Lies Between the Sheets
1471 Words
Eva Monroe didn’t remember falling asleep.
She only remembered waking up tangled in Egyptian cotton sheets, her cheek against Julian Roth’s bare chest, his arm curled possessively around her waist like he was afraid she might vanish.
A dangerous comfort.
She should have left the moment it was over—if you could even call it that. Their bodies had barely stopped burning. Their hearts hadn’t stopped racing. It wasn’t supposed to happen. Not again.
Not after the elevator. Not after the breach.
But she hadn’t been able to resist him.
Now, morning light streamed through the penthouse windows, casting long golden shadows across his modern bedroom—cool steel fixtures, floor-to-ceiling glass, sleek minimalism, everything precisely controlled.
Everything except them.
Julian stirred beneath her.
“You stayed,” he murmured, voice rough from sleep.
Eva lifted her head slowly, eyes meeting his. “Not on purpose.”
A faint smile ghosted across his lips. “I won’t hold it against you.”
But she would. Every second in his bed blurred the lines between her mission and her heart. She didn’t just betray her badge when she kissed him—she betrayed herself.
“I should go,” she whispered, sitting up.
The sheet slipped down her back. His eyes followed it.
“You’re not my prisoner, Eva.”
“No,” she said softly, rising to her feet. “But if I stay, I might become yours.”
She didn’t look back as she dressed. She couldn’t.
If she saw that look in his eyes again—the one that asked for trust, the one that gave it—she’d crack.
And she couldn’t afford to crack. Not now.
Back at RothTech, Eva walked into chaos.
The lobby was packed with reporters. A security detail flanked the entrances. Employees were whispering in clusters, holding phones like lifelines. The company’s reputation was bleeding out, and someone was twisting the knife.
She slipped through the private staff entrance and headed straight for the executive floor, heart tight.
Her phone buzzed in her coat pocket—her secure line. She ducked into a storage room and answered.
“You’re off-script, Agent Monroe,” came the voice of her handler, Decker. Cold. Efficient.
“I’m making progress.”
“You were supposed to secure the encrypted servers, not play house with Roth.”
Eva swallowed hard. “I’ve found something. Someone’s framing me. And there’s a second party in the system we didn’t account for.”
A pause.
“We think there’s another operative inside RothTech. Possibly one of ours who went rogue.”
The floor dropped out beneath her.
“You think it’s an agent?”
“We don’t know. But someone knew your clearance level. Someone who wants Julian destroyed—and you discredited.”
“Do I have backup?”
“No. This is a ghost op now. Eyes only. We need you inside.”
Alone.
Eva ended the call and slipped out of the room.
Her entire body was ice. There was a traitor inside the company—someone trained, someone skilled—and she didn’t know who it was. It could be anyone.
Julian. Amanda. Even someone on her own task force.
And they wanted her to stay?
Julian was already in his office when she arrived.
He looked like hell.
His jacket was gone. His sleeves were pushed up. His shirt was rumpled, like he hadn’t slept. A deep crease carved his brow as he stared at a holographic spreadsheet floating above his desk.
“You look like you’ve been at war.”
He didn’t look up. “We lost four clients overnight.”
Eva stiffened. “Four?”
“Confidential prototypes. NDA violations. Leaked to competitors.”
“That’s not a breach. That’s sabotage.”
His eyes met hers. “Exactly.”
She walked closer. “Show me what was leaked.”
Julian hesitated, then flicked a file to her tablet. The documents loaded instantly—high-level R&D concepts, biometrics, and something worse.
Eva’s blood went cold.
The files weren’t just corporate secrets.
They were linked to a classified military contract—one that only the Bureau knew RothTech had been offered.
She hadn’t told anyone about that. Not even Decker.
But someone had.
“Julian,” she said slowly, “who else knew about this?”
He looked at her, gaze wary now. “Only a few people. Me. My legal team. My tech director.”
“Amanda?”
“No. She doesn’t have clearance. Why?”
Eva shook her head, mind racing. It didn’t make sense. If Amanda didn’t have clearance, how were these files leaked?
Unless… she was being used.
Or someone else was stealing access.
She stood. “I need to check something.”
Julian caught her wrist gently. “You’re shaking.”
She looked down at his hand. “I’m fine.”
“You’re not.”
His eyes searched hers, and she couldn’t breathe under the weight of his gaze.
“Talk to me, Eva. Please.”
Don’t make me trust you, she thought. Don’t make me want to protect you.
Because if the Bureau found out how far she’d gone… they’d cut her loose. And Julian would burn with her.
But in that moment, she couldn’t lie to his face. So she gave him a truth.
“I think someone’s trying to turn us against each other.”
“Why?”
“Because if we don’t trust each other, we won’t see what’s coming next.”
Eva returned to her desk and pulled up every access log from the last 72 hours. She filtered for anomalies—offsite logins, encrypted activity, anything tagged with her ID.
Nothing.
But someone had used a proxy server to reroute through her device. A ghost trace.
She ran a diagnostic. The reroute originated from inside RothTech. Not the mainframe. Not even the research wing.
The HR database.
What the hell?
She ran a search on every current employee with internal clearance.
One result blinked red.
Ames Carter.
Julian’s head of compliance.
Quiet. Inoffensive. Harmless. The kind of man who remembered birthdays and spoke in legal terms even at parties.
Eva blinked at the file. He’d been with the company for six years. Never flagged. Never reprimanded.
But his clearance was active at 2:13 a.m. last night. In the mainframe. Masked.
She copied the trace to her flash drive and stood.
Julian wasn’t in his office.
She found him on the rooftop terrace, staring out at the skyline. He turned as she stepped into the wind.
“Bad news?”
She nodded.
“I think I found your leak.”
He didn’t flinch. “Who?”
“Ames Carter. He accessed your mainframe last night. Masked the signal and rerouted it through my IP.”
Julian’s jaw tightened. “Are you sure?”
She handed him the drive. “See for yourself.”
He plugged it into his watch console. Scanned. Scrolled.
His face paled.
“He knew about the military file.”
“Which means he either works for your competitors…”
“Or for someone much worse,” Julian finished.
The implication hung in the air.
Government. Foreign interests. The FBI.
Eva didn’t breathe.
Julian’s gaze lifted. “How did you find this, Eva?”
She froze.
“I thought you said you were just an assistant.”
Her heart pounded.
“Who are you?”
The question fell like a hammer between them.
She couldn’t lie.
But if she told the truth, everything would collapse.
So she took a step forward, voice trembling.
“I’m someone who didn’t expect to care this much.”
Julian’s face darkened. “That’s not an answer.”
Eva’s throat closed.
He turned away, gripping the railing.
“Did you sleep with me because you wanted to… or because you had to?”
She stepped closer. “Does it matter?”
“It does to me.”
Silence. Heavy. Cracking.
She touched his back. He didn’t move.
“I want to protect you,” she said. “Even if that means lying.”
His voice was low. “Then you’re no better than them.”
She stepped back like she’d been slapped.
“Julian—”
“I don’t want your protection, Eva,” he said coldly. “I want the truth.”
Then he walked away.
Later that night, she sat alone in her apartment, staring at the flash drive on her table.
She could turn it in to the Bureau and finish the mission.
But if she did… she might lose Julian forever.
And worse, she might never forgive herself.
She picked up the phone.
But instead of calling her handler, she called Julian.
He didn’t answer.
So she sent one message:
“Meet me. One last time. If you still want the truth.”
- Writer
