Five Ways to Fall (Ten Tiny Breaths, #4)(67)

I shake my head.

“She always talked about getting one, just like him. Even as young as six.”

Huh . . . The mystery that is Reese is starting to unfold. “Daddy’s little girl?”

Jack snorts. “Through and through. It sounds like she spent a lot of time with him before he left her. Broke that little girl’s heart when he did.” He heaves a sigh. “She was still asking where Daddy was every night a year later, when they moved in with me. When he’d come back. Why he didn’t come back for her. That broke my heart.”

“Yeah, she mentioned something about him the other day.”

Jack turns to regard me with an arched brow for a long moment. “Really? She doesn’t normally.”

“What ever happened to him?”

Jack shrugs. “He dumped her in a diner and took off. He had a record. I guess he didn’t want to go to jail for kidnapping. As far as I know, he never tried to get in contact with Annabelle again, but she was pretty tight-lipped about anything to do with her first marriage.” He pauses for a moment. “Whatever happened, I don’t think Annabelle ever recovered from it, and it has made her a bitter woman. When I heard what happened to Reese, warning bells went off inside my head. I don’t want her to end up like her mother, breaking some poor shmuck’s heart because some idiot first broke hers. That’s how people get into trouble.”

“She sure does like trouble,” I agree softly.

Twisting his mouth, he adds, “And I don’t doubt that you were no match for whatever she was up to last night that made you dare drop her off on my doorstep at six in the morning.”

The sudden change in topic startles me. It brings with it the memory of Reese’s svelte, naked silhouette and I have to duck my head, for fear of Jack reading the vulgar thoughts coursing through my mind.

“Look. You know my policy here on interoffice relationships. I have them in place for a good reason. I’ve lost more than one good employee due to emotional messes. I told you all of this to help you understand that Reese is a passionate, emotional young woman who’s finally on the right track. I won’t let her fall apart because of a soured romance with one of my lawyers.”

“I’m not looking for a relationship,” I promise him, hands held up in surrender.

That earns me a stern glare. “Well, I can guarantee you that I don’t approve of what else you may be looking for, Ben. I can only imagine the kind of workplace experiences you’ve become accustomed to, given your previous employment.”

I open my mouth to deny his assumptions, to explain that Cain would have fired my ass and crippled me had he heard I screwed around with his dancers while working there, but Jack puts his hand up to silence me. “Your position at Warner is safe. For now. Reese says you two are just friends and I have no reason to believe otherwise. Yet.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And Mason has even corroborated it. We both know how much of a stickler he is on following the rules.”

“Yup. He sure is.” The guy’s like a programmed robot. He gets all flustered when he has to function outside of them.

Giving the stubble on his cheek a rub, Jack muses, “I liken Reese to a wild horse that’s become accustomed to humans. She’ll tolerate you, she may even come close to you, she’ll certainly bewitch you, but you never know exactly what she’s going to do next. She has trust issues that run deep.”

“She trusted a guy enough to marry him,” I remind him.

“After six weeks . . . and look where that got the crazy girl,” he mutters. “That wasn’t about trust. That was about needing to feel loved. About someone choosing her, making her come first. Everyone who was supposed to make her the priority had failed, leaving her lying on the ground to figure out how to pick herself back up. Her father, Annabelle, me . . . and then that joker she married.”

I wonder if Jack knows that said joker is now living in Miami and Reese is on a mission for revenge. Based on the fake boyfriend deal she cornered me into, I don’t think she’s gotten enough payback. Whatever else she has planned, I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know.

“The poor girl has felt rejection over and over again.” Taking a seat once again, Jack steeples his fingers in front of his face and says in a calm, cautionary tone, “If anything were to happen between the two of you and then fall apart, I will choose her. I don’t care how good of a lawyer or friend to Mason you are. She will be my priority. Am I clear?”

“Got it.” He’ll fire my ass if I hurt her in any way, shape, or form. Luckily, she seems to be interested in me for only one thing and it’s the kind of thing I can readily give her.

With a slight nod, he leans back in his chair. “I’d like this little conversation to stay between the two of us, if you don’t mind. Reese doesn’t take well to being told she can’t do something and I don’t want to give her a reason to feel she needs to start rebelling against me.”

“It won’t ever come up.”

“Good. Now get out of here.”

With a quick salute, I jump up, gladly accepting my get-out-of-jail-free card.





Chapter 21




REESE





He doesn’t notice me leaning against the frame of his door, he’s so intent on a file folder spread out on his desk. And so I simply stand there and watch him for a moment. Ben may not take two steps without having that charming little smirk on his lips, but when he’s concentrating on something, his brow is usually furrowed and his mouth is ever so slightly downturned. It’s another very handsome side to him. I almost don’t want to interrupt him.