I nod at him, unable to deny him even though I know I’ll take a taxi home, and then he walks away, leaving me staring after him, my heart racing.
“Damn it! I wanted to ask him about the rumors!” Jessica complains.
I turn back to her and frown. “What rumors?”
“I want to know if it’s true that Sinclair Security was founded because of a woman.”
Josh nods and holds up his finger. “It was. Everyone knows this,” he says, slurring his words.
I frown as I grab one of the shots he’s holding. The company was founded because of a woman? Who is she?
White hot jealousy sears through me as I listen to Jessica and Josh’s theories, my thoughts drifting. Could any of this be true? What kind of woman could possibly have Silas Sinclair so obsessed?
ChapterForty-Two
Alanna
I sign as I flex my fingers, tired from the hours of typing I’ve done. Sinclair Security was hired to investigate foreign influences on our elections, and our division has been put in charge of social media monitoring. We’re supposed to create an algorithm that’ll flag fake news, and I’ve been tasked with the initial design of it. I’m worried I can’t pull it off. While I understand how to get this done in theory, I’ve never had to do something like this in practise.
“Hot damn,” Josh mutters, and I glance over to find a beautiful dark-haired woman walking our way. She walks straight to Silas’s office, and much to my surprise, no one stops her. “Looks like our boss is taking hislunch breakearly today. What a snack.”
“Who is she?” I ask against better judgement.
Josh looks at me in surprise. “Are you serious? She’s a supermodel, and our boss’s girlfriend. Her name is Raven.”
Girlfriend? Silas has a girlfriend? My heart twists painfully as pure venom settles in my stomach. Did he touch me when he belongs to someone else? Is she the reason he’s rarely ever home at night? I see him every morning, but that doesn’t mean he’s sleeping in his own bed. He might just be coming in to change. Once, when I asked why he’s rarely home, he told me he’s just been busy with work. Was that all a lie?
I tense when the sound of Raven’s laughter fills the office, followed by Silas’s office door slamming closed. Josh laughs and shakes his head. “Lucky bastard,” he mutters.
I try my hardest to focus on my work, but all I can think about is Silas. In my mind, I see the two of them together, his hands on her body, the way they were on mine. This isn’t just simple jealousy. It hurts to see him with someone else, and I can’t figure out why.
I gather the files on my desk and shuffle them, barely able to think straight. Before I know what I’m doing, I’m out of my seat and halfway to Silas’s office. Amy looks up at me, and much to my surprise, she grins at me instead of stopping me from storming into Silas’s office.
I open his door with more force than I intended, freezing in the doorway when I see him leaning against his desk, Raven standing in between his legs, her hands on his chest. I grit my teeth as I resist the urge to tear her away from him.
“Alanna,” he says, frowning. Silas straightens and gently pushes Raven aside, but it isn’t enough for me. I want her out of his sight altogether.
I walk right up to him and put my folder down on his desk with barely restrained anger. “I have some questions about the work you assigned me.”
He looks at me, an intimate smile on his face. I’m standing closer to him than is appropriate, but I can’t get myself to care. “Is that so?”
“Yes.”
“And it couldn’t wait?”
I glance at Raven then. She’s watching the exchange between us with a curious expression. Just looking at her hurts. She’s so beautiful and elegant that it’s easy to see why Silas would have fallen for her. The thought of him comparing me to her kills me. When he’s been with a woman that beautiful, everyone else must fall short. What am I even doing?
I turn back toward him, my heart aching and my stomach clenching. Why did he sleep with me when he’s got a girlfriend? I feel terrible in more ways than one. Never once did it occur to me that I wasthe other womanthat night.
I can’t stand here and pretend I did nothing wrong. I can’t take more from her than I already have. I rarely act impulsively, but today I couldn’t stop myself. It’s almost like I truly couldn’t think straight when I thought of the two of them together, but what right do I have to behave this way?
“You’re right,” I tell him, my tone defeated. “It can wait.”
I turn to walk away, my throat closing up. I never felt this upset about Ryan, so why am I reacting this way now?
Silas grabs my wrist, stopping me in place before I have a chance to escape. “Alanna,” he says, his voice soft and intimate. This is how he said my name that night. I turn back toward him but can’t get myself to raise my head and look at him.
“Raven, it was lovely seeing you, but I need to get back to work. Let’s catch up some other time, shall we?”