CHAPTER SIX
EMILY'S POV
I woke up to sunlight streaming through unfamiliar curtains and an immediate, pounding headache that made me wince. My body felt heavy and sore in places that made heat creep up my neck as I slowly became aware of my surroundings.
I was naked.
Completely naked.
I turned my head carefully on the pillow and my breath caught in my throat. Jace lay beside me, his chest rising and falling in steady rhythm, one arm thrown across his forehead as he slept. The sheet was pulled low on his hips, exposing the defined muscles of his abdomen.
And then the memories came rushing back like a tidal wave crashing over me.
The hotel room after we'd left the gala. His hands sliding up my dress as he pressed me against the door. The way I'd dropped to my knees and take his cock in my mouth while he groaned my name and tangled his fingers in my hair. How he'd laid me on the bed afterward and buried his face between my legs until I was begging, actually begging him for more. The sex itself had been intense and consuming, our bodies moving together with desperate urgency as I clawed at his back and wrapped my legs around his waist, neither of us able to get enough of each other.
"Oh god," I whispered, pressing my palms against my closed eyes.
Again. I'd done it again. Second time now. What the hell was wrong with me?
I slipped out of bed as quietly as possible, gathering my dress and underwear from where they'd been scattered across the floor. My hands trembled slightly as I pulled on my clothes, not bothering with my heels yet as I tiptoed toward the door. I grabbed my clutch from the nightstand and cast one last glance at Jace still sleeping peacefully, his face relaxed in a way I'd never seen at the office.
Then I ran.
I didn't stop until I was in a taxi heading back to my apartment, my heart racing and my mind spinning with what I'd just done. Professional boundaries meant nothing apparently when Jace looked at me the way he did, when he touched me like I was the only thing in the world that mattered.
I was so screwed.
By the time I got home, showered, changed into fresh work clothes, and made it to the office, I was running on pure adrenaline and three cups of coffee. My head still throbbed dully and I prayed no one would notice the slight dark circles under my eyes that I'd tried to cover with concealer.
I spotted my friend Diane near the break room, leaning against the counter with her own coffee cup, staring into space with an expression I recognized immediately. Something was wrong.
"Di?" I called out, walking over to her quickly. "What's going on? You look like someone died."
Diane's eyes snapped to mine and she grimaced. "Miranda is on a warpath this morning. Like full-blown foaming at the mouth rage over some tiny mistake in the quarterly reports. Everyone's been walking on eggshells since she got in an hour ago."
My stomach dropped. "What kind of mistake?"
"I don't know the details but apparently someone's about to get their head ripped off and—" Diane's eyes widened as she looked past my shoulder. "Emily, wait—"
But I was already moving, pushing through the break room door and heading toward the main office floor where I could hear raised voices. My heels clicked rapidly against the tile as I rounded the corner and stepped into the open workspace.
The scene that greeted me made my blood run cold.
Miranda stood in the center of the room, her face flushed red with fury, surrounded by at least a dozen employees who'd frozen at their desks. The moment she saw me, her eyes lit up with something dark and victorious.
Before I could even open my mouth to ask what was happening, her hand flew through the air and connected with my cheek in a sharp, stinging slap that echoed through the suddenly silent office.
I stumbled back a step, my hand flying to my burning cheek as shock rippled through me. Murmurs erupted around us but I could barely hear them over the ringing in my ears.
"You incompetent fool," Miranda hissed, her voice dripping with venom. "Do you have any idea what you've done?"
"What?" I managed to get out, my voice shaking slightly. "What are you talking about? What did I do?"
"Don't play dumb with me," she snapped, taking a step closer. "You think I don't know how you got your promotion? You think I'm blind to the way you operate around here?"
My heart started pounding for an entirely different reason now. "Excuse me?"
"You slept your way to the top," Miranda said loudly, making sure everyone in the office could hear her. "That's how incompetent women like you get ahead, isn't it? On your back."
Gasps rippled through the crowd. Shocked faces turned toward me and I felt heat flood my entire body, part humiliation and part rage.
"That's not true," I said firmly, trying to keep my voice steady even though I wanted to scream. "I earned my position through years of hard work and dedication to this company. How dare you—"
"I saw you yesterday," Miranda cut me off, her smile turning cruel. "At the gala. Snooping around with one of the men like some desperate—"
She'd seen me. She'd seen me with Jace. My worst fear was materializing right in front of me and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
"I don't know what you think you saw," I started weakly, but Miranda wasn't finished.
"Pack your things," she said with cold finality. "You're fired. I want you out of this building within the hour. You're incompetent, unprofessional, and a disgrace to this company."
The room spun slightly. This couldn't be happening. I'd worked too hard, sacrificed too much to have it all destroyed because of one mistake, one moment of weakness with—
"Says who?"
The voice cut through the chaos like a blade, deep and commanding and utterly confident. Every head in the office turned toward the entrance where a figure stood silhouetted in the doorway.
Jace?
But this wasn't the Jace I knew.
This version of him was transformed entirely. Gone were the slightly casual clothes and the relaxed demeanor. Instead he wore a three-piece charcoal suit that looked like it cost more than my monthly rent, perfectly tailored to his frame. His hair was styled differently, swept back in a way that made his sharp features even more prominent and mature. He looked older somehow, more authoritative, like he'd stepped out of a boardroom in Manhattan where billion-dollar deals were made with a handshake.
He looked like he owned the world.
Jace walked into the office slowly, his eyes locked on Miranda with an expression that made even her take a step back. The entire room seemed to hold its breath as he approached.
"Don't meddle in things you don't understand, trainee," Miranda said, but her voice had lost some of its earlier confidence. "This is between me and Emily. I'm going to make sure she goes down for her incompetence and—"
"No one is getting fired," Jace said quietly, but his voice carried absolute authority that made my skin prickle. "And if anyone is getting fired today, Miranda, it's going to be you."
The silence that followed was deafening.