Page 36 of Playing Pretend

“I’m worried about the tension with Julian,” I lie, deliberately adding my ex into the mix, hoping it will steer him away from his unabashed nudity. “Maybe he’s right. Maybe it was disrespectful to bring you here.”

Rome falls quiet as he scrutinizes me, his attention tinkering with my pulse.

“He hadn’t stopped calling, after all,” I add. “I knew he still had feelings for me.”

“Unrequited feelings. And you made that perfectly clear. It never should’ve gotten to a point where you had to block his number.”

“I’m not disputing that. I just don’t want to be seen as a contributing party to the unprofessional behavior.”

“What did he do to you, Pip?” Rome cocks his head, his eyes narrowing. “He messed with you somehow, didn’t he?”

“What do you mean?” I take another sip. “We weren’t a good match. That’s all.”

“I agree. But I know he did something. You changed while you were with him. He fucked with your confidence. Or, more specifically, your sexuality.”

My hand slides from my cocktail glass, hitting the table with a thud as I blink at his pinpoint accuracy. “Why would you think that?”

“I notice these things.” He rests back in his chair. “I noticeyou.”

My chest tightens, the restriction painful. But of course he notices me. I notice everything about him, too.

“See?” His gaze diverts to my cheeks. “Your blush is darkening.”

It’s darkening because my subconscious took his remark and ran in the opposite direction of platonic. A direction my subconscious should be nowhere near. “He didn’t do anything.”

“What did you say to him this morning when he came up to you?”

I shrug. “Not a lot.”

“Why?”

“Why?” I frown. “Because like I said, I want to remain professional. We were in the middle of a hall filled with colleagues.”

“There’s a difference between being professional and being a doormat. He called you non-stop until you had to block his number. Doesn’t that deserve a reprimand?”

“A reprimand? It’s not my job to lecture him on what’s right or wrong. I’m not a private school nun with a cane in hand.”

“No, but you’d look great in the costume.” His grin is subtle. Devious.

“Gross.” I take another hearty sip to drown the tightness inching its way up my throat. “Is that another fantasy of yours? Being a schoolboy punished by his superior?”

He breaks eye contact to stare toward the beach, his brows furrowing with mock contemplation. “I hadn’t thought about it, but now that you ask, I can easily picture you bending me over the school principal’s desk and—”

“Rome.”

He chuckles, low and breathy. “Have I told you how much I live to scandalize you?”

“Not today. Instead you told me I’m a doormat.”

“That’s not what I said.” His humor fades. “The point I’m trying to make is that I don’t understand why you haven’t given him the dressing down he deserves.”

It’s not that I don’t want to.

My fear is the possible retaliation. The truth that could come out. That Julian will use my sexual failings against me…not that I’m even sure he noticed my lack of fulfilment. “He may deserve it. But I don’t want the complication… Unless this is a hoop you expect me to jump through to prove I’m worthy of my position in your company.”

“What you do in your private life is your business. And that won’t change once we start working together. I’m pushing this on a friendship level. Because I know you. Because you need to reclaim whatever he took from you.”

“He didn’t take—”

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