Under His Obsession - A Steamy Workplace Romance - Cathryn Fox Page 0,62
is that?”
“Because she’s a reporter. She was here to do a story on me.”
Ice rattles in a glass and then, “I think you’re mistaken, son.”
“I have proof, Granddad.” I push to my feet and fist my hair, the gorgeous view below doing little to calm the storm raging inside me.
“What kind of proof?”
I turn, lean against the rail and catch my unkempt reflection in the glass door. “She’s been writing about me in a journal.”
“Do you have the journal?”
“In my hand.”
“Open it.”
“I’m not opening it. I don’t want to see the lies she’s written in there.” Restless, uneasy, I pace to the patio door and back to the rail. “How could you have hired her?” I ask, not wanting to make him feel old and senile but needing to get to the bottom of matters.
“Because she’s perfect for you,” he says smugly.
“Perfect for me?” As his words sink in, my mind takes me to our conversation about the French maid outfits. What was that she asked? If I made all my assistants wear them. My gut tightens. “Granddad, tell me you didn’t...”
“Didn’t what, son?”
I swallow. “Did you arrange for all those French maid outfits to be in Khloe’s closet?”
A hoot of laughter follows my question, and then what sounds like him slapping his leg. “That was Summer’s idea. She’s a brilliant one.”
Holy fuck.
“You were...matchmaking?”
“Of course I was.”
“She’s a reporter. Did you know that?”
“Yes, boy. I knew that.”
I shake my head and try to wake myself up from this nightmare, but no, I’m not dreaming. This shit is really going down.
“Then why did she keep it a secret?” I ask.
“I asked her to. I know how you feel about reporters.”
“Then why her, Granddad? Why hire her if you knew how I felt about reporters?”
“She came to me to warn me that her boss wanted her to do an exposé on you, but she was fired because she refused. Just as well she left Starlight. Her dream is to write for the New Yorker. That place was only holding her back. But she’s too proud, too much like her father to let anyone give her a leg up, even though she’s talented.”
My fuzzy brain spins. Wait, what was that she’d said about being out of work?
My boss wanted me to do something, and when I refused, he canned me.
Christ. I’d thought it was about sex. But it was because she’d refused to do a story on me? I grip the journal harder, my world sinking around me.
“Open the journal, Will.”
I slowly peel the cover back and begin to read. I skim the page and read faster. My heart leaps into my throat. “Jesus.”
“What’s that, boy?”
“It’s...it’s all about me, all about my kindness and the community services I do here on the island. She wrote a whole article on me.”
The sound of Granddad slapping his knee again reverberates through the phone. “I knew it.”
“But I don’t like my business known. You know that.”
“Who says she was even going to publish it?”
A knock on the door reaches my ears, and my heart leaps. Has she come back?
“Someone’s at my door.”
“Go check. Might be her.”
I hurry down the hall, pull the door open and find Bevey standing there, a plateful of johnnycakes in her hands. “It’s Bevey,” I say.
“Hey, don’t sound so disappointed,” Bevey says.
Ice clinks in Granddad’s glass again before he says, “Tell her I said hello.”
“I’m not disappointed. Come in. Granddad says hi,” I say, and turn back to my conversation with Granddad. Even though Bevey is listening, I say, “I...fucked up. I said cruel things. I sent her away, and I don’t think she’s coming back.”
“Then go fix this.”
“How?”
“You’re a smart boy. You’ll figure it out.”
Bevey follows me into the kitchen as I resume pacing. “But what if...what if she doesn’t feel the same way about me as I do about her?”
“Oh, she does,” Bevey says with a big smile.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Khloe
IT’S BEEN A WEEK since I’ve returned from Saint Thomas, seven whole days that have felt more like four hundred and twenty-seven days and a whole bunch of hours and minutes. I haven’t been sleeping or eating very well since coming home, and forget about functioning properly. Only problem is, if I don’t pull myself together, I’m going to lose this temporary gig that’s going to keep me afloat until I can secure a permanent position. I refused to deposit the check that arrived at my apartment and refused to take James’s calls. The man had no right sticking his nose into