I watch Jason storm off, and when I glance back at the other guys, they suddenly busy themselves.
“I’m going to check my messages,” Cole says.
Tag nods. “Yeah. Ditto. Gotta call a guy back about a thing.”
Which leaves me and Wilson alone in his office, and I’m between him and the door.
“I guess that makes me the messenger,” he says blandly.
“No message required.” I point to the screen. “Let’s get back to work.”
He turns off his monitors. “Nope.”
I open my mouth to protest, then stop myself. They have a right to give me shit for deceiving them. “Okay. Hit me.”
“You broke his heart.”
I do a double take. “What? No.”
“Seriously. He moped around for months after you disappeared.”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“It was for him. And it’s not for me to tell you more than that, but you reappearing—and turning out to be another power player on the scene, in a way—has really done a number on him.”
“He’s stronger than that.” We both are. That’s how I knew we could have an affair all those years ago.
“It’s not about strong or not.” Wilson looks at me steadily. “I have a family now.”
“Jason told me.” I give him an earnest, warm smile. “I’m thrilled for you. Honestly.”
“I would kill for my kids. For my wife. Destroy whole kingdoms. And if they were taken from me, I would be an empty shell of a man. There is no strength in the world that can make up for that loss.”
“I’m not that to him,” I whisper.
“Maybe not. But you could have been.”
“That wasn’t real.”
His mouth twists in a grimace. “Yes. We’re very aware of that.”
Fuck me. “I’ll go and talk to him. You’ve got it all wrong.”
Wilson shrugs. “Maybe.”
I spin on my heel and go in search of Jason, and coffee, and answers. He’s not in the kitchenette, where a pot of coffee is brewing. I go next to his office, but he’s not there, either.
I loop back to Wilson’s office. “He may have headed out.”
“The roof, maybe.” He taps into their surveillance system. It’s dark up there, with lots of shadows, but the boss man can be made out just fine. “Yep.”
He hands me a keycard. “Do you remember how to get up there?”
“Yeah.”
“He really was changed after you left.”
I shake my head. “That started before I went. Cole changed him.” It’s why I… I swallow back that thought.
“No. You did it, too. You were a ray of sunshine in his darkness.”
“That wasn’t really me.”
“I dunno about that.”
“I’m no Little Miss Sunshine.”
“Hope comes in a lot of different packages, Ellie.”
I want to correct them every time they use my nickname. But I like it, too, and I don’t want to dwell too long on that idea, so I take the stairs two at a time and burst out into the warm night air just as Jason turns around.
“Do we have a photo?”
“Not yet.” The door shuts behind me, and we’re alone. The roof is built up along the edges, and has a bunch of nooks and crannies with covered shelter spots, so it feels private up here even with the street noise below. “Wilson seems to think we should hash out the past.”
“And what does Melinda Gray think?”
“There are more important things going on right now.”
“I’m fully aware that you wouldn’t be here if you could help it.” He turns and looks south toward the Washington Monument. “I’m not having any trouble focusing on the real issues at hand, I assure you.”
“I have no doubt. You’re a kingmaker.”
“Do you believe that?”
I move closer to him. “As much as anyone can be. Nobody controls this game, though.”
“That’s the problem, isn’t it?” He glances sideways at me. “There are people who think they do. But we’re all pawns.”
I nod. “Even the people who think they pull the strings… We’re all at the mercy of everyone else.”
His mouth quirks. “That’s the social experiment, isn’t it? We all lift each other up?”
“Well, if you insist on putting a positive spin on it.” I move past him, sliding into the shadows beneath an overhang. I’m pretty sure Wilson can’t see me here, and even if he can, he’ll turn off the monitor and find something else to do. I undo my belt and the silk panels of my dress slide against my body, falling open.
Jason’s gaze drops to my breasts, lingering there long enough for my nipples to harden under his appraisal, then he rakes his hot inspection lower. To my belly and the shadow between my legs.
“You don’t know what you’re doing.”
“Really?” I smirk. “I think I do. It’s time you stop underestimating me.”
He moves against me, pushing me deeper into the shadow. His fingers tangle in my hair, holding me still as he crushes his mouth against mine. Hard, ruthless, demanding.
When he pulls away, his grip tightens. “How do you see this going? You think I’m going to fuck you, and we’ll forget the rest of the conversation we should have had?”
“If only it were that easy.” I lick my lips, wet still from the savaging of his kiss. “I didn’t come up here to distract you.”
“That’s a shame. I could use a distraction right now.” He nips at my jaw. “We both could. Talking is overrated.” His devouring mouth moves to my neck, his breath hot against my ear. “I know we don’t have long, Ellie. We don’t need to hash anything out. It’s fine.”
It’s not, really, but talking won’t make it any better.
But before we get further than his mouth on my breasts, his phone goes off.
He digs it out. “There’s a response. They’ve sent a photo.”
I tug my dress back together and smooth down my hair.
Jason straightens my belt, then catches my chin between his thumb and forefinger. “Hey. Whatever the photo looks like…it’s not real.”
“I know.”
“And we’ll continue this later.”
“Yeah.”
He frowns.
“What?”
“What are you running from?”
“Nothing,” I say lightly.
He catches me around the waist and tugs me close again. “Liar.”
“Takes one to know one.” I kiss him, at first to shut him up, then I keep going because it feels good. A spontaneous sweetness that takes us both by surprise. But fuck it, if the world is going to end, I’m going to have the taste of him on my lips when it does. “Maybe everything. I don’t know.”
He takes my hand in his and pulls me to the stairwell. “Listen, I don’t want you to be alone tonight. Come back to my place.”
I shake my head. “No.”
He tries to protest, but I cut him off. “You can come to mine, though. If you want.”
One more night together. A few more moments that will have to last us a lifetime.