“And I would’ve deserved everything I had coming to me,” he continued, leaning forward. “And the only reason why I never told him you were there because of me was because you made me promise not to.”

Closing my eyes, I pressed my lips together. I had made him promise not to say a word. I’d begged him, because I knew what would happen if he’d been honest. Brock would’ve lost everything.

The knot was back, expanding in my throat. I couldn’t sit here and think and talk about these kinds of things if I was going to be able to make this job work. Curling my hands together, I opened my eyes. “What happened back then has nothing to do with now. It can’t.”

Brock leaned back and straightened.

“And I don’t want to talk about it,” I continued, struggling to keep my voice steady. “We don’t need to talk about any of that for us to work together.”

He was silent for a moment, his body deviously relaxed, but he was like a coiled cobra, and could strike at any moment. “I don’t agree with that, but I’ll let it go.”

Some of the tension seeped out of my shoulders even though I had a feeling there was an unspoken “for now” at the end of what he said. “That’s all, then? I would like to get my office set up and get to work.”

Brock nodded and pushed off the desk. Walking around it, he scanned the paperwork on his desk. “I do believe we have a meeting today with the sales team. Two o’clock.”

“Sounds good.” I rose on oddly shaky legs and turned to the door. Everything felt surreal.

“Jillian.”

Stopping, I faced him. “Yes?”

His shoulders rose with a deep breath as his gaze drifted over my face once more, and I wondered what he thought about how I looked now. “I really want this to work for us, Jillian,” he said, and I felt the very sharp twisting motion in my chest give one powerful stab. “It’s a second chance for us.”

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

“Are you sure that’ll be okay?” Avery asked as I watched Rhage prowl across the living room floor. “I just feel like I’m not giving you a lot of notice.”

Readjusting my phone to my left shoulder, I picked up my feet and curled them under me before Rhage decided that whatever he was doing wasn’t as interesting as attacking my legs would be. Sometimes I thought he mistook my legs for scratching posts. “I don’t have anything planned for Friday. It’s fine. What time will you guys be bringing Ava and Alex over?”