CASSIAN
Noah went completely pale. I saw the way his shoulders stiffened, the way his breath hitched so sharply his entire body shuddered.
He looked like a deer caught in the headlights of a speeding truck, terrified, trapped, and entirely exposed.
For a fraction of a second, I didn't see an employee violating workplace policy. I didn't see a subordinate crossing professional boundaries.
I saw the man I loved, the man whose absence had been carving me out from the inside, standing there with another man's kiss still fresh on his lips.
The jealousy flared up behind my ribs, hot, jagged, and blinding. It tore through the careful, composed façade I had spent the entire day building, threatening to burn everything down.
