That had me sitting up in the chair, swiveling to stare at him. “What? That’s insane.” That wasn’t how it had been at all.
“Which part?” Houston rolled his eyes.
“All of it. He was an ass first.” It had not been my fault.
Preston sighed. “We knew he might be. We had that discussion before he came for the interview. That’s why I sent you all the articles on him.”
“Articles?” I was drawing a blank.
“Fuck, Eli. Didn’t you read any of it?” When I gave Preston a confused look, his anger started to rise. “I sent you an email with almost a dozen blogs and stories about what his ex had done to him. It had the pictures that we like in it. Is this ringing a bell?”
The pictures did. “The pictures were why we hired him. They were much better than any of the other stuff he sent.”
Preston sighed, like I was more than he could handle. “Did you read anything else or did you just look at the pictures?”
“I saw that they were of his ex, and then I think I just looked at the photos. That was what we were hiring him for.” I shrugged. “Besides, you hire everyone. Why would I need to read up on him?”
“You make me insane sometimes.” Preston leaned against the wall and closed his eyes like he was trying not to throw something at me.
He was always calm and collected until I pushed him too far. It was starting to look like we’d gotten totoo faralready. Preston took a deep breath but didn’t look at me. “Roman’s ex blasted his personal life all over the internet.”
Preston took a moment, then continued. “The guy posted the pictures and talked about the BDSM side of their relationship, but he made it sound close enough to abuse that it freaked people out. It was all consensual spankings and things; I checked it out thoroughly.”
Finally looking up, Preston waited to see if I was still listening. “The guy did it on purpose to get the attention of some kind of reality show or something stupid like that, but it tore Roman’s business apart. From the other stuff I saw, it looked like the ex cleaned out their money and then skipped town. I sent you all those articles so you would know why he was a bit rough around the edges and why greeting him like a brat, very much like his ex, wouldn’t work with him.”
Oh.
There was a reason I wasn’t in charge of hiring.
“Why didn’t you say something?” Okay, so maybe I was deflecting, but Preston really should have said something.
“I did! I told you several times to read through everything I’d sent.”
“But you didn’t say why!” If he’d have said specifically why, then I would have gone through the articles. In my defense, I’d been busy with family and school, and the new photographer had been at the bottom of my to-do list.
Preston’s head fell back again. “God, Eli.”
Reece’s calm voice interrupted us. “I know you and Roman didn’t hit it off. You were you and he was freaked out by a sub that might have reminded him of his ex. But why did everything keep going so badly? You two just got worse, not friendlier. And none of this explains why you’re so upset that he’s gone.”
I wasn’t sure if he was fishing or if he already knew the answer, but I wasn’t going to share what had happened. It turned out, however, that I didn’t have to. Preston had that pleasure.
“They had sex in the studio right before you were hired. Instead of that clearing the air and them talking, they were both morons.” Preston’s matter-of-fact answer made me cringe.
“That’s private.”
“Not when you two morons have a porn shoot in the middle of the building when it’s not empty.” Preston refused to back down. “A shoot to get some additional shots is one thing, but the sounds coming from downstairs said you two were doing more than taking pictures. At least the kinds of pictures we post on the site.”
I rolled my eyes, trying to play it off, but I could feel my cheeks heating up. “Why were you even in the building? No one was using the apartments that night.”
The building had been intended to be trendy studio apartments, but the builder went under before they got more than a few done. When we’d purchased the place, we’d left the apartments on the third floor with the idea that employees could use them when they needed a place to stay. Sometimes they were full, but most of the time, it was just an employee who was between apartments or whose place was being renovated.
“I’d worked later than I’d intended and was too tired to drive home. I didn’t exactly get a good night’s sleep, though, thanks to you two.” He shook his head. “No sex at work. We’ve had that rule since day one.”
Oops.
“We didn’t have sex.” Not all the way.
“That was not a regular shoot, so don’t even try to lie.”
