Free Dirty Little Secret by Ella Sheridan

processing with the human resources department on her first day. Samantha, maybe? Something like that. Her first day at Keane Industries remained a huge blur in her mind, everything overshadowed by the discovery of Alex’s marriage and her own duplicity in his deceit.
    She’d welcomed that blur for two weeks. But today…today woke her up fast. Guilt slammed into her. God, she’d frozen completely at his touch, the feel of him just so darn good. She’d wanted his hands everywhere, his tongue in her mouth. He’d been hard against her. Amazing. Appalling. How could she feel this way about a man without integrity? Without honor? He was worse than Sean, wasn’t he? At least Sean hadn’t turned to another woman; Alex had.
    Her gaze lingered on Sara Beth and her companion. The woman lifted a fry and placed it in Sara Beth’s mouth, and the look they exchanged… Cailin frowned. Something about it just… She didn’t know.
    She shook her head as if the rattling would straighten out her thoughts, her confusion. Heck, maybe even her life. But experience had taught her pain didn’t heal that fast. She had a long road ahead of her.
    And a long afternoon, she thought as she looked over at the pile of stuff she still had to schlep back to the office. She’d better get on it.
    Cailin hurried to take care of her trash. Just as she settled her tray on the waiting shelf, she heard her name being called in the feminine voice she’d most wanted to avoid.
    “It’s great to see you here,” Sara Beth cried with what seemed like genuine excitement as Cailin cautiously approached their table. “Sam, this is Alex’s new executive assistant, Cailin. Cailin, Sam.”
    Cailin smiled a hello, but Sara Beth was far from done.
    “Sit, please.” That gentle addition didn’t change the command of the first word. Sara Beth patted the chair kitty-corner to hers. “How have things been going?”
    “Busy.”
    “It’s always busy when Alex is involved,” Sara Beth said with a grin.
    Sam laughed. “He has a reputation to uphold, you know.”
    Cailin felt a little out of the loop but forced herself to relax. More than likely the feeling grew from her uneasiness around Sara Beth. Somehow every time she saw the woman, those imagined letters sewn into her chest began to ache as if in recognition, and the urge to confess threatened to overwhelm her. But she got the feeling Sara Beth didn’t need to know her sins any more than Cailin wanted to share them.
    “So do you live around here?” Sam asked, pulling Cailin out of her reverie.
    “Actually I’m new to Atlanta. It feels small-town outside of the business districts, even though it’s not, really. Took a little getting used to, but I like it.”
    “I feel the same way,” Sara Beth said. “Alex and I moved here about six months ago when Dad agreed to transfer us from California. The weather’s definitely taken some getting used to.”
    Sam chuckled. “Definitely. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear your hair this short, and June hasn’t even arrived yet.”
    “So you two knew each other before?” Cailin looked from one to the other and couldn’t miss the long look that passed between them.
    “Sam was transferred too. Several of the LA employees were moved out when the office first opened.”
    Cailin nodded. “Well, just a warning: summers here in the South are a bit like pea soup—thick and very humid. Invest in cool clothes.” She cocked her head and smiled. “And warm ones. We might get snow this winter. It happens every once in a while.”
    The two women looked at her with varying degrees of dismay.
    “You’ll like it, really,” she reassured them.
    “So you’re from the South, then?” Sara Beth asked.
    “Born and bred.”
    “Are you here alone? No significant other?” Sam asked.
    Cailin ducked her head, but not before seeing Sara Beth elbow her companion lightly in the ribs. The accompanying scowl was almost comical, it was so ferocious. “Um, I’m