The sound of heels on vinyl flooring came from the corridor outside the office, along with panicked whispers. Rachel had arrived. Harvard was watching the doorway when she strode through it. Her eyes went straight to her mother, then to him, where they narrowed, and lastly came to rest on Samantha with interest.
“Darling,” Francesca said, “Harvard just told me you want to do lunch. Let me get my jacket, and we can go.”
“Am I invited to this lunch too?” Samantha purred, her eyes on Harvard.
“No,” Rachel said coldly.
Samantha looked amused while her mother tutted. “Sometimes, I despair of your manners. I often wonder where I went wrong with you.”
Elle hovered in the door behind Rachel, looking a little panicked. Quickly taking in the situation, she approached Samantha.
“Samantha,” she said, “Jonathan’s been trying to get hold of you. He asked me to pass on the message if I saw you. He’d like to see you in his office as soon as possible, something about a problem with the marketing for the new Alzheimer’s relief drug.”
“Copy that,” Ryan said in Harvard’s ear. “Calling Jonathan right now to tell him to manufacture a crisis and expect his cousin.”
Samantha stood with a sigh. “It’s so inconvenient that we aren’t allowed cell phones outside of the office building.” She smoothed down her tight lemon-colored shift dress and smiled at them. “It seems I won’t be available for lunch after all. Even if I was welcome.”
Rachel folded her arms over her black suit jacket and drummed her red nails on the sleeve. The look on her face shouted that she’d run out of patience with her cousin.
“I’ll walk you back to the main building,” Elle said. “I’ve been meaning to ask you about that wonderful advertising campaign you did last year. It must have taken ages to put that together.”
Samantha’s whole face lit up as she sashayed to the door. As she drew level with her cousin, Rachel’s hand snapped out to take hold of her arm.
“Please remember that Harvard is my fiancé and is therefore off-limits for any kind of flirting, loosely veiled suggestion or outright seduction.” Her tone was a whip that could flay the skin from the recipient.
“Rachel, darling, I would never try to seduce your fiancé; surely you know that.”
Harvard was betting he wasn’t the only one who heard the emphasis on try.
Rachel released her cousin, and Elle could be heard chatting a mile a minute as they made their way down the corridor. As soon as they were out of sight, Rachel closed the door.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she snapped at him.
Her mother’s eyes widened as she looked between them. “Aren’t we going to lunch?”
“No,” Rachel said, her body vibrating with fury. “We’re going to talk about why Harvard thinks you’re stealing from TayFor.”
How could he think her mother was involved? Rachel was so mad she could have taken off her shoe and bludgeoned him with the heel.
“I never, for one minute, suspected your mom had anything to do with the thefts. If you’d given me a chance to deal with the situation before you came charging over here, you might have known that.” He folded his arms and gave her a stony-faced stare. All the while, his tone never rose or changed, which made her sound like the one being unreasonable.
“You rushed up here even when you knew whose office it was.”
“Because there could have been someone else in here.” He pointed to the corner of the ceiling. “The camera’s been covered. There was no way of knowing who was in the room.”
Rachel looked up, and sure enough, there was a very familiar hat covering the lens. “Mother…”
Her mother’s hand fluttered to her face, her cheeks turning pink. “I don’t like being watched while I work.”
“Oh, for the love of Dior, do you realize how bad that looks?”
“You can’t think I covered the camera for nefarious purposes.” Looking stunned, her mother sat down with a thump.
As Rachel looked at Harvard, her anger seeped away, leaving her a little deflated. “I—” she started, but he held up a hand to stop her.
“I’m going to need a minute with your daughter,” he said to her mother, striding toward Rachel. Harvard grabbed her hand and took her out into the corridor.
She had to hurry to keep up with him as he led her to the female bathroom. After checking inside, he locked the door and turned to face her, hands on hips and eyes blazing with fury.
“This is the last time this happens,” he said evenly. “You’re either on this team or you aren’t. What’s it gonna be? Because right now, you’re causing more damage than good, which makes me think the team would be better off coping without you. Choose now, Rachel.”
“On the team,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Then this stops now. No more leaving your position when you’re ordered to stay put. No more undermining my leadership. And no more acting like a lone wolf. You got me?”
Rachel let out a heavy breath. “Yes,” was all she could say.
He stared at her for a moment before nodding once. “Okay,” he said. “Let’s get back to your mom’s office and see if we can get to the bottom of this.” His face expressionless, he turned toward the door.
Three days she’d avoided and ignored him. Being close to him felt like too much of a temptation, one she wasn’t sure she could resist. Instinctively, she knew that this man, and only this man, could change her life forever. Could change her if she let him.
Deep down, she must have expected that he’d keep on chasing her—even though she’d given him no encouragement. He was right. They all were. She was a first-class bitch, and she had no idea how to be any other way. But the cold, blank look on his face made courage rise up inside of her, in such a wave that it overwhelmed her fear of being vulnerable, just for a second.
And without thought, Rachel reached out and placed her hand on his arm to stop him from leaving. She couldn’t give voice to the turmoil inside, but she could tell him why this particular situation had made her react the way she had.
With that same blank face, he looked back at her.
Rachel swallowed hard. “She’s my mum. I’ve always done whatever I could to protect her and the rest of my family. My close family. The ones who love me regardless. I’ve always protected them, and I didn’t think about what that meant to the investigation, or to how people saw our cover story, or even how it would affect the team.” She willed him to understand the things she couldn’t say. That after spending ten years making choices to protect her family, the behavior was hard-wired into her now.
His expression softened to the one she’d grown to expect when he looked at her. The one she hadn’t known she’d miss until it was gone, and the relief on seeing it again almost made her crumble.
“You are so much trouble,” he said. “Billions of women on the planet, and you’re the one who keeps me awake at night.” He shook his head as if he couldn’t quite believe his own behavior. “You’ve got secrets piled on top of more secrets. You have layers of barbed wire wrapped around you that rip anyone to shreds if they try to get close. And you insist on hiding the best parts of you behind a wall of disdain and disinterest. Why is that, Rachel?”