Kiss Across Chaos (Kiss Across Time #10) - Tracy Cooper-Posey Page 0,15
fingertips on the edge of the desk, orienting himself as dizziness touched him. “No, I guess you can’t.” His voice was hoarse.
“You’re damn good at your job, but it would set a bad example,” Harold went on. “I can’t have all the freshman thinking it’s okay to make a mistake this bad, that I’ll just let it go. You can see that, right?”
Aran straightened himself, letting go of the desk. It took effort. “I get it,” he said woodenly. He managed to look Harold in the eye. “It was a mistake. I read someone wrong.”
Harold nodded. “I figured it was something like that. Best not trust anyone in this business. It’s easier.”
Aran pushed the tablet closer to Harold. “I know I’m gone and I’ll clear out when I get back to my desk, but do you need help recovering from this? I could write another white paper. Rebuild the thing. Your eyes only. No byline. Or yours, if you want. No one but you has to know I wrote it.”
Harold tilted his head. “Unpaid?” he asked curiously.
“This is a bad fuck up. I’d like a chance to straighten it out. Gratis.”
Harold scratched his head, where the hair used to be. “Well, that’s a new one. Don’t think anyone’s ever come back at me like this.” He clicked his teeth, thinking about it. “Ya know, Reenberg was over the moon with the unique angles. If you could pull that off again, I’d…” He rubbed his head again. “I’d put in a good word for you, wherever you end up next.” He nodded magnanimously.
It was generous. Aran let out a shaky breath. “I’ll have a chat with Cicero and write up a basic outline for you.”
Harold laughed and shook his head. “You and your damned dusty books! No one else gets the juice out of dead Roman senators that you do.”
“They just ask the wrong questions,” Aran said. He held out his hand. “Sorry about this, Harold.”
Harold actually shook his hand.
The dateline on the post had been midnight last night, so Aran drove straight to Kyle’s apartment. Kyle would have gone home in the small hours to sleep out the morning after a stunt like this.
Aran would have jumped to the lane just behind the building, but it was the morning rush hour and everyone was pulling out of their garages and steering out to the main road. And he suspected…no, he knew he wasn’t thinking straight enough to jump accurately.
He hammered on the door. It was after eight. Screw the neighbors. “Kyle, open the fucking door!”
He hammered again, while a tiny corner of his brain wondered why Kyle had never got around to giving him a key to the place. And why he’d only now thought to question that.
When Kyle did open the door, his eyes bleary with sleep, Aran took a single step forward and sucker punched him in the corner of the jaw.
Kyle staggered back, tottering into the living area, his balance gone. He landed on his ass on the carpet, reached up and shoved his fingers into his mouth. They emerged bloody.
“You fucking asshole! I trusted you,” Aran raged. Belatedly, he thought to shut the apartment door.
Kyle wiped his fingers on his pajama pants. “No, you didn’t.” He still sounded tired. “Not really.”
“How can you say that? After…after everything?” The women, the parties, the sex…the heated, highly memorable sex. “I trusted you enough to leave my laptop around where you could get at it. My mistake, huh?”
Kyle got himself to his feet and brushed dirt from his ass. “You were around, but you were never available. Not for me. Not for anyone.”
Aran stared at him, flummoxed. “You destroyed my career because I didn’t…what, exactly?”
Kyle met his gaze. “You didn’t give a shit. Not deep down. What, you thought I’d never notice?” His tone was bitter.
“I thought you were enjoying yourself,” Aran shot back. “Why did it have to be more?”
“Because I’m fucking human, Gallagher!” Kyle ground out, his voice harsh. “Christ, you’re so above everyone, so fucking superior, you can’t see what’s right in front of you. I loved you.” He brushed his hands off. “Guess that was my mistake.”
Aran found words, at last, and they were pathetic. “I didn’t know.”
“Yeah, well, you never thought I was your equal, so why would you notice? That would require giving a damn.”
Aran drew in a breath. Another. “They fired me. Hope that makes you feel better.”