Page 60 of His Secret

I attempt to put all those thoughts aside as I get ready. When I walk into the living room, I see him standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, his white button-up tucked into slacks that accentuate his ass. His hair is slicked back, the waves visible from here.

He turns when he hears my steps, giving me a thorough look up and down before a small smile touches his lips.

“Morning.”

“Good morning,” I say, making my way next to him. “What a view.”

I feel his gaze on the side of my face. “Yes.” He turns to peer out the window again. “It’s quite nice.”

“Do we have time for coffee?”

He looks at his watch. “Yeah, but we should leave now. The coffee shop in the lobby will probably be busy, but it’s better than the coffee they have in here.”

Matías puts on his suit jacket, and then we both pull our lanyards over our heads before heading into the hall.

The tension is thick between us. We’re both probably thinking about last night, so the elevator ride is silent.

As we’re in line, waiting for our coffee, my phone vibrates in my pocket. I pull it out and read the screen.

Charlotte

Good morning. I hope you have a good day. Sorry I missed your call last night. I fell asleep early.

My eyes flicker to Matías, but he’s just staring straight ahead.

No worries. Thank you. I hope you have a good day too. Talk later.

I slip the phone back into my pocket as we approach the counter. After we get our coffees, we begin walking to the conference room where we run into the people from our office. For the next hour and a half, I sit next to Matías, trying to focus on the speech, but only thinking about his leg touching mine, and how good his thighs look through the navy blue pants.

Jesus, what’s wrong with me?

We stay busy until one when we can finally break for lunch. I find myself irrationally frustrated when Matías invites a couple of the people from the office to eat with us.

During the entire lunch, he barely acknowledges me. He engages in conversation with others, and when I join in, he’ll glance in my direction before focusing on his food.

I try to make eye contact with him, but it’s like he’s actively avoiding me.

After lunch, he continues talking to a man named Mike, and we make our way to a panel filled with experts about project management. There’s some Q & A time at the end, and then we break until it’s time for networking.

“I’ll be back,” Matías tells me with barely a look before strutting across the room to talk to some guy he clearly knows.

They hug, smiling and laughing before pulling away and engaging in what seems to be a very lively conversation.

I find myself feeling jealous and angry, which is ridiculous. I don’t have any right.

Fueled by those irrational thoughts, I pull out my phone and call Charlotte, finding my way into a corner.

“Hello?”

“Hey.”

“Hey!” she says with some excitement in her voice. “How’s it going? How’s Vegas?”

“Well, I’m in a room with a bunch of suits as we all talk about work, so it’s about as fun as it sounds.”

She laughs. “Well, maybe you’ll get time to explore a little.”

I don’t tell her about my first day with Matías. She doesn’t even know we’re sharing a room. I know how that looks. I know it’s not the best idea to keep that a secret, but it’s nothing compared to the biggest secret I’m keeping from her. And I bet even if she knew we were sharing a room, it would be fine. We’re co-workers. It’s a business trip. She’d have nothing to fear.

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