Page 55 of Executive Privilege

I give her my best pleading,I'm really just a bimbolook.

She stands to leave as well, pulling a card from her purse and handing it to me. "I think I can really help you, Sadie. Save you a lot of trouble personally and professionally."

She sighs, suddenly seeming bored. "Nicholas Blackwood is very good at creating situations that justify his emotional retreats. And I think you're about to become the villain in a story."

Walking back to the office I process everything she told me. The pattern of pursuit and discard. The professional manipulation disguised as intimacy. The convenient timing of the crises.

But I also think about Nicholas's face when he told me about falling from the tree. The genuine terror on the climbing wall. The way he looked when he thought I might have betrayed him—not calculating or manipulative, but devastated.

Either Victoria is lying, or Nicholas Blackwood is a better actor than I ever imagined.

Either way, I'm about to find out which version of him is real.

When I reach the office, Nicholas is waiting for me in the lobby, his expression tense with concern.

"Are you okay?" he asks immediately. "Did anyone approach you? Follow you?"

"I'm fine."

"Someone knows you were involved in the Hartwell resolution, which means they either have inside information or they're monitoring our business communications."

Or monitoring our personal interactions.

Nicholas guides me toward the elevator, his hand on my lower back in a gesture that's both protective and possessive, and I missed it so much. In the elevator, I watch his reflection in the polished mirrors and try to reconcile what I'm seeing with Victoria's accusations.

He looks genuinely worried. Not manipulative or calculating, but concerned for my safety.

"Nicholas," I say as we reach his office, "can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"The timing of the Hartwell crisis. Right after Dallas, right after we'd been more intimate than ever. Did that seem coincidental to you?"

He pauses in closing his office door, something flickering across his expression. "What do you mean?"

"I mean emotional intimacy makes you uncomfortable. And a crises that requires questioning someone's loyalty give you an excuse to retreat from that intimacy."

"Are you suggesting I manufactured the Hartwell situation?"

"I'm suggesting that maybe you unconsciously look for reasons to distrust people when they get too close."

Nicholas is quiet for a long moment, his dark eyes searching my face. "Is that what you think? That I created a crisis to avoid dealing with feelings?"

"I think you're terrified of being abandoned, so you push people away before they can leave you. I think you'd rather be alone than risk trusting someone who might disappoint you."

"And where is this psychological analysis coming from?"

I take a deep breath, knowing what I'm about to say will change everything between us. "I met with Victoria Sterling an hour ago."

The words hit Nicholas like a physical blow. All the color drains from his face, and he sinks into his desk chair like his legs won't support him.

"You what?"

"She contacted me. Said there were things I needed to understand about you before I got in too deep."

"And you believed her."

"I listened to her. There's a difference."