The Bedroom Assignment by Sophie Weston

Author:Sophie Weston
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

NEXT morning Jay went for a run. A long run on the Heath. He was furious with himself.

Why had he done that? Zoe was a member of his staff. Okay temporary. But that did not make any difference. He had his standards. Hell, he had sacked Barbara Lessiter for breaching them. And then, alone in the small hours with a woman he had known was tired to the point of exhaustion, he’d done exactly the same thing.

No, what he had done was worse. She had trusted him. And he’d betrayed that trust.

His feet pounded rhythmically on the rough grass. Later the sun would bake it dry, but at this hour of the morning he sent up little silver sparklers of dew with each footfall. Normally he would enjoy it. There were stages of his long-distance runs which were pure purgatory. But this piece of Heath, high and relatively flat, with the distant towers of the City shimmering in the dawn light, was balm to body and spirit. Usually.

Not this morning. He kept seeing Zoe scrubbing her hand across her mouth as if his kiss had contaminated her. And he lost focus.

A stitch knifed into him. Jay was used to running with pain. You just made your pace even, breathed regularly, and ran through it. In the end it went away. Not this morning.

He kept hearing himself say, ‘What you need is…a lover to go.’ He did not recognise the hard voice as his own. Yet he knew he had said it.

The pain intensified, as if someone was turning a stiletto in his side. He tried to breathe through it. It was no good. He stumbled. Nearly fell. Slowed to an uneven lurch.

Jay was enough of an expert to know that this was going to get him nowhere. He stopped dead, a hand to his side.

What was he going to do? Somehow he had to put it right. He wanted—no, he needed—to wipe out that look of betrayal. Zoe had such an expressive face, God help him.

He breathed with care until the pain subsided. Then he straightened slowly.

What was he thinking? What did it matter how expressive her face was? She was an employee. A temporary employee, sure. But still she worked for him. She could be as expressive as she liked. It had nothing to do with him.

And yet—he had not liked it when she’d first come to work for him and she had told him he’d never be a candidate. He went hot, remembering. No, he had not liked that at all. He had told himself it was all for the best. But he had called her in to his office every chance he had. Some of his excuses had been so thin he’d half expected her to challenge them, too.

Face it, Jay. You broke your own rules with Zoe Brown. And you did it long before she spilled out her secrets.

He was shaken. He did some stretches, carefully. Then he walked back to his house, frowning. He did not even try to break into a jog.

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