I Know What You Read (7 page)

“Sure.  How’s the head?”

“Sore, but I’ll live.  Listen, I know this is an odd request, but could you keep an eye on my office this morning?”  The look on Kristen’s face spoke volumes, so Jade continued, “Please don’t tell anyone, but…” her voice dropped to a ‘gossip low’ whisper, “…something is missing from my office.”

“What?” she whispered back, completely drawn in to the false mystery.

“I’d rather not say right now, but I would really appreciate it if you’d tell me if
anyone
goes into my office.  The only problem is that it might be twelve-thirty before I make it back and I know you take your lunch at—”

“That’s okay,” she stated quickly, “I can wait a half an hour.”

“Thanks, I really appreciate it.”  Jade was smiling as she headed out the door for her car.  She just asked the nosiest person in the building to watch her office.  Whoever had been slipping in would be caught this time—she was sure of it.

When she walked into the office at twelve-twenty, Kristen was smiling broadly. Jade expected to find out who her blackmailer was; what she didn’t expect was to be handed a list of names and times.

“You have to be freaking kidding me,” she said as she stared at the names.  It seemed as if half the staff had entered her office at one point or another—including Noah.  She went to her office and saw the note still on her desk, but it was slightly buried by pictures from several of the photographers and story corrections from Hiram.  She was ready to look over the list and make sure each person had a valid reason for entering her office (though she knew Noah didn’t), but a quarter sheet of printer paper folded in half under the handset on her telephone caught her attention.  She opened it to reveal a handwritten note that simply read:
One more chance, please.  Noah.
  

Okay, that explained his presence.  She perused the others; each one could have had a legitimate reason for going in her office. 
Crap!  Back to square one!
Perhaps the person hadn’t been in her office at all.  If she took her answer away, but another section of story appeared on her desk, at least she’d have it narrowed down to—she glanced back at the list—eleven people.

Mentally she started eliminating suspects; three were women, Julian and Ethan were gay, and the circulation manager, Mr. Talbert, was seventy-three-years-old.  That left her with five distinct possibilities: Noah, Hiram, Dontrell from production, Carlos from network services and, finally, the janitor who cleaned her area, Russell.

There wasn’t anything on her desk Tuesday morning.  Noah was there when she arrived at eight, but within the hour he closed up his office and left and didn’t return for the remainder of the day.  Her heart skipped a few beats as she considered she might not have it narrowed down at all.  Wednesday, Noah was absent from the office, and a story was still absent from her desk. 

CHAPTER TEN

“So…you like erotica?”

Thursday morning, Noah wasn’t there when she arrived, but she didn’t have time to worry about it; today was a full schedule.  She had several calls to make and then she would be on her way to cover a story about a local high school football player who pulled an elderly couple from their car when the man accidently drove into a retention pond.  There were protestors who planned to block the demolition of one of the city’s oldest buildings, and a local mom was scheduled to undergo caesarian to deliver quints at four p.m.  Even if there had been a story on her desk, she wouldn’t have time to read it!

She was getting her stuff together when she heard Noah call her name. She looked up and he was standing in her doorway with a beautiful blond who looked like a young Daryl Hannah, except this woman’s hair was flat-iron straight. The woman was obviously very pregnant—she had to be his wife.

“Jade, I’d like you to meet my wife, Yvette. Yvette, Jade is our community reporter.”

“Hi,” Yvette beamed, “Noah has told me
all
about you.”

Jade tried hard not to have the deer-in-the-headlights expression over the remark, “Really?”

“
Yes
,” she emphasized with too much bubbly personality, “he said you helped him get his column off the ground by covering a couple games with him. God,” she continued with a roll of her eyes, “I’m so glad he met a woman who actually likes sports! I hate it when he drags me to a game.”

Jade was struggling to come up with a response, “Ah—so—ah—your house in Chicago must have—have sold?”

“Oh, no,” Yvette answered before Noah could, “but the doctor told me the baby might arrive early, and I want Noah with me during the delivery,” she giggled. “Besides, I have soooo much shopping to do for the new house. He’s helpless when it comes to decorating,” she giggled again and gave a little stretch up onto her toes then dropped back to her heals, causing her swollen breasts to bounce. “And I have to find a good personal trainer, so I can get back in shape. I hope I don’t end up with a scar; it would like so ruin my chances for anymore swimsuit shoots.”

Jade could see why there was such a huge gap between Noah and Yvette, besides their 16 year age difference. She had this cute, spacey ‘I’m a Barbie doll’ thing going on, and he had this look on his face like his brain was going numb from listening to her.

Jade actually found herself laughing, “Well,” she said, offering her hand, “I’m glad I had a chance to meet you.”

“Me, too,” she said, gushing again. “You’ll
have
to come out to our house as soon as I get it furnished. It’s so pretty. Hopefully, the baby will wait long enough for us to get in one good party before we have to settle down and act responsible.”

Jade told them goodbye and then watched as he continued introducing her to other people in the office.

This could definitely explain why the note hadn’t been moved. Strangely enough, she felt bad for Noah.
I wonder if she shuts up during sex, or does she babble on about shopping, exercise routines, and who knows whatever else pops into her head?
She folded up the note and put it away. Evidently her ‘admirer’ had become tied up with someone else. The culprit, she felt sure, was Noah.

By two p.m., Julian called to ask what time she wanted to meet at the hospital for the story about the quints.  Both he and Ethan had been assigned to take pictures because with five babies being passed around the room they’d need more than one cameraman.

“I was planning on arriving a little bit early to talk with the mom, but I just found out the doctor is going to be running late.  If we get there at four it should give us plenty of time to prep.  By the way, about dinner—”

“Don’t tell me you’re planning on backing out?”

“I’m so freaking swamped,” she sighed.

“Us too.  Hey, I have an idea.  Do you like Chinese?”

“Yeah, but—”

“How about take-out?  We can do a late night, working dinner at the office.”

“I’ll do you one better.  Unless you need something from here, I’ve had enough office this week, and you and Ethan are long over-due for an invite to my house. Brandon Regional is like ten minutes from my place.  We can grab some food and go back to my house from the hospital and do a working dinner there.”

“Sounds good to me.  We’ll see you at four.”

All went well with the interview and the subsequent delivery of the babies, and before long they were at her house.

“Living room?” Ethan asked as he headed for the coffee table with two bags of Chinese food.  Julian was carrying one sack of take out and both their computer bags as he closed the door.

“No, actually let’s do the dining room table.”

They followed her around the corner from the kitchen into her dining area.

“Whoa, Jade!  Do you have dinner parties all the time or what?” Ethan teased upon seeing the large table with seating for ten.

She laughed.  “No, it was my grandma’s table.  She invited us over all the time—that and she always cooked for family on the holidays.”

Julian set down the food and then proceeded to unzip the laptop bags.  “Well, I like it,” he stated.  “Lots of room.”  He plugged in their chargers and put ample space between each computer so they could eat and work.

“Me, too.” she confirmed.  “I never seem to run out of space when I work in here.”

“Bathroom?” Ethan asked with a little rise to his eyebrows as he pointed toward the hallway.

“Yes.  End of the hall on the right.”

She and Julian washed up at the kitchen sink.  They were digging through the bags when Ethan reappeared.

Eventually, they were seated at the table laughing, enjoying their food, and chatting about the delivery of the babies.

Julian finally asked about the incident in her office, “So tell me Perfect Jade with the perfect ass, what were you doing under your desk the other morning?”

Her cheeks immediately flushed with heat and embarrassment.

“What are you talking about?” Ethan asked, putting his forkful of Lo-Mein back on his plate.

“Yeah, I didn’t tell you, buddy, but I practically got to see our girl’s birthday suit the other morning—well, at least the part the doctor slapped when he delivered her.  I went to drop off those pics you gave me and there she was, under the desk with her skirt up and her cheeks shining.  By the way,
loved
the thong,” he added with a deep rumbled laugh as he turned to Jade.

“You’d better be fucking kidding me,” Ethan stated, clearly angry.

She never dreamed that Julian would have waited to mention this to Ethan—she assumed he knew why they were having dinner together.

“Nope, I’m not kidding. It was the prettiest full moon I’ve ever seen—on a girl that is. She clunked her head and the rest is office history.”

Ethan didn’t look the least bit amused, “You saw her ass?!”

Jade’s face flamed red, “I—”

“Honestly, the thong didn’t leave much to the imagination—I pretty much saw it all.”

“And you waited until
now
to tell me?” Ethan snapped.

“I didn’t do it on purpose,” Jade finally managed to say, “I had no clue anyone would—”

“What were you doing under the freaking desk?!” Ethan continued.

“Yeah, Jade, you never did say what you were doing under the desk—and I know you didn’t drop your pen.”

Dinner with these two may have just become a grievous error.

“I think someone’s been threatening her,” Julian finally said, suddenly serious.

“Who’s been threatening you?” Ethan demanded.

“I never said—”

“You were scared-to-death that I was going to look in that envelope.”

“The picture envelope?” Ethan asked, sounding as if he was frustrated asking questions without getting any answers.

She sighed deeply, “Someone, Noah, I think, has been putting dirty…” She paused.

Ethan cocked one eyebrow and leaned forward with a slight smile, “Dirty what?”

Julian leaned slightly away and crossed his arms over his chest as he furrowed his brow and seemed to be studying her. “Dirty stories?” he asked with an odd tone to his voice.

She was surprised he got it right; she looked down at her lap and nodded. She could see out of her peripheral vision the two men exchanged glances briefly.

“What makes you think it’s Noah?” Julian asked, suddenly sounding angry.

“Okay, fine,” she said weakly, “I’ll tell you two the truth, but you have to promise me not to tell anyone else.”

Julian still had his arms folded over his chest; he appeared to be scowling. 

Ethan was silent.

She took an unsteady breath, “I—I’ve been reading erotica at work lately and he—he caught me.  Well, at least I think he caught me.”

“You?” Julian stated in utter surprise, “Sweet little you?”

“Oh, please—don’t look at me like that,” she whimpered as she shrank inside.  She couldn’t lift her gaze to look either one in the eye at this point.

“So the envelope contained—”

“Yeah.”

“You could throw them away,” Julian continued.

“Actually, I can’t. He—or whoever it is—says if I don’t sit at my desk and read them, they’re going to end up in a public place—with my name on them. It’s the weirdest blackmail scheme ever,” she sighed.

“It’s not Noah,” he started to say when Ethan suddenly came back to life.

“Dontrell,” Ethan tossed out. “I bet it’s Dontrell.”

“It is not,” Julian growled.

“He has the perfect opportunity,” Ethan continued. “Doesn’t he put a paper in your office every morning before you get there?”

Dontrell was one of the production men, and yes, he did indeed make sure there was a daily copy of the paper waiting on the corner of her desk every day, even the weekend editions. 

“If you’re going to get ridiculous, Ethan,” Julian barked, “why not make it Kristen, or Hiram, or—hell— anyone in the office!”

“Why not Noah?” she finally asked.

Julian looked first to Ethan and then back to her, “I think he’d be direct about it.”

“Well, I’m pretty sure it was him because since his wife showed up, I haven’t had anything else on my desk.”

“So,” Ethan cautiously began as he locked her into his stunning blue gaze, “you like erotica?”

She felt the heated rush of blood fill her cheeks once more, but she still smiled slightly. Damn, what a night this was turning out to be!

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“Touch?”

By the time they left
, she was exhausted. She hadn’t realized how much revealing her secret to the two cutest guys in the office would take out of her. She thought there would be some kind of relief in sharing her ‘I know what you read’ secret, but she felt the exact opposite.  Having those two know what she had been dealing with (and doing), seemed to simply add more weight to her shoulders. She was absolutely in knots; tension racked from her scalp, down her spine, to the back of her calves.

She slipped off her high heels and headed for the bathroom.  There were two things she wanted: a bubble bath and a big glass of wine—yeah, that should make her day fade away.  She didn’t have to go into the office on Friday because she had three events to cover over the weekend, two on Saturday and one on Sunday, so she could sleep-in tomorrow morning.