Three Simple Rules (The Blindfold Club #1) (28 page)

When they were finished hydrating and fueling, the iPhones came out of armbands and they critiqued their individual pacing. I felt like I was on Mars. The discussion concluded and Nick grabbed a water bottle from the fridge.

“I’m heading out, I know you’ve got stuff to do,” Nick said. “Evie mentioned she’d like to fuck you in the shower.”

Logan’s gaze snapped to me and my face burst into flames.

“Great, thanks for that, Nick,” I said.

“No problem.” He flashed an enormous smile and went out the door.

Logan continued to stare at me with a puzzled expression.

“I thought he was you,” I explained. “You failed to mention you weren’t running solo and he might pop in.”

“You told him you wanted to fuck in the shower?”

“Yeah. And I was naked when I did it.”

He scowled and gave a dark, possessive look. “Did you forget what I look like?”

“He was behind the refrigerator door. Like I said, I thought it was you.”

He blinked and calmed. A slow smile tweaked across his lips. “I really should recover some more before we get in there.”

“It was a joke, I’ve already showered, boss.”

“That’s disappointing, Ms. Russell, but you’re a dirty girl. You’ll probably need another shower before too long.”

The corner of my mouth turned up.

Later, he drove me back to my place, and when he parked, he ran his fingers absentmindedly over my knee.

“Tomorrow I need to be in the office early,” he said.

“Oh?” After that dinner, we didn’t really talk about work outside of the office. “Why do you need to be in early?”

“I have a meeting with Jon.” The VP of sales, his boss’s boss. Jon was rarely in the Chicago office, so whatever it was, had to be serious. My face must have shown my concern. “It’s no big deal,” he said.

Then, why bring it up? He leaned in and kissed me, voiding thought out.

“See you tomorrow,” he uttered, a half-smile lurking beneath his lips.

No big deal.
He’d lied to me. At ten-thirty the designers assembled in the conference room for a meeting Logan had scheduled only an hour prior. He didn’t sit in the back with his laptop, he stood up front with his boss, Will, the creative director, and Jon. The VP of sales was tall, southern, and always seemed like he’d rather be somewhere else. We only saw him when something had gone wrong, like losing a client. All of the designers went on the defensive when they laid eyes on him, and lowered themselves to sit with straight backs.

Will was in his late fifties. He oversaw all the departments including PR and broadcast, and those departments were far more demanding than ours, so we didn’t see him much either. Logan’s face was empty. His gaze paused on me, and then went to the room.

“Thank you for being flexible with your schedules,” he said. “By now you might have heard that our company acquired Paradigm Creative, and you’re wondering how this will affect our department.”

What? Paradigm Creative was a competing agency. They were smaller than we were, but there was sure to be a full design staff there. A spark of panic ignited in my stomach. Was Jon here to break the bad news that our department was being replaced?

“We’re bringing on most of PC’s design team,” Logan continued, “to help with the new workload, and there’s going to be a change in structure within our department. A supervisor position will be created from each of the locations, and those new supervisors will report to me.”

His eyes flicked my direction for a second. So miniscule no one else probably noticed it.

Holy shit.

A deal this big had been in the works for a while. Logan had known someone in our department was getting promoted, and with that single look, he told me everything. This was why he’d wanted to keep our relationship a secret. Why he’d hesitated when talking about my promotion to senior designer. He had bigger plans for me.

I was the person he’d confessed was the best in the department, but doing something like this was going to make waves. Big fucking ones. If anyone heard we were dating, they would assume I’d slept my way to it, making both Logan and me look bad.

My mind raced with the revelations. Suddenly the meeting was over. Logan was already checking email on his phone and out the door before I shuffled up out of my seat and back to my cube. I had to talk to him. My hands closed around my phone, only to have it chirp with a text message from him.

Spiro’s was eight blocks from the office. It was a hike for mediocre Greek food, and I assumed he’d chosen it exactly for this reason. Our co-workers were unlikely to wander in and see us together. He’d gotten a table in the back, and stood when I came toward him, his suit jacket removed and hanging on the back of his chair. We hadn’t set any kind of boundaries for meetings like this, so close to the office and in the middle of the day.

“Hi,” he said. “How’s your day going?”

I sat in the chair he’d pulled out for me. “It’s been interesting. Keeping things quiet about us makes a bit more sense now.”

“I’ll interview anyone who applies.” A coy smile lurked on his face when he sat down beside me. “But, yeah, I already have someone in mind for the position.”

“I’ve only been there a few years, and I’m young.”

He looked startled. “You don’t want it?”

“You know I do.” It would be easier if I didn’t, but I was far too driven to pass up the opportunity.

“It’s not really about age. It’s a confidence and respect thing. They respect you, and we both know you’d be great at it.”

I had no idea if I was speaking with my boss or my boyfriend, and it made me dizzy.

“So, are you going to stop by my office later and apply?”

I felt a similar coy smile overtake me. “Yes, sir.”

A switch flipped, and I knew exactly whom I was talking to. His gaze filled with so much desire, it left me breathless. Beneath the table, his hand closed around my knee.

Keeping work and our relationship separate was difficult, but I did my best. We talked about his upcoming marathon. How Payton had seemed kind of down the last time I’d spoken to her. Something was up, and I worried I might have become one of those neglectful friends who drops everything when she has a boyfriend.

The waiter brought the check and jarred me from my thoughts.

“I’m going to have to get back soon,” I said, noting the clock on the back wall. Not that I wanted to go. I wanted to stay right where I was. In fact, I wanted his hand to move higher on my thigh. Instead, it tensed.

“Go to the bathroom, now.” His voice was urgent enough I didn’t question it. I snatched up my purse and went straight back into the restroom, ducking into the first stall.

My thumbs typed furiously on the screen of my phone.

Had she seen us? I waited for him to detail more. But nothing came, so I asked what I should do.

I waited in the tiny bathroom, checking my email on my phone and trying not to think about how ridiculous, but necessary, hiding was. Of all people, Jamie was the worst when it came to gossip. She was a magnet for drama.

I waited three minutes for good measure, but it was futile. She’d gotten a table with a guy right up by the front, and I had no choice but to walk past her.

“Evelyn, hey!” she said, forcing me to stop.

“Oh, hey, Jamie.”

“This is my boyfriend, Steve.”

I smiled at the thin man dressed all in black with a serious face. He nodded back a hello.

“Pretty crazy about that deal with PC, huh?” she asked.

“Yeah. That’s good, though. I hear they’ve got a lot of big accounts. I should probably—”

“You see Logan? He was just in here, too.”

Shit.
I wasn’t a good liar. “Oh? I didn’t know this place was so popular.”

She shrugged. “The gyros are worth the trip.”

“They’re just okay,” her boyfriend quipped.

“Really?” She shot him a discerning look, like she didn’t appreciate him contradicting her.

“I’ve gotta get back. Nice meeting you,” I said. I turned on my heel and raced toward the door, out into the sun.

I knocked on his office door at four-thirty.

“Are you busy?” I asked, hovering in the doorway.

“Not at the moment. What do you need?” His gaze left his computer screen and glanced my way, then back to the computer. His voice was so . . . direct. He was overcompensating now more than ever.

I strolled up to his desk. With his door open, with him back to pretending he didn’t care about me in any capacity other than professional, I viewed him one hundred percent as the boss he was a month ago. The arrogant, all-business jerk who held enormous power over my career. I could do this.