Page 108 of Due Diligence

“You’re the first person to tell me I was special…without that being a curse.”

Something told me there was so much more to that story than she was letting on. This wasn’t the right time to ask though. We had been through enough for one night.

“This was ten years in the making.” I brought my hand up to her cheek and caressed her soft skin until she leaned into my palm and let me cradle her. “Nothing about that is a curse.”

Chapter 29: Cass

After the night I showed up at Marcus’s apartment, we set a fifteen-straight-nights streak where I came over and we screwed each other until we were too tired to move. On the sixteenth night, we had every intention of keeping up our streak, but I convinced Marcus to watchThe Silence of the Lambs,and then neither of us felt particularly horny after that.

On the seventeenth night, Marcus took my hand and rushed me through his apartment as soon as I arrived. We made a gold medal dash to the bathroom, where he proudly showed me an empty drawer he cleared out just for me. I had barely caught my breath when he pulled me into his walk-in closet, where he had sectioned off three feet of space and had cleaned out an entire set of three drawers. A fourth drawer contained a dozen brand new lingerie sets, true to his word. I was honestly so moved by the entire gesture that I sucked him off right in the closet.

Before long, I knew Marcus’s body almost as well as I knew my own. I memorized the freckles on his shoulders and I had kissedeach one of them. My tongue had traced his collarbone on more than one occasion. I even knew where to suck on his neck to make him swear out loud while I was riding him.

And he knew exactly where to press his fingers adjacent to my clit to make tears form in my eyes. His lips had worshiped the dimples on my back, just above my ass, more times than I could count. There wasn’t a single inch of my body that he hadn’t kissed at least once—not a single inch.

But even with the mind-blowing sex, the highlights were the mornings after. Groggily, but hand in hand, we walked Frank together in the sunrise hours. When we returned to Marcus’s king size bed, we would read Reddit posts together on his iPad or he would make a pot of coffee before bringing me a cup while Frank and Sammy slept soundly at my feet. Some days we lay together in the dark as the sun gradually peeked through the curtains, with Marcus’s hands running over my bare skin and his lips on the column of my neck as he whispered to me. He told me I was too gorgeous for him to comprehend. I told him that no man had ever transfixed me quite like he had.

At work we were professional—if not standoffish. We would arrive separately and leave separately, sometimes not even bothering to greet each other in the morning or say goodnight at the end of the day. It became a game to us—a test of how well we could throw people off our trail. That game was our primary form of entertainment in an otherwise uneventful due diligence process.

And every day, I tried not to look at him even though we both knew I was always looking at him. He made it so hard. All he had to do was drum his fingers on the table, and I would remember all the places those fingers had pleasured on my body. He would run his hand through his brown hair, and I would think of all the times I pulled on that hair when I was coming. He would chew on his thumbnail when he was deep in thought, and Iwould recall the times his thumb had parted my lips—mouth and pussy. For once, my infallible memory was a blessing. I had an endless stock of vivid, lurid memories of Marcus Fitz, each more indulgent than the last.

Those indulgent memories that we created together extended far beyond the physical. Even before we got together, Marcus had awoken a competence kink in me that I never realized I had. His shrewdness. His attention to detail. His organization. His ability to poke holes and prepare for the worst. What was once a deep professional respect shifted into an outright fascination—if not a matter of pride. Nobody was more capable than Marcus Fitz; the fact that he wanted me made me feel chosen. Worthy.Special.

Andstill, I quickly ascertained that like me, Marcus was so much more than meets the eye. Each day was something new: a due diligence of our own. He observed me with curiosity, his mind turning as he slowly uncovered more about me. Contrary to my nature, I let him. It was a stretch, one that often left me uneasy. But Marcus was patient, tactfully following the facts like little breadcrumbs I left behind for him.

One morning, he was getting dressed for an early meeting while I lazed in his bed with Sammy on my chest. From his closet a few feet away, he looked me up and down, raised an eyebrow, and said, “Question.”

“Typical.”

Marcus nodded his chin at Sammy and me. “That cat hates everybody except for you. She had been in the shelter for eight months by the time I got her, and she scratched the shit out of me for half a year. You two are as thick as thieves now, which I appreciate—but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t suspicious.”

Smugly, I scratched the top of Sammy’s head, and she purred gratefully in response. “Where’s the question, Fitz?”

“Be honest: Are you a serial killer?” he quipped. “Because I feel like you two are connecting on some, like, evil wavelength. Like a game recognize game kind of thing.”

“You got me,” I replied facetiously, nodding. “I’m just here to murder you. I’m waiting until you marry me and leave all your assets to me, so I can kill two birds with one stone. Getting rid of your annoying assandpaying off all my debt at once? That’s the dream, baby boy.”

Marcus chuckled as he pulled a polo shirt over his head. “I like you so much I would probably just let you murder me. I’d be completely fine with it.” He walked over and stood in front of the full-length mirror on the wall, adjusting his collar as he briefly stared at himself.

“Oh great. I was going to do a subtle, ‘I can’t believe you don’t trust me,’ act like inScream. But now that you’re cool with it, let’s go big and spectacular. I’m thinking something really complicated like inSaw.”

“Saw III. I’m in.” Marcus took a few steps towards the bed so he could lean over and high-five me, which should have been cringe-inducing for both of us, but he just made it look so damn adorable.

Smiling, he strolled back into his closet and emerged a few minutes later wearing a pair of well-tailored slacks that did incredible things to the lean muscles in his legs.

“You look amazing,” I informed him, wondering if there was any way I could persuade him to skip this early meeting and to get back into the bed.

“Thanks.” Marcus gestured at his outfit. “I’m put together but still casual, right? That’s always the look I’m going for.” He turned and looked at the mirror on his wall again. “When deep down, I’m never casual.”

“Casual people are boring,” I told him. “I like that you’re type-A plus.”

Once more, he walked over and leaned down to kiss me.

“That means the world to me coming from the grandest overachiever I’ve ever met. Seriously. I thought you were the most intimidating person in the world when we were in college.”

I sat up and stretched, letting the sheet fall from my chest and making Sammy reluctantly slink over to the end of the bed. As soon as my bare breasts came into view, Marcus’s eyes homed in on them. His cheeks flushed pink and his pupils practically dilated as his gaze went straight to my nipples.

“Relax,” I warned as I pulled the sheet back up to cover myself. “You have to go to work soon.”

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