Page 70 of Due Diligence

A last-minute favor: Alex’s birthday party is this weekend, and as you know, Lilac likes me to bring a date to these things. I was hoping to bring another friend of mine, but she shot me down (please don’t pity me too much). Any chance you’re free on Saturday night? Happy to double our deal since this is last minute. Let me know.

If not, let’s get drinks soon.

-Marcus

Chapter 19: Cass

Marcus Fitz was put on this earth to test me. I was sure of it. If he wasn’t driving me up the wall with his gold medal ability to put words injust the right orderto make me yearn for him, he was unveiling some subtle quality that reminded me I had never laid eyes on a more endearing guy in my life. On Friday morning, for example, just twenty-four hours after I ruthlessly evaded his declaration of affection, he taught me I had never swooned before.

The sunlight heated our backs through the windows in the conference room. It shimmered on the tempered glass table, surrounding us in this ethereal haze as we sat side by side. He looked handsome in the light. It caught his hair and haloed him, making him look like the tech deity he was to the rest of the world. He was a deity to me in other ways. He fucked like a god—end of story.

At that moment, we were going through personnel records. It was a mundane task for an otherwise beautiful morning, thekind that made me yearn for a respite from the corporate walls that surrounded me. I gave him my attention though; I owed it to him. We were in the process of ensuring we had completed non-compete agreements for all his employees when his phone rang.

“This is my housekeeper. I have to take it,” he informed me. “I’m really sorry about this.”

“No worries,” I assured him.

He rolled his chair a few inches away and faced the other direction as he answered his phone. “What’s up, Mrs. Robbins?”

I could hear a woman speaking on the other line and Marcus was quiet. “U-huh…I see…I see…really.” He released a slow exhale. “Got it. Well, put me on speaker phone and bring me over there.”

There was another long pause and I could see Marcus drumming his fingertips on the tabletop.

“Frank,” he said after a beat. “Yep—this is your father. Mrs. Robbins told me what you did to Sammy’s banana toy. She said there’s catnip everywhere because you ripped it up. Is that true?”

And then he actually paused and waited before he said, “I’m not happy, Frank. This is incredibly disappointing. Is this the kind of corgi you want to be? No? I didn’t think so. We’re going to have a talk about this when I get home. But you better be good until then, okay?” Marcus nodded. “Okay, good boy. I love you. I’ll be home early today.”

After he exchanged a few more words with his housekeeper, he ended the call and rolled back over to me.

“Sorry about that,” he said, shaking his head. He pushed his hand through his hair and then did quick work tidying it again. Put together, as always. “Chaos back at the apartment. Do you have any pets?”

“No. My apartment doesn’t allow them. I love them though.”

“Feel free to take mine off my hands any time you want,” he offered, probably only half-joking. “They run the place. I’m just the guy who pays rent.”

His unashamed sincerity had methiscloseto calling up my OB/GYN and telling her to brace herself because I wanted to have a hundred of this guy’s babies as soon as humanly possible.

“Sorry, we were looking at non-compete commitments, right?”

“Right,” I confirmed, forcing myself to look away from him.

We got through the next couple of hours without interruption and without a single seductive word from Marcus’s lips. That shouldn’t have surprised me at all. Yesterday, he told me he would respect my boundaries. And because he was Marcus fucking Fitz, and because he clearly woke up every morning and chugged a nice big, freshly-squeezed glass of “respects women,” he did exactly what he said he would.

I was an idiot though. This arrangement was supposed to put some much-needed space between us, but all it did was make him infinitely hotter to me.

Just as we were wrapping up the review of Libra’s personnel files, my own phone started to ring. It was sitting on the table between Marcus and me when it lit up with the name:Mom.

Hastily, I declined the call and dropped my phone into my tote, which was resting on the floor by my feet. Within seconds though, Marcus and I could both hear the vibrations of her relentless pursuit.

“Answer it,” he recommended, unfazed and unbothered. “I don’t mind.”

“I’ll call her later,” I lied.

“I mean it,” he insisted, nodding. “We have a company rule: If family calls, you should answer it. Work be damned.”

I stared at him pointedly, my gaze unblinking. After a beat, realization crossed his face. “Oh,” he noted, finally recalling I told him my parents cut me off years ago. “I didn’t mean tointrude. I just figured you would want to talk to your mom. Whenever one of my moms calls, I answer—”

“It’s not your fault,” I assured him.

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