Maddock snorted. “Your girlfriend is about the worst assistant I’ve ever seen, Knight.”
They heard three or four men chime in, offering to take Reese to lunch.
CJ said, “Something tells me they don’t mind.”
That’s what pissed him off the most.
“You know, Knight, you’ve got to tell Nordstrom.” Maddock dropped his usual clowning demeanor.
Those were the words Derek had been dreading hearing.
He knew Maddock was right, but he didn’t know how in the hell he was going to explain this to his boss.
“I know, man, I know. But what do I say?”
“How about…my girlfriend got a job at Delco without my knowledge?” CJ asked. “You can’t control what another person does. And some people are just selfish.”
Reese hadn’t done this to be selfish, Derek knew that. She had done it for the story, to take charge of her life, to feel a sense of control. He knew her whole life men had been calling the shots for her and she wanted to be successful on her own, without interference. And here he’d tried to go and take that away from her.
His head hurt.
He wanted Reese to be successful. He wanted her to trust him to deliver her the story. He wanted this case to be successfully concluded and the only concern on his mind to be which room in his apartment he would take Reese in that night.
Of course, if the case were over, Reese would be gone.
Christ.
“But I can’t claim that Reese didn’t know we were investigating Delco, because she does. She saw a file with their name on it.” That was the very narrow condensed version ofwhat had actually happened. He was skirting the truth there a little, but he wasn’t about to reveal the entire breadth of his mistake if he didn’t have to yet.
And to make it all the more embarrassing, Nordstrom had caught him making out with Reese in the elevator. If Nordstrom even had a hint of the fact that Reese was a reporter, he was going to assume Reese was manipulating him and remove Derek from the case.
“Can you trust her?” Maddock asked. “Does she know enough to jeopardize this case?”
“I trust her. She wouldn’t jeopardize the case.” Not on purpose, anyway.
Maddock gave him a hard stare. “Is that your head talking or your dick?”
“Come on, Wyatt. You know me better than that.” He looked around the office nervously. There were only a few random agents hanging around, but he did not want anyone hearing this.
“I’ve known you for two years, Knight, and I’ve never known you to even really date. Now you’ve got this woman in your life, she’s young, pretty. Better men than you have fallen for that.”
“What are you saying? That’s she setting me up? Sleeping with me to gain access?” Derek didn’t know what made him angrier—the fact that Maddock had suggested it, or that part of him deep down wondered if there might be a grain of truth to it.
No. He didn’t believe that. Reese wasn’t that diabolical. She was impulsive and she most definitely was attracted to him.
“No, it’s having sex to gain something. People do it all the time. I’m just saying be careful.”
Reese absolutely wouldn’t do that. He was sure of it.
But then again, she was ambitious. She wanted out of that rag newspaper, had even quit her job now. He knew she enjoyed sex with him. No one could fake it that well. Of course, she hadsaid herself that you could never really tell with a woman. There was no way to prove it.
His blood went cold. And even if she did enjoy it, that didn’t mean she wasn’t enjoying it at the same time she was using him.
It wasn’t a pleasant thought. More like a kicked-in-the-gut thought.
“What do you think?” He turned to CJ.
She looked him straight in the eye. “I agree with Maddock. I think you need to be careful. And you need to tell Nordstrom.”