But mostly it was not good that he was there.

“Josie’s boss,” Jake said.

“Yes,” Gagnon replied, his voice still tight. “Josie’s boss and also more.”

“More?” Jake asked.

“Much more,” Gagnon answered and that was when Jake’s body got tight.

Did Lydie not know some of Josie’s history with this guy?

He opened his mouth to say something when Gagnon’s eyes went beyond him and Jake heard Josie cry happily, “Goodness! Henry!”

He twisted to look at her and saw she was still in her nightie, a black silk robe covering it, the robe not tied, and she was racing down the stairs, her face lit up, her eyes shining, her lips smiling.

She skirted him and the only thing that made him feel even minutely better at witnessing her excited reaction to seeing her boss was that she did this in a familiar and intimate way. This meaning she did it putting her hands to his back and stomach to steady herself as she moved by (because he sure didn’t move a fucking inch to let her pass).

Then she flew the rest of the way down to Gagnon and he watched, his body so tight it felt his tendons would snap, as she lifted her hands to rest them on Gagnon’s chest and got up on her toes, tipping her head back.

Even though it looked like she was moving in for a kiss, or inviting one, Gagnon instantly dropped his bag, put his hands to her waist and shoved her back a foot. He didn’t delay in dropping his hands and moving away from her too, but he took three steps.

Jake descended the rest of the stairs as the air in the room changed and Josie asked with confusion, “What on—?”

But Gagnon cut her off. “This is a fucking joke.”

Jake moved around her so he could see both of them. He positioned himself not close but not far and again crossed his arms on his chest as Josie asked, “What are you talking about?”

“This,” Gagnon replied, throwing an arm out. “You,” he went on, his arm going her way. “This guy.” He tossed his arm Jake’s way.

Jake said nothing as Josie followed the movements of his arm, her eyes not coming to Jake but to his chest when Gagnon gestured his way, something Jake didn’t like all that much. Then her full attention shot right back to Gagnon.

“I don’t understand,” she said softly and she sounded like she really fucking didn’t.

“Jesus, Josephine, how could you not understand?” Gagnon bit out. His eyes flicked to Jake then cut back to Josie. “You failed to mention in all your talk about Jake just how close you were getting with Jake.” And after that, he jerked a hand up, indicating Josie in her nightie.

That also made him feel better and not minutely.

She’d talked about him to this guy.

A lot.

“All right, Henry, this is awkward to be certain,” Josie replied, taking another step back from him like she didn’t like to be that close to his anger at the same time thankfully closing her robe around her front and keeping her arms crossed there. “But I must note at this juncture that I didn’t expect you to be here. We spoke only yesterday and you didn’t inform me you were coming. This is a surprise.”

“I have to admit, sweetheart, having a second to think on it, this isn’t a surprise to me,” Gagnon told her before he looked to Jake. “Don’t get comfortable. I know she’s good but she rarely goes back for seconds.”

Jake felt his muscles expand, his gut twist and his neck get tight as he heard Josie gasp.

He knew she was good?

“Henry!” she snapped and he looked back to her.

“You can’t think in twenty-three years, Josephine, that the men you’ve fucked haven’t talked. Half of them thought I’d already had you. Then again, if that was the case, they wondered why I didn’t keep you.”

She’d taken another step back, her face pale, and Jake saw that even in profile her eyes were wide.

“Why are you speaking to me this way?”

Suddenly, Gagnon leaned toward her and it was then Jake took a step forward. But he only leaned in and Jake stayed alert but stopped.

“Because, Josephine, I’m fucking sick to death of this bullshit, watching you make your selections and waiting for you to be done with that shit so I can get my turn.”

Another gasp came from Josie but Gagnon wasn’t done.

“And now you’re fucking a man who owns a fucking strip club?”

Her back shot straight and her hands dropped but she was stuck at something he said earlier, “Get your turn?”

“Josephine, for fuck’s sake, I’ve been in love with you since you walked in to interview with me two fucking decades ago.”

Josie went still. Jake went still. The air went still.

Fuck, decades. He’d had her decades.

Jake had her for just weeks, he’d had her only twice, and now this asshole was finally letting this shit hang out?

“You’ve been in love with me?” she whispered.

“Since the beginning,” he returned.

“I…I…how can that be?”

“How couldn’t it be?” he shot back. “You’re everywhere with me. You’re almost always at my side. I’ve taken more pictures of you than anyone else and the only photo I carry with me in a goddamned frame and set up in every fucking hotel room I enter is one of you and me.”

“I’m your assistant,” she reminded him.

“You know a lot of your colleagues. Any of their employers have a picture of them together in a silver frame that goes everywhere with them?”

She shook her head. “You…you had other women.”

“You had other men,” he clipped.

Her voice was rising when she fired back, “You’ve found lovers right in front of me.”

“And it’s clear you didn’t give a fuck, you don’t give a fuck and you’ll never give a fuck.”

“That makes no sense,” she told him.

But he didn’t hear her, he kept on target.

“And now I don’t give a fuck.”

After Gagnon got that out, he moved to pick up his bag and went to the door.

Hand on the handle, he turned to Jake.

“Advice. Be careful. Her thing is give them enough to make them need it but leave them wanting. She gets off on that. Lays devastation in her wake and she doesn’t feel it, just keeps sipping her tea and her Chambord and looking for the next fool to leave gagging for it.”

Before Jake could say a word or Josie could do it, Gagnon was out the door, slamming the heavy wood behind him.

Jake didn’t move. His eyes trained to Josie who had her head turned away from him to stare at the door, he stayed completely still. Tense and still.

He knew she’d been in love with her boss for years. Lydie told him. The same that Gagnon had been in love with her. Lydie told him that too. So Jake had no idea which way this would go.

Seeing as Gagnon was everything she wanted in a man and she’d wanted him for decades, if he was to guess, she’d pull open that door and go running after him, leaving Jake behind.

So that was why he stayed still. Tense and still. Waiting for her to gut him.

Therefore he was shocked as shit when she didn’t throw open the door. He watched as her head slowly turned to him and her dazed eyes in her pained face moved over his body before they caught his.

Her voice was also pained and dazed when she asked, “Why are you all the way over there?”

He wasn’t all the way over anywhere. He was four feet away.

But he got what she was saying, he fucking liked what she was saying, he felt his neck relax, his gut stopped twisting, and he dropped his arms to go to her.

She beat him to it. Turning and rushing him, she slammed into him full force, wrapping her arms around him and bursting into tears.

No.

Fuck no.

If he would have guessed, this was not the way he thought it would go.

But he wasn’t Henry Gagnon. No way he was going to waste the opportunity of what she was giving him.

So he bent and picked her up in his arms. When he had her there she shoved her face in his neck, wrapped her arms tight around his shoulders and he felt her body shudder repeatedly with her sobs.