Page 53 of Executive Privilege

"Actually, he hasn't. He's never mentioned your name."

"How interesting."

Victoria signals the barista for coffee, settling back in her chair like someone preparing for a long conversation. "Don't you know it's a bad idea to date your boss, Sadie?"

"I'm not dating him. We work together."

"Please. Everyone knows you're sleeping with him."

Heat rises in my cheeks, but I don't deny it. "What do you want, Victoria?"

"To save you from making the same mistake I did."

"Which was?"

"Thinking Nicholas Blackwood was capable of genuine emotional connection instead of just professional manipulation disguised as intimacy."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Of course you don't. You probably think he's damaged but redeemable. Wounded but worth fighting for."

"And you're here to tell me I'm wrong?"

"I'm here to tell you that Nicholas Blackwood doesn't have trust issues because he was betrayed. He has trust issues because betrayal is his default strategy for maintaining control."

"What does that mean?"

Victoria's coffee arrives, and she takes a deliberate sip before answering. "It means he'll push you away when he's done using you and will find an excuse to discard you without looking like the villain."

"That's not true."

"Isn't it?"

My stomach clenches because her description is uncomfortably close to what's just taken place over the last few days.

"You're wrong." I want to argue, but something cold is spreading through my chest. The Hartwell crisis did come right after ourconversation about caring and trust. Right after the cabin in Dallas where we'd been more intimate than ever.

"You don't know anything about our relationship," I say, but my voice lacks conviction.

"I know everything about your relationship because I lived it first. The intense chemistry, the professional collaboration, the way he makes you feel like you are partners in something meaningful."

She's describing everything that made me think Nicholas cared about me.

"And then," Victoria continues, "right when you start believing it's real, something will happen to shatter the illusion. A crisis that required him to question your loyalty. A situation that justified pushing you away for 'professional reasons."

What the fuck? How could she know that?

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because eighteen months ago, I was sitting where you're sitting now. Believing in a man who was using my feelings to advance his own agenda. And when I served my purpose, when he'd gotten what he needed from the relationship, he found a reason to make me the villain."

"What happened between you two?"

Victoria's expression hardens. "I was a senior marketing director at a competing agency. Nicholas pursued me aggressively—flowers, expensive dinners, weekend trips. He made me feel like I was the most fascinating woman he'd ever met."

My chest tightens. with jealousy.

"He was building Event Horizons, trying to establish credibility in the Austin market. Dating someone from an establishedagency gave him access to industry connections, client insights, strategic information. I didn't realize I was being cultivated as a business asset until it was too late."