Page 56 of Due Diligence

“You two okay?” Alex asked, looking between us. “You both look terrified.”

“Fine,” Marcus interjected, speaking before I could. “I’m fine. We’re just working on some file renaming.”

Marcus lied so well, it took me a moment to even realize that what he said wasn’t true. Then I was left wondering why he would bother to lie about what we were doing, especially to his best friend of ten years—and the CEO of Libra.

“Fun,” Alex replied in that scratchy, lusty voice he always used. His response was so disingenuous that I wasn’t even sure why he said it. But then he turned to me, raised both eyebrows, and said, “Cassie, you’re coming to my birthday party, right? It’s on Saturday. It’s going to be amazing.”

Immediately, I knew he was hitting on me. I’d had enough experience with these too-handsome, too-rich guys—the kind who abandoned the idea of having a real personality because they had too much money and too many abs to need one.

“I didn’t realize you were having a party.” Momentarily, I looked over at Marcus, who was staring blankly at Alex as he leaned back in his chair with his arms folded. I turned my attention back to Alex. “Am I invited?”

“Absolutely,” Alex confirmed in faux disbelief that I didn’t know already. “I could have sworn I told Marcus to ask if you were free.”

“Slipped my mind,” Marcus chimed in, his tone flat. “My bad.”

“This guy,” Alex remarked with a grin. He nodded his head in Marcus’s direction, but he was still smiling at me—leering, almost. “Don’t you love how serious he is? Marcus fucking Fitz.”

“I do,” I responded, not missing a beat. “I love it.”

As soon as I spoke, Marcus cocked an eyebrow in surprise. He shifted in his seat, sitting up straighter—and with a hint of a smile on his lips. That minute flash of joy shot to the top of the endless list of things about Marcus that I found unfathomably adorable.

Naturally, Alex was too busy typing on his phone to notice. After a beat, he handed his phone to me. “Put your number in. I’ll text you all the info.”

I took Alex’s phone and put my info into his contacts. The entire time, I could feel Marcus staring at me outright.

“Perfect.” Alex took back his phone and began to type. Seconds later, my phone lit up at the other end of the table. “I just texted you my number, so now you have it.”

“That’s great.”

“Definitely.” He backed towards the door. “Well, I can let you both get back to all the fun in here. Marcus, do you want to do the call in my office?”

“What call?” Marcus furrowed his brow. “We have a call?”

“Yeah, with Lilac,” Alex said. “Remember? It’s in half an hour.”

“Shit,” he gritted out. “I totally forgot about that.” Marcus did that thing where he inhaled and exhaled before clenching his fist. “Yeah, I’ll be there. See you in thirty.”

“See you in thirty.” Alex stepped out of the room. “Later, Cassie.”

As soon as the door closed and Alex was out of earshot, Marcus turned to look at me and let out a sigh. His handsome face shifted from annoyance back to neutral in a matter of seconds. “Did you enjoy that?”

“Enjoy what?” I returned to my seat with my laptop.

“That whole show.” Marcus cocked his head in the direction of Alex’s office. “I’m so glad he has your number now, by the way. It’s really a dream come true for me.”

“I thought you were my friend. Shouldn’t you be happy that a hot millionaire wants me?” I teased.

His nostrils actually flared. “He’s not good enough for you,” Marcus stated. He picked up his Clif bar again and he took a bite. “At all.”

“Why not?”

“Because he’s a fuckboy with an American Express Black Card who has an Amazon ‘subscribe and save’ auto-order for lube,” he responded, no hesitation.

“Isn’t he your best friend?”

Marcus glanced up at me briefly before he looked back down at the Clif bar in his hand. “Cassie, can you send me that list of ledgers? I want to go over them with a fine-tooth comb. It’ll be late tonight, unfortunately. I’ve got to do a call with our PR firm now.”

“Of course. I’ll send it to you.”

---