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She touched his face until he looked at her again. She smiled and asked, "So, is that a yes?"
"What?" he asked in confusion. Her heart expanded. She wasn't the only one who was dazed.
"'Yes, Claire, I'd love to come up to your room and finish what we started in the car,'" she said, grinning at him.
She watched the myriad of emotions crossing his face and crumbled a bit as resolution settled in. He didn't have to say anything. His answer was as clear as a West Texas sky at high noon. Claire straightened her skirt and shuffled awkwardly back to her seat.
While they fidgeted with their clothing, it didn't escape her notice that he adjusted his jeans to accommodate his obvious erection. She sat silently, waiting for him to speak first. She'd been pretty clear about what she wanted.
His voice cracked when he spoke, and he had to clear his throat and start again. His words were raw and came out as a growl. "You don't know how much I want to follow you up and continue this." He moved his hands back and forth between them. "Even the last few days, back here in the real world, I've had trouble keeping my hands to myself. There were a couple of times at work where I wanted to pull you into a closet and kiss the sh—er, stuffing out of you." His sardonic smile warmed her heart. She knew the admission was hard for him.
"But?" she prompted.
"I've been here before, Claire. Where I caught feelings for someone I worked with. It didn't end well. I thought she was the one. I saw marriage in our future. Instead, she destroyed me. Personally, yeah, but professionally too. My reputation at work suffered, and it took a long time before people at work started trusting me again."
"Did you do something bad?" she whispered. Please don't let him say yes. It would devastate her if he turned out to be like Stephan.
He snorted. "No. She did. She cheated. Multiple times. And when I ended it, Julie made sure everyone heard her version of the story. She painted me as the bad guy." He paused, his hands clenched into fists as he looked away. "I couldn't believe how fast people turned against me."
Claire reached over and took his hand. Julie. His reason for keeping his distance had a name. She held on until his fingers slowly curled around hers.
"I know what that's like," she said softly. His gaze met hers, curiosity replacing the pain in those stunning golden-brown eyes.
She swallowed. "At my last job," she said, her voice tight, "one of the guys kept hitting on me. I kept telling him no, over and over. When he realized I wasn't going to say yes, he set out to…" What was the word Noah used? "Destroy me."
Noah's jaw tightened and his nostrils flared. "Did he hurt you, Claire?"
The sharp edge to his voice had Claire rushing to reassure him. "No. No, it never went that far. But he scared me." She drew in a breath. "At first, it was subtle, like moving things around on my desk or making suggestive comments to me. When I didn't react, he escalated to catching me alone and saying nasty things to me. The more aggressive he got, the more afraid I was. I didn't know how to handle it. There was no fight or flight. I was all freeze."
Her voice dropped. "One time, he caught me in the supply room and wouldn't let me leave. It was only fifteen minutes, but seemed like hours. I thought I was going to have to scream to get out." She inhaled slowly and then exhaled. "Lucinda—the friend who helped me move in—told me what to say if he ever tried anything again. Statements full of phrases like HR, sexual harassment, formal complaint."
Noah squeezed her hand, then threaded his fingers through hers. "Is that why you reacted so strongly when Srini closed you in your office?"
Claire nodded, tears threatening. "The whole thing made me feel helpless. Stephan was so much stronger than me. He never laid a hand on me, but in that closet, he'd blocked the door. And in that moment, I realized just how powerless I was. If he'd wanted to…"
She shuddered and wiped her cheeks with her free hand. "After I threatened him with HR, he changed tactics. He started tearing me down in front of the team and to our boss. Then he went one step further and sabotaged my work—accessed my code and planted errors."
She sniffed. "After so long, you start to believe you're the problem. That you really are screwing up and making those mistakes."
Her voice cracked. "But Luce—she worked in quality assurance. She had access to the logs. And when my boss started questioning my performance, she pulled the receipts." Claire smiled. "Lucinda proved what he'd done and saved my job."
She fell silent, her thoughts drifting back to those awful months when she'd thought she was going to have to leave her job and find somewhere else to work. The stress had triggered more seizures, which only made things worse with her boss. It had felt like a slow unraveling that she couldn't stop.
"What happened after Lucinda exposed him?" Noah asked softly. He lifted her hand and pressed a kiss to her knuckles.
She gave him a tremulous smile. "They fired him. Escorted him out the door. My boss apologized to me, but I no longer wanted to work there afterward. He'd lost my trust."
"He should've believed you."
"Yes. But when one door closes…" Her smile grew. "That's when my dad sent me the job opening at Caprock. Talk about perfect timing."
Noah palmed her cheek with his free hand. "I'm sorry you went through that."
She covered his hand with the one he wasn't holding. "Thank you. I'm sorry you went through what you did. How did you gain your reputation back? The respect everyone has for you now is obvious."
"Ah." He smiled and moved back, letting go of her hand. "Thanks for saying that. Honestly, time and maturity have served me well. You have to understand, it happened when I was very young." He rubbed the back of his neck and exhaled. "Most people have forgotten, but I never have. It was a hard lesson to learn. Never sleep with someone from work." He turned and stared at something outside the car.
"I see." She swallowed and chewed on her bottom lip. Suddenly, her clothes were too tight, making it hard to breathe. So this was what it was like to put yourself out there and get rejected.
