Page 85 of Wicked Player

* * *

“Rough morning?”Will asked as I arrived at my desk and plopped down my purse.

I sunk into my chair and groaned. “Shayla was leaving outside,” I said. “Do you know why she was here?”

His brows arched above his glasses frames. “No. But she was only in Shane’s office for a few minutes before leaving. She didn’t really stop and say hello to anyone, either.” He shrugged one shoulder. “Could be anything.”

Great. I saw her outside when I was climbing out of my car that had somehow been delivered to my apartment building overnight. Gage meant it when he said he’d take care of it yesterday. I’d convinced him I couldn’t stay at his place last night. I hadn’t expected him to pack an overnight bag and insist on staying at my place with me, but I didn’t bother arguing either. I wanted him with me.

“So, maybe she gave her notice?” I was trying to be hopeful, but I was exhausted. I could have easily blamed Gage for my lack of sleep last night, but it wasn’t solely his fault. It wasn’t solely him, either. I had an early morning and hours of work to do on the cutting room floor reviewing and editing footage for today’s final clip of the pre-opening of the children’s center. Considering everything that had happened in the last three days, I wasn’t exactly looking forward to talking about Brandon, but I had to. And that alone kept me up last night. And Gage’s sleep hadn’t been much better.

“Elizabeth!”

I jumped at Shane’s bellow and shot a glare at Will as he laughed. “Goddamn, woman. You have to stop doing that.”

“I can’t help it.” I pushed away from my desk, still startled by the way Shane could make me jump like a rabbit every time. “He’s so loud.”

“Coming!” I called back to Shane and gathered my things.

I swiped my hand down my thigh, pointlessly smoothing out my gray wool pencil skirt and hurried to Shane’s office.

“Good morning, Shane,” I said, taking my seat at one of the chairs across from his desk.

“Elizabeth.” He stroked his gray lined beard and clicked a button on his computer before turning to me. His abruptness slammed my shoulders straight back.

He was always friendly, and as his eyes landed on me, a trickle of unease settled low in my belly.

Oh, this wasn’t good. Which meant Shayla’s visit meant bad things for me.Crap.

“I saw Shayla this morning,” I said. All my dreams and hopes were crumbling, but I could take this hit. My job promotion hadn’t been guaranteed by any means. In all honesty, it’d probably been a long shot.

“We’ll get to Shayla in a moment,” Shane said and spun his computer monitor toward me.

As I caught the first glimpse of the photos on the screen, a curse fell from my lips. The images were grainy, and out of context, so…so very bad for me. But it couldn’t be denied that it was Gage and me outside Velvet. His hand at my waist and his lips were on mine. I was plastered to the side of my Explorer.

This wasn’t happening. My hands curled into fists with the sudden urge to strangle Connor.

“I can explain,” I said. My mouth went dry and I squeezed my eyes closed. “It’s not what it looks like.”

“Really?” Two thick gray brows rose like bushy caterpillars on his forehead. “Because it appears you’re making out with the object of your current story, Elizabeth.”

Oh damn. I hadn’t felt so scolded since I was thirteen years old and brought home a D in English Comp of all classes.

“I know, sir. But—”

“Outside of a fetish club?” He cringed at the word and bile rose in my throat.

So the picture was exactly what it looked like. “It’s not…Okay. It is, but—” I shook my head. I had to know. “How did you get those?” The pictures on the screen weren’t the ones Connor had shown me. They were worse in that Gage and I’s faces were totally obvious. Fortunately, none of the pictures from inside Velvet were on the email. Thank God for small favors. But how many had he taken? And what else was coming?

Shane adjusted his reading glasses and leaned toward the monitor, cringing again. “Came from an email lizzielikeskinkysex at gmail dot com.”

Oh God. I was going to throw up. “What? Shane…”

He lifted a hand and faced me again. “What you do on your own business is your business, Elizabeth. You know that. And regardless of what you do, you also know you’re always representing XTCP. And this not only puts you, and us, in a negative light, but it shows you kissing the source of your story.” He shook his head and pressed his forearms to his desk.

Shit. Stupid. I was so stupid. I’d been so caught up in Gage and the crazy sex at Velvet with the stranger. Now it was too late. I should have walked away as soon as I realized they were one and the same. And there was no way I was explaining the ins and out ofthatpart of all of this to Shane. Poor man might have a heart attack and I’d have that on my conscience.

“It’s unprofessional at best, Elizabeth, and completely unethical at the worst of it.”

---