Page 71 of Heal Me

Gunnar smiles shyly and wraps his arms around me. “Well, you work downtown. And live downtown. And you don’t have a car. But I do. You have a pet, and I don’t. So…” He shrugs. “I like being with you, Joce. Going to sleep with you pressed against me and waking up with you are the best parts of my day, and I’m not ready to give that up.” His cheeks redden. “Unless you need some space, which I get. And in that case, I can just stay at my house, and we can see each other on the weekends, or whatever.”

“Gunnar.” I put my hands on either side of his face. “Those are the best parts of my day, too. And I want you here. I don’t need or want any space from you.” My heart is soaring. He wants to stay with me. I wrap my arms around his neck and press my lips to his, trying to convey everything I feel for him in this kiss. Reluctantly, I step back. If I don’t, then we’ll both be late for work. “You’d better go.” I grin. “Traffic.”

Gunnar nods, looking a little dazed and a lot turned on. I may feel more than a tad smug about it. He strokes my cheek and grabs his laptop bag. “Call me later, and let me know how your morning goes.”

“I will. Drive safely.” As the elevator doors close, I glance at the time. Alistair wants me to come in earlier than usual to meet with him. He still hasn’t filled me in, and he promised me answers this morning. I only hope my professional reputation doesn’t suffer because of this.

Taking a steadying breath, I knock on Alistair’s office door. Thankfully, his reply is quick, and he sounds upbeat. “Come in.”

I poke my head in the office. “Good morning, Alistair. You wanted to see me before everyone else got here?”

He stands, coming around his desk to offer me his hand. “Jocelin, welcome back.” We shake, and I manage not to squawk in surprise as he pulls me into a quick hug. “Here, have a seat.” He motions to one of the leather chairs and drops into the one beside me instead of sitting behind his desk. “I’ll get right to the point. We know what happened, and things are going to be chaos this morning once the news gets out. That’s why I asked you to come in early. I wanted a chance to talk to you first.”

His body language is open and almost excited, and while it doesn’t necessarily put me at ease, it does lessen the concern for my own situation. “What news?”

“Victor was let go yesterday, and Victoria will no longer be a partner here. Nando and I are buying her out.” I’m stunned speechless, which is all well and good since Alistair isn’t finished. “According to what the IT forensic analysts found, Victor was responsible for the issues with the Hansley contract. Long story short, mostly because I can’t go into many details due to pending legal deals, Victoria instructed our IT company to grant Victor access to your client files, under the assumption that he would be taking them over from you. She didn’t specify which files, so IT granted him access to all of them, including the Hansley contract. Older versions of the contract were on the server and have been reproduced. It’s clear you had the correct language and clauses in your version, though it looks like you went in and removed several key words the day you sent me the link to the file. However, the time stamp was while you were still at lunch. That was confirmed by several people, including your assistant, who saw you come back.” His sigh is long and exasperated. “Then it was a lot of piecing timelines together and figuring out who was where. That led us to Victor. When we confronted him, he eventually admitted to sabotaging the contract. He wasn’t aware it was for one of my clients.” Alistair rubs the back of his neck and ducks his head. “I’m not sure why he thought that was an important distinction. A contract is a contract. Anyway, I apologize. I had no idea he’d been pursuing you romantically until you said something, or we’d have put a stop to it sooner.”

I lean back in my chair, utterly amazed at the lengths Victor went to. “I assure you, I was very clear that I wasn’t interested.”

Alistair nods. “Of course you weren’t interested. You have a boyfriend.”

I do. And now I have a choice. I can continue the narrative that Gunnar and I were already dating before we really were, or I can tell Alistair the truth. There might not be any benefit to it, other than being honest with a man I respect. I clear my throat. “About that. Gunnar and I are absolutely together. And he is my boyfriend.” Alistair frowns, obviously confused as to where I’m going with my little speech. “But we weren’t officially dating until the Sunday after Gary’s book signing.”

Alistair looks confused and a bit hurt. “Okay. So why say you were?”

“Victor. He was very persistent, constantly asking me out, so I told him I had a boyfriend.”

“But you didn’t.”

I nod. “Exactly. Then at Gary’s book launch, Victor cornered me again, and I saw Gunnar and roped him into playing my boyfriend so Victor would leave me alone.” This time, Alistair stays silent, letting me finish. “But Gunnar and I hit it off, and by the end of that weekend, we were really dating.”

Alistair sits quietly for a moment and then sighs. “While I’m disappointed you didn’t feel you could tell me Victor was harassing you, I see how that could have made it challenging to mention your arrangement with Gunnar. It’s clear how things might have gotten away from you. Thank you for telling me now.”

“You’re welcome. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”

Alistair nods and slaps his thighs. “In the end, everything is working out for the better. Between you and Gunnar as well as with Victoria and the firm. She granted Victor access to your client files, in direct violation of the company confidentiality and client protection policies. It’s a breach of ethics, and rather than have that information become public, she’s agreed to allow us to buy out her share of the company. Thank god. She’s been a toxic force here long enough.”

I’m amazed and elated. This is so much better than I could have hoped for. “I’m afraid that’s all I can tell you. Everything else is under non-disclosure agreements.” He holds out his hand, and I take it. “Glad to have you back, Jocelin. You were missed.”

“Thank you. I’m very glad to be back. So what happens now?” I can imagine the amount of chaos that will erupt once this gets out to the firm. I’ll probably need to review every one of my pending contracts.

“Damage control. It’s not going to reflect well on us, and we could lose several of Victor’s clients because of it. Nando and I are already in negotiation with our cyber security firm to put new protocols in place. We’ve kept things quiet, so there isn’t much concern about clients finding out. You should be prepared for an onslaught of questions and try to answer as vaguely as possible. The less that gets out to the office, the better. The only reason I’m telling you is because you were directly involved. As of now, you’re back on contracts, and I’m putting you in charge of that department.”

I stare at him, replaying the words in my head, because I must have heard incorrectly. “Excuse me?”

“Nando and I have every confidence you’ll be perfect for the role.”

Words fail me. I’m not sure what to say, as this is the last thing I imagined happening. “Thank you. I’m overwhelmed by your faith in me. But I’m going to make sure you don’t feel it’s misplaced.” I gesture toward the door. “I’ll go back to my desk and get started reviewing my other contracts.”

“Well, about that.” Alistair smirks. “We’ve moved your things to your new location. As head of the Contracts group, it’s important for you to have somewhere private to discuss sensitive negotiations. Your office is just down the hall on the right. You can’t miss the nameplate.”

My jaw drops. “What?” I must have heard incorrectly. “My office? Alistair, I’m not sure I deserve any of this after lying to you.”

“It was more a stretching of the truth since you are, in fact, dating Gunnar. And you do deserve it. This isn’t just because of what happened with Victor. It’s a position that we’ve needed for a while. You’ve put in the time and effort, and earned it. With Victoria no longer here to block your promotion, we finally made it happen.”

I’m stunned, and I’m sure it shows on my face. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Let me know if you need anything once you’ve settled in.”

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