a girl with feline eyes and hair like yellow autumn leaves. Not to mention, to most people in the world, I was an engaged man. But not to Kate. She knew my story, all of it. Which was why she refused to speak to my father under any circumstances.
“Can’t do anything about it.” I tapped away on the table I leaned against.
“You can if it’s consensual. People fall in love at their workplace all the time. It’s not against the law.”
“I’m her boss. Also the devil spawn of the owner.”
“An owner who is actively trying to get into her pants.” Kate raised a finger, pointing it out.
“Precisely. Besides…” I rubbed my face. “Lily.”
“Break up with her. Call off the engagement. And don’t give me the Newsflash Corp bullshit. It’s about time.”
“Like hell I will. My father would have a fucking field day if I give up the only leverage I have on him.”
Ever since my baby sister died, I’d become even more career driven. My eyes were on the prize and had never shifted—until Judith walked into this building. Lily Davis had an influential father and her siblings had both given up on their family business. Lily was going to inherit Newsflash Corp, and her family was a shareholder at LBC, with as much as ten percent. So joining their family meant I could overthrow every decision my father had made, if I combined their shares with my mother’s. The merger between LBC and Newsflash Corp was going to make me one of the biggest tycoons in the world once my father stepped down.
Which was why he’d done what he did and ruined what little promise I had left going on in my life.
“Irrelevant. Your father is a douche and his feelings toward what you do, or lack thereof, should not determine your choices.”
I hated that Kate was the voice of reason. I also hated that she was pretty much the only friend I had who I was certain wouldn’t stab me in the back the minute I turned around. I was short on friends, seeing as I trusted no one, including my fucking coffee machine.
“As for your world-domination aspirations…” She raised her hand to pat my cheek, clucking her tongue. “Grow up, Célian. What’s the point of being powerful if you’re miserable?”
I changed the subject, because none of it mattered. I wasn’t throwing away my plans, nor my idiotic fiancée. Judith was…Judith. Undoubtedly beautiful, not in the way women in magazines were, but in a way that makes you want to mark her with your teeth, tongue, and piss if need be. Hardworking and smart. There was a chance—albeit a small one—that if I broke things off with Lily and told Judith the entire story, she would still be willing to give the enemies-with-benefits thing a chance. And Kate was right. A consensual affair in the workplace wasn’t unheard of.
But we weren’t going to be lovers.
We were going to be two people fucking each other into submission, and a fuck—no matter how good—wasn’t worth my entire future.
I fell to my seat, noticing that Steve was throwing a fit and yelling at Jessica in the middle of the newsroom. Jude hurried over to them, took Jessica’s hand, and led her away.
“We’re canning the flammable cellphone item,” I told Kate distractedly. She punched the desk between us, then noiselessly yelled at the pain. “I knew you’d do that.”
“Get everyone in the conference room. Now.”
Five minutes later, everyone was inside, including a solemn Jessica and a defiant Judith. Kate was outside, on a quick phone call.