Hurt the One You Love Read online

  He thought of Simone, waking from sleep with that smile on her face the moment she looked at him, as though no matter how good her dreams had been, they were never as great as seeing him next to her. He thought of the way she sang in the shower, always off-key but knowing all the words. How she'd stolen his clothes from the closet, all of his shirts too big on her, and how she'd padded around his kitchen in her bare feet, making him breakfast without ever once needing to ask him how he liked his coffee.

  Fuck.

  He loved her.

  Oh, fuck, he loved her, and knowing it was like a great, crashing wave of grief and relief and shame all at the same time. He loved her, and he hadn't been able to tell her, even though she'd given him everything he'd ever wanted in another person, and things he'd never known to ask for but knew he could never again live without.

  "Fuck," he muttered and pulled his phone from his pocket.

  He hadn't erased her number. He pulled it up as easily as anything, just a few taps on the keyboard. A couple swipes of his fingertip. He could've sent the call through with as little effort. Even less. One second, two, and he could have it pressed to his ear, listening to the sound of the ring and waiting for her voice. He didn't know what he could say, but Elliott knew he had to say something. Anything.

  But before he could, his phone rang.

  Chapter 37

  Simone didn't want to be working late, but the truth was that she'd been so distracted with her own mopishness that she'd fallen behind. Mountains of paperwork, dozens of e-mails, phone calls to follow up on. Reports to file. Meetings to schedule.

  She ought to quit, she thought as she rocked back in her chair and looked out the windows to where the sun was going down. She didn't need this job. She could do the same thing for half a dozen other companies in Philadelphia. More than that if she wanted to take the plunge and move to New York. It would make her mother and Tree happy if she lived closer and could visit more often. Aidan would have a fit, but maybe it was time she broke away from him even more than she already had. Put some distance between them to give him and Corrina a real chance to make things work without any complications from her.

  Get away from everything that reminded her of Elliott.

  "Fuck," she muttered.

  "Every chance I get," Jimmy said from her doorway.

  Simone spun in her chair to face him. "Ugh. What are you still doing here?"

  "Same thing you are." Jimmy held up a pile of folders. "Making copies. Putting out fires."

  She grinned. "How's the new position working for you?"

  "Let's just say that every day's an adventure." Jimmy grinned, too, leaning in her doorway. He jerked his chin toward the windows. "How's your favorite office exhibitionist?"

  "He's not an exhibitionist," she said, trying to keep her voice light. "He's just too dumb to pull the blinds."

  Jimmy came into her office and set his pile of folders on the edge of her desk to look out the window. He glanced at her over his shoulder. "You moved your desk."

  "Yes." Simone made a show of clicking her mouse and doing something that looked busy at her computer, but Jimmy wasn't fooled.

  He laughed softly, then whistled, low, under his breath. "You and him?"

  "It wasn't a secret."

  "It wasn't like you put out a memo about it, either." Jimmy crossed his arms, looking down into Elliott's office.

  "I didn't know I had to!" Annoyed, Simone rattled her keyboard and slammed a drawer, pinching her finger. With a shout, she stuck it in her mouth and gave Jimmy a scowl.

  Jimmy held up his hands. "Sorry. Of course you didn't." He paused and looked out the window again. Then back at her. "Didn't end well, huh?"

  "You," Simone said with a stab of her finger at him, "are too nosy."

  "So, what happened?"

  "Nosy," she repeated and with a sigh, admitted defeat and logged out of her computer files. No more work tonight. She couldn't concentrate on it, and didn't want to be here, anyway. She eyed him, looking him over. The shined shoes. The new haircut. The shirt that matched the trousers. Simone's brows lifted. "Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy. Who's the lucky lady?"

  To her surprise, he blushed. Crimson. No hiding it. His answer to her came out on a stutter of wordless syllables.

  Simone sat straight up in her chair. "No. Fucking. Way. Not the Ice Queen. No!"

  "Don't tell anyone!" Jimmy said hastily, crossing to her door and shutting it tight. "Shit, Simone. How'd you know? Nobody knows. Nobody can ever know."

  "No kidding." Simone propped her feet on the desk and shook her head. "Jimmy, honey, that's going to lead to trouble."

  Jimmy frowned and went back to the window to sit on the sill, his arms crossed. "Listen to you."

  "Technically, we don't work together. Just in the same building. And," she added, "it still sucks. But Thea's your boss, man. Both of you could be fired. Or she could just make your life a living hell here and at home."

  Jimmy's grin told her a lot. A whole lot more than she'd ever suspected, actually, and Simone considered herself pretty astute when it came to sniffing out the kink in other people's closets. She sat back in her chair with a stunned shake of her head. Jimmy laughed out loud at her expression. Then he shrugged, blushing again.

  "Wow," Simone said.

  Jimmy ran a hand through his hair, then straightened his shoulders. "It's not why I got the job. I got the job first. The other thing came after."

  "Because she saw you could go after something," Simone said.

  Jimmy looked embarrassed, but also pleased. "She said she'd never seen anyone work so hard to make her happy, ever, and she had to find out just how far I'd go to keep her that way."

  "You're playing with fire."

  "Better to risk getting burned," Jimmy said, "then to never let yourself get close enough to be warmed by the flame."

  There was silence, a long one, in which the sudden ping of Simone's phone from her purse startled them both. She laughed. Jimmy did, too.

  "So deep," she told him, mocking, but gently. "Such a philosopher."

  Jimmy buffed his nails elaborately on the front of his shirt and gave her a smarmy grin. "What can I say. Ladies love it when a guy gets deep."

  "Perv." Simone rolled her eyes. Her phone pinged again. She looked at her bag with a sigh.

  "Aren't you going to answer it?"

  "No. It's a voicemail from my mom or maybe from Aidan. Or from my friend Teresa. I owe her a call." Tree had called Simone every day, trying to get her to have lunch. Dinner. To sleep over, have a girls' night. Simone had declined, but there was only so long Tree could be put off.

  "You hanging out here any longer?"

  "I should. But no. I don't want to. I'm tired and it's late and, sorry," she gave him a wink and a grin bordering on wicked, "I don't have the motivation you do."

  Jimmy laughed and gathered his files. "You want me to walk you to the bus stop?"

  "No. I'm good." Simone made sure her computer was off and stood to sling her bag over her shoulder. "And Jimmy . . . really, congratulations on the job. And the other stuff."

  He nodded, then after a second or so, blushed again. "I can't tell anyone else about it, you know? Not just because she's my boss. But because of the other stuff. My friends don't get it. They'd think I was pussy whipped."

  He walked with her to the door and Simone shut it behind them. "Your friends have kinks of their own. What you like isn't so strange, Jimmy. Believe me."

  "My dad would shit a brick. He'd disown me if he thought I was letting a woman boss me around. I mean, he already thinks I'm an asshole for taking the job with an actual woman boss. If he knew about the other stuff . . ."

  "Your dad's a Neanderthal," Simone said as they walked the dim and quiet hallway to the elevator. She turned to him and put a hand on his shoulder, holding him in place until he looked her in the eyes. "Giving yourself up to another person isn't wrong or sick, and it doesn't make you an asshole to like it. It doesn't make Thea a bitch to want a man