Page 86 of Boss

“Because she wants to keep a different secret, that’s why,” he replied.

“What would be the point?”

“Me,” he answered.

“Now I'm confused.”

“I hired you, put you under her, and she suspected that I did so to keep tabs on her. And then I promoted you, and she had to find a way to get inside of your head and dig out what information Dale needed. There goes your fake friendship.”

Kassidy realized the conspiracy and could do nothing to explain it. She drew her legs back up and hugged them. “This has been a weird day, a weird week, hell it’s been a weird year.”

“I’ll drink to that!” he toasted her.

The truth hurts, especially when having it shoved down her throat by Tarek Marshall. She looked to her half empty glass of brandy. She set it aside and decided not to drink anymore. She needed to keep her head clear. He walked back over and sat on the sofa next to her. He dropped his head back and closed his eyes. They sat in silence together, reflecting. Before long she couldn’t take it.

“I’m tired. I’m going to go lay down upstairs.” She pushed up and started to leave, but was stopped when he grabbed her leg. She looked down at him.

“Do you want some company?” he asked. His smile brought an immediate softening to his hard features. It was almost caring. And she needed that. Her feelings were hurt but not because of anything he had done. They all had their secrets. And now she had started something with this man.

“What about the tractor, food, or getting us out of here?”

“Fuck it, right now I want you,” he said.

She extended her hand to him. He looked pleased to have the offer. She pulled him up, and with his hand in hers she left the parlor, not bothering to turn the television off. They climbed the stairs and went back into his bedroom. He closed the door.

“Kassandra, Kassidy, Kassie. What do your family and friends call you?”

“My mom and sisters called me Kassidy. My father and Clarissa called me Kassie,” she said. “Only people I've worked for called me Kassandra.”

“Kassie,” he smiled. “I like that nickname better Kassie.”

“Are you still my boss? If so, it's Kassandra for you.”

“You must have forgotten when you bumped your head darling. You're fired.”

She laughed. She looked over to the bed, and then she looked back at him. He watched her but didn’t approach. He waited for her to make the first move. He wanted her to make him behave. It almost felt like she really cared when she challenged him to be less of an asshole.

“You don’t trust yourself with me?” she asked.

He chuckled.

“You keep wanting me to make the first move. What if I want different?”

“Any time I'm the aggressor I'm the bad guy,” he said.

“No, when you are violent you are the bad guy. There's a difference.”

“Hmm… are you sure about that?”

“Positive,” she said.

“You’ve been in charge from the beginning,” he said. “You know I won’t turn you into the police. I don’t want the exposure, to give you and your friend the publicity. And when this storm is over you know I won’t be able to keep you. You're the one in charge, not me.” His gaze dropped from her eyes, to her shoulders, to her breasts.

She had an unexplainable desire to open her shirt and expose them to him. She wanted him to see them, touch them, and suck them. She walked over to him and smoothed down her short haircut. She didn’t have a mirror. She knew she had a bruise on her face. She must have looked a sight. But when he stared, she felt beautiful. Kassidy stopped in front of him only a few inches from touching him. Powerless to resist she touched the side of his face, and then his arm, and then his chest.

“It’s not an act. It’s not a trick. Some people care deeply for the world around them and everyone in it. That’s why I signed up for E.P.U. That’s one of the reasons I went to war with you. I care. And the moment you stopped acting like you didn’t, I realized that there’s something else to you.”

“I wouldn’t trust that feeling.”

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