Hardwired For Ecstasy Read Online Free PDF Page A

voice, but she still wasn’t able to stop the
tears this time. They spilled over cheeks as she nodded. “Yes. I found a
picture of her online after I … after I realized he’d
lied to me for three years.”
    “I’m
very sorry he lied to you.”
    She
snapped her gaze toward him, completely shocked by the tenderness of his tone.
“Isn’t that what we’ve been talking about? And if it’s not, what the hell am I
missing here?”
    “It’s
complicated. Please tell me the rest of your story first.”
    She
didn’t understand what was going on, but at least his damn beautiful eyes were
no longer cold. Instead, he gazed at her with sympathy, so she wiped her face
and took a deep breath. “We began dating and either no one knew the real truth,
or those who did never told me. I swear to you I never had a clue he had lied
about his divorce.”
    “Did
anyone else talk about the divorce story?”
    “Yes.
A lot of people did, including Alex. As far as I know, he had told everyone in
that station the same bullshit story.”
    “So
where did the rumors come from?”
    “I
honestly don’t know. They’d surface all the time, but Leland would get upset
and put a stop to them again. He wasn’t well liked by most people working
there, so I always just assumed they were trying to stir shit up.”
    “You
never suspected he had lied to you?”
    “No.
I was naïve.” She wanted to leave. Now. This served no purpose. “And going out
with him to fancy dinners and concerts made me feel grown up.”
    “He’s
quite a bit older than you.”
    “He
was forty when I started dating him and I was twenty-five.” And you have no room to talk. Atticus
Yates was forty-two and regularly seen with women as young as twenty-one. “It
was flattering. He was a gentlemen and very romantic.”
    He’d
also taken her virginity, but she didn’t feel the need to tell her new boss that detail.
    “When
and how did you find out he was still married to Bonnie?”
    She
sighed. If she told him, she’d definitely go back on her promise to Leland.
There was no turning back once she went that far into the story. When she’d
first read Atticus’s email she had assumed Leland told him what had happened.
Now, she realized that wasn’t true. She needed to know why Atticus had gone
looking for information on Leland in the first place.
    “Did
you know I had dated him when you went looking for those performance reviews?”
    “What
do you think?”
    “Please
stop playing games with me.”
    “This
isn’t a negotiation, Emma.”
    She
swallowed hard again, determined not to cry anymore. “I understand that, but
promises were made.”
    His
gaze turned suspicious. “Really? Tell me about the promises. And then tell me
how you found out about his wife.”
    She
crossed her arms, anger overpowering humiliation once more. This was
ridiculous. What right did this man have to pry into her personal life?
    “And
if I refuse?”
    “If
you refuse, you’re fired.”
     

Chapter
Four
     
    Atticus
hated seeing that look of pain and confusion in her eyes, but he had to know
whether his company or any of the other Weathermen’s companies had been
compromised by Bonnie Clough. In other words, whether Emma Sawyer was actually
a spy.
    So
far, unless she was one hell of an actress, she’d merely been the victim of
Leland not being able to keep it in his pants. But Atticus wouldn’t back off
until he knew the entire story. He’d deal with telling her the truth later.
That he hadn’t known for certain she and Leland were involved until she’d told
him.
    Emma
shook her head slightly, and Atticus almost relented. Did he really want to
know the details of what had obviously been an affair with a married man?
Whether she’d known he was married or not wasn’t the issue here. Bonnie was the issue, but he couldn’t
tip his hand until he knew whether Emma had been sent here by Bonnie, by
Leland, or by someone else.
    “You’re
kidding. You’d fire me over