Page 17 of Point of Contention

It also spurred in me a desire to protect her from her own bad choices, something that I couldn’t do if I wasn’t in her life. I had no say, no control.

No. Fuck that. I wasn’t helpless, and if I said my piece, maybe I could let this go.

If she truly didn’t want this internship, I’d turn the applications over to the heads of Reed Romance and let them pick a replacement.

In the years to follow, I would no longer be quite so hands on with the internship applicants.

Well, after I corrected Rylan’s course, anyway.

Pushing out of my chair, I grabbed my coat and sent a quick text to my driver. We’d be taking a little field trip today. Heading to the elevator, I passed the new temp. “Heading out. Block off my afternoon.”

“Oh, um,” she stammered. “But what about—”

“The appropriate response is ‘Yes, Mr. Reed’. Please try again.”

“Yes, Mr. Reed.”

I stepped onto the elevator and turned around as the doors closed, smirking when I caught her wide-eyed expression.

She’d get used to me.

Or she’d be replaced like the one before her.

Breathing deeply and rolling my shoulders, a little tension seeped out of me as the elevator descended toward the ground level. I hadn’t realized how much I needed to get out of the office. My father had returned to Reed Tower full-time this week, his constant presence suffocating me. A painful reminder that my future at Reed Enterprises was no longer guaranteed.

All because of someprivatepictures of a veryprivatepart of my personal life.

As ifwhoandhowI fucked had any effect on how I ran a business.

Clearly, it did not. Had my father and the other shareholders not been quite so enthralled with my sex life, they’d see that regardless of what I did behind closed doors, my publishing house was now—and had long been—the best in the world. Reed Publishing, and more specifically Reed Romance, thrived because of my hard work.

As I made my way through the lobby, my gaze flicked to the tree in the center of the play structure my mother designed, then to the spot at the base of the trunk where I used to find Rylan, curled up with a manuscript. She’d be so lost in the story that I could watch her for minutes at a time without being noticed. That was what first made me begin to fall for her, those moments of quiet observation, when I’d watch her brow furrow as she read something intense. I loved the way her face would light up during an interesting scene. There were times when she cried, and I’d wonder which part had affected her so deeply.

But my favorite moments were those when she tilted her head back and closed her eyes to let the words sink in.

My throat grew thick at the memories so I shoved them aside and strode out into the sunlight.

Thirty minutes later, Cole pulled the car to a stop at the curb in front of Professor Clements’ home.

I’d initially told myself I’d leave her alone. If she didn’t want me, I certainly wouldn’t try to change her mind or beg.

But this wasn’t about me. This was about her, and the future she’d so carelessly tossed aside.

And as I climbed out of the car, I convinced myself this was not for selfish reasons. I had not left the tower in the middle of the business day because I missed Rylan. No, this was a boss visiting his employee because she’d made a terrible mistake and I refused to allow her to walk away from something that could catapult her career unlike anything else.

Because that’s what an internship at Reed Romance would do.

I wouldn’t let her walk away from that. Couldn’t, in good conscience.

We’d make it work. I’d delegate her to Blanca Arroyo and keep my distance while she finished out the twelve-week program.

What was eight more weeks, really? In the whole scheme of things, it was not much.

I could stay away from her.

Getting involved with me had thrown her life into chaos, but I wouldn’t allow it to derail her entire future.

No, this was the right thing to do.