Office Affairs (+18) | Completed

CHAPTER 26

Jane POV

Monday morning came all too quickly. I was still going through and cataloguing the thoughts in my head, and hadn't made much progress. I was afraid of getting hurt, and I knew that if anyone could hurt me, it was Peter.

Without meaning to, I'd developed a bit of a crush on him. More than a crush, maybe. Certainly less than an infatuation, though.

I spent a little extra time getting ready on Monday, anyway. I knew I was going to have to face him and explain my abrupt departure from his bed. I just didn't know when he would broach the topic. Hopefully he'd wait until after work though.

I settled into my desk with a sigh at nine a.m., on the dot, and began checking my emails. Most of them were spam, and I quickly deleted them. I had an email from Alana reminding me to make sure the latest press release was polished and ready to go out, and I wrote a note in my notebook so that I'd remember to have it done before lunch.

One of the emails caught my attention. It was from 4ureyesonly@livenet.com. Curious, I clicked to see what my little practical joker had to say for themselves.

My breathe caught in my throat. It was only one sentence, but I read over it several times to make sure I'd gotten it right.

My name is Amanda White.

My heart pounded in my chest. I had already been feeling uncomfortable about my situation with my boss, Peter, but now I was feeling downright ill. And the email on my screen was to blame.

Amanda White, the former Communications Coordinator at Bricks Industries-the job I now held-had reached out to me and, in doing so, had confirmed my deepest fear. There was something shady about the reason Peter fired her. Her emails had told me that she had information I would be interested, and now that I was in the same precarious spot that I assumed she had been in, I was very interested. Why should this matter to me?

Because only a couple days ago I had slept with Peter Bricks.

Just the memory of it was enough to make warmth pool between my legs-his lips gliding over my skin, his firm hold of my body as he ravaged me with passion-but that feeling conflicted noticeably with my feeling of illness. What had happened between us had been a mistake. I suspected that from that moment that he nonchalantly told me it would be "our little secret." Now, it had been proven almost beyond a doubt.

There was only one thing left to do. I had to find out what Amanda knew.

I emailed her back:

Hi Amanda. I've heard about you. What do you think I should know about him?

I felt so stupid and used. It wasn't that I hadn't enjoyed it. On the contrary, I'd taken an inordinate amount of pleasure in sex with Peter. It was like we had been two firecrackers, set off and directed at each other. In a flurry of sparks and heat I had lost myself in his arms, and found something primal and raw.

But now what? I hadn't heard from him all weekend, not that I would have been inclined to answer if I had. I wanted to take some time and think about it. I'd spent all damn weekend thinking about it. The conclusion that I'd come to had been that I should give him another shot, maybe sit down with him and discuss what exactly we were doing.

Now I was too afraid.

If my suspicions were true about Amanda's dismissal, and the evidence was stacking up, then I would be next on the chopping block. Was this what he got off on? Did he like the power of knowing that he could control the women he was sleeping with based on his position in the corporate hierarchy?

Oh god, I was massively overthinking it. I needed answers. I needed Amanda's answers.

Thankfully, she didn't keep me waiting. I got an email back a few moments later from her.

Can't talk over email. Send me your number and I'll text you a place to meet.

That was very covert. The very fact that it was so serious that she couldn't send me the information over email made me even more queasy. Maybe it was worse than I had thought. Maybe Peter had done something awfuleven more awful than abruptly firing one of his staff members because of a broken down personal relationship.

But there I was, overthinking things again. I was doing Peter a huge disservice by jumping to conclusions like that. When I tried to reconcile the Peter I knew and the one that my brain was trying to demonize, the two men didn't match. The Peter I knew was kind but firm. He had an unruly brother who he cared for and watched over, he owned a game of Twister, and had denied my advances after our staff party because I was too drunk. He didn't seem like the kind of man who would do anything that bad.

But everyone had a dark side.

For my own sanity, I'd have to meet with Amanda and find out what had happened between them. Peter had been cagey about it, so I didn't have anything to go on on his side apart from that she'd be a smart girl and it had been a shame to lose her talent, but that she'd been a bad employee. What could that mean? I emailed Amanda back my number, and waited for her text.

She texted right away, asking me if I could meet her after work at a coffee shop on the other side of town. Well, at least she wasn't asking to meet in a dark alleyway or something. I said that I would, and we arranged a time.

All that was left to do now was wait. I didn't know what I would do, however, if Peter came to talk to me at work. Would I be able to keep my anxiety off of my face?