Page 119 of The Surrender

Gary clears his throat. “Leighton, would you mind?”

“Sure,” he says, jumping up from his seat and making a hasty exit, forcing me to move aside to let him pass. He doesn’t look at me. It’s odd.

“Should I close the door?” I ask.

Gary nods, so I do, my curiosity raging. Something’s wrong. Gary’s acting awkward, and I’m quite sure I don’t like it.

“Are you sleeping with Jude Harrison?” he asks. No foreplay.Bam.

Fuck.

My world stops spinning as my boss studies me, obviously watching for my knee-jerk reaction.

“What?” I breathe.

“Are you sleeping with Mr. Harrison?”

Oh God, oh God, oh God.“I ...”

“Shit, Amelia,” Gary says around his extended gasp, the look of disappointment on his face painful. “What the hell are you thinking?”

“It’s not like that, Gary,” I rush to explain, as he drops to a chair heavily. “Jude ... Mr. Harrison sprang it on me.” I shake my head to myself when Gary’s eyes widen. “I mean the financial-planning bit, not himself.” Oh God, could I make a bigger mess of this? I rub my forehead. “I was seeing Mr. Harrison,” I say. “Briefly. Not anymore.”

“You realise what this looks like?”

“Yes, I do.Did.Mr. Harrison mentioned his current planner was leaving, so he wanted to move his interests elsewhere.”

“So you didn’t sleep with him to secure his business?”

“What? No! Jesus, Gary, come on. You know me.”

“I know what this looks like, Amelia, and I don’t like it. Leighton secured a meeting with Harrison, and the next thing he’s cancelled and rearranged with you.” He stands, palms pointing to the ceiling. “Are you saying that isn’t the case?”

“No, it’s not.” Fucking hell, how am I going to explain? “I started seeing Mr. Harrison after the convention.”

“But his wealth wasn’t on your mind?”

I gape at him, indignant. “No, Gary, his wealth was the furthest from my mind. In actual fact, I’d met Mr. Harrison before, but I had no clue who he was until the conference.” I cannot believe I’m having to explain myself out of this.Fuck you, Leighton, and fuck you, Jude Fuckboy Harrison.But I can’t very well tell Gary that Jude only arranged a meeting with Leighton Steers to warn him off me. Or can I? I rub my forehead again. “Gary, I had every intention of telling you that I couldn’t take on Jude Harrison as a client because of my personal relationship with him.”

He gets up and starts walking slowly up and down the conference room. “But you didn’t.”

I point to the door. “You were called away because of an emergency news flash, and then you were in meetings, and ...” I laugh. Jesus. “Well, I’m no longer seeing Mr. Harrison, and I expect he’ll find alternative arrangements for his millions.”

Gary flinches at the mention of millions. I’m just making this worse. But then something comes to me. “Wait. How did you know I was seeing him?”

“You know I can’t divulge that, Amelia.”

I laugh under my breath. “Of course.” Anger is rising. Leighton.The fuckhead.“Look, Gary, I pride myself on my integrity.” I dig deep to remain calm. “You have to believe me; I would never do that.”

He slows his pace and looks out of the corner of his eye. “I really don’t want to take this to the board.”

“Then don’t. They never have to know.”

He looks up at the ceiling, sighing. “I told them about Harrison, Amelia. They know he was here to meet you.”

“Fuck,” I hiss, losing control for a split second and hitting the table. I immediately apologise for it, taking some deep breaths.

“Look, leave it with me.” He pulls his glasses off and rubs his eyes. “You’d better get back to work.”