knot had formed on his jaw, and his stare was glacial.
He couldn’t be…jealous. Could he?
The very idea had her softening when she didn’t want to. “Fine. I’ll let him know.”
“You do that.”
Yes, sir. Right away, sir.
A hard rap on the door sounded before she could exacerbate the situation by saluting—no more softening—or flashing a middle finger. Glad for the excuse to move, Eva got up and crossed the office.
She opened the door to find Alek standing in reception, the CEO she’d been led to believe she’d be working for. The one she’d met last night. The one who must have known she’d be working for Gabriel when they’d been introduced.
She forced a smile as her face heated with embarrassment because this man smiling back at her was also well aware that she’d had sex with Gabriel last night. Could possibly have even heard them if the walls were thin enough in the hotel. Had Gabriel mentioned to his friends that she’d been a virgin?
“Hey, Eva.” Alek came in when she stepped aside. “How was your first day?”
How do you think it was? she wanted to scream. Did he think she and Gabriel had fucked their way around the office? Did everyone think that’s how they’d spent their day?
Her glands began to water when she realized Gabriel’s dishonesty had made her the office slut. She was now the woman everyone would talk about at company parties. The one who’d banged the boss to get her job. She hadn’t. But they wouldn’t care about that small detail.
Alek was looking at her with innocent inquiry, his pale-blue eyes friendly. But all Eva saw in her mind’s eye was him lying in bed with a pillow over his head in an effort to drown out her orgasmic cries.
“It was fine. Excuse me.” Attempting to breathe through her mortification, she turned toward Gabriel and felt the smile fall from her face. Delivering a daggerlike glare at him, she retrieved her purse and then disappeared into the luxurious restroom in the corner.
Without hesitating, feeling shamed when she shouldn’t, and incensed that her first sexual experience had turned into such a disaster, she flung open the door that connected the restroom to the outer corridor and called it a day.
ELEVEN
Thirty minutes later, still cursing the man who’d put her in this position because he’d wanted to get laid, Eva slammed her way into her house. She jammed her finger into the keypad to shut down her beeping alarm system and roughly wiped away the drying tears on her cheeks.
She wasn’t equipped to deal with people’s judgments, goddammit! She wasn’t like Nika! Didn’t have skin thick enough to let people think what they would without caring!
She’d spent her whole life striving for perfection, for fuck’s sake!
God, what would her mom think of her now?
Banging her purse onto the console table, she snatched up the cordless phone to call Nika. Something she could have done from the car had she not left her stupid cell on her fucking desk!
“Gabriel!” she shrieked, slamming the phone down when she got Nika’s voice mail for the third time today. “This is all your fault!”
She stilled when her voice bounced off the walls. Okay. She took a breath and forced herself to get a grip. She was going batty. Yelling at no one. Blaming someone else for her own forgetfulness—or cowardice, depending on how you looked at it. With a low grunt that wasn’t very lady-like, and the only solution to her problems swirling through her mind, she stomped upstairs to change.
She had to quit her job.
Her pride screamed like it was being burned at the stake.
Too bad. There was no other alternative, she fumed as she tore the binding from her hair. After only one fucking day. Off came her jewelry. How embarrassing. She kicked off her shoes. But no way could she keep a position that people would think she’d screwed herself into.
She also couldn’t do her job well when constantly remembering how powerful her boss’s naked body had been as he’d positioned her on her hands and knees so he could fuck her into an addiction she didn’t want. She couldn’t succeed when her thoughts were filled with how her boss had felt inside her. What he’d looked like as he climaxed. The rough, possessive sounds he’d made…
Eva nearly shivered right off her feet.
She fell to the edge of her bed and stared at the sky-blue throw rug under her feet. How could she want all of that again after