her curls behind her ears.
“I’m Jay,” he says and sticks his hand out at her.
“Hi, Jay, I’m Ella.”
“Ella?”
“Ella Davies,” she replies, and I can see the cogs turning in Jay’s mind. He glances up at me in surprise but only for a split-second.
“Hello Ella Davies. What are you doing here?”
She throws me a look, and I can see she’s a little worried.
“Ella works for me. She’s helping me with a project, and she was just about to leave,” I chime in. I nod at Tom, who heads over to her. Jay has no choice but to step back now. He watches, almost aghast, as Tom and Ella hurry out of the kitchen. We can hear her shoes clicking in the marble hallway.
Jay comes towards me, and for a second, I’m wondering if he’s going to attack me.
“Are you out of your fuckin’ mind?” he growls.
I cross my arms over my chest.
“What are you talking about?”
“I know who that is. I know exactly who that is. She’s the girl you met in London!”
“Yes, she is.”
“What is she doing here? How did you find her? What is this project you’re talking about?”
“It’s exactly that. She’s working with me.”
“Just like that?” he snaps his fingers.
“What do you want me to say?”
“I want you to fuckin’ admit that you hunted her down and then got her to come and work for you somehow. What did you say to make her agree to it?”
“What is your problem, Jay? Whose side are you on?” My anger is growing too, along with his.
“My problem is that you’re walking into a shitload of trouble and you don’t even see it. Have you considered the consequences of this? What might happen if she decides to go to the fuckin’ tabloids with this shit?” Jay is furious. I can see it in his eyes. There’s a vein pumping hard in the middle of his forehead.
“She’s not going to the press.”
“You know nothing about this girl.”
“Tom has done his research.”
“Great. Tom is in on it too! Reed, I need you to think about this long and hard. I know how much you value your privacy. Staying out of the limelight. Living quietly and all that. If things get out of hand and she goes to anyone with this. Or if Tom does. You are toast, man. They are going to burn you at the stake over this.”
Jay’s eyes are bloodshot. He looks paranoid and frustrated. Maybe he’s right and maybe I should listen to him. Jay has lived in the limelight all his life.
“I trust her,” I say and glare right back at him. Nothing anyone says now is going to stop me from keeping Ella here.
6
Ella
I’m literally breathless as I drive back home. I don’t know if I should call Gigi right away and tell her what’s happening. Tell her my new boss is Reed. Instead, I decide to go back home and give myself time to think.
I need to think.
I need to make sense of what is happening. Have I just agreed to something that I’m going to fail at? What if I can’t find any information on his family? He has put so much trust in me, and what if it leads to nowhere?
The whole day today, from the first moment we met again, Reed has kept his distance from me. After I got over my initial shock, I wanted him to kiss me again. I’ve fantasized about a wild reunion. About just falling into his arms and giving into one irresistible kiss.
But that wasn’t how it happened in real life.
Reed made it clear that our relationship currently is strictly professional. Has he already forgotten and moved on from that night in London?
I park my car and run up the stairs to my apartment. I’m out of breath. I strip out of my clothes like they’ve been suffocating me. I jump into the shower and stand under the steady hot stream of water. I can feel the heat radiating from my own body. There’s a throbbing desire between my legs. I have never felt this thirsty for a man before, but I’m feeling it now. And the more he ignores me, the more I want him.
But he’s my boss and I’m here to do a job. Right? I should focus on that. Finding his family. Helping him.
I barely focus on soaping or shampooing or patting myself dry.
When I step out of the shower, wrapping a towel around myself, I don’t even remember what I did in the shower.