Page 46 of Due Diligence

“That’s good.”

The silence that followed set in like a fog more deadly than anything I had ever seen in a John Carpenter film. And honestly, a mystical fog would have been a great addition to this momentbecause then I could choke on it, start coughing, and then we wouldn’t have been trapped in this deafening silence.

I busied myself with my laptop and pretended to check email, even though I read my email on my phone while I was waiting for the subway. That charade didn’t last long. It only lasted two minutes before I ended up staring at him again. Today, he was wearing a black polo shirt—and he was honestly wearing the hell out of it. It hugged his pectoral muscles, subtle yet sexy—maybe because I knew exactly what it felt like to touch those muscles.

“Something wrong?” he asked. He was staring at me over the top of his laptop. After a few seconds, he raked his hand through his brown hair. “Did I do something?”

Yeah, you used your warlock sex powers and made me obsessed with you, you douchebag.

“No, sorry. I was just thinking about what to write in an email.”

“Okay,” he said in that condescending, passive aggressive way he always did. “Well, let me know when you have a minute to talk.”

There it went again—my stomach driving that zero to sixty Tesla. “About what?”

“According to my calendar, we’re supposed to do a preliminary run through of the financials to make sure I uploaded the right documents.” He respired as he leaned against the back of his chair. It bobbed twice as it settled with a gentle squeak. “What exactly does that entail?”

It was a miracle I kept the disappointment off my face upon hearing he wanted to talk about due diligence and not what happened on Friday night. I managed to nod. “Good question. I run through a checklist to make sure all the right documents are there, as you said, but I also do some light auditing.”

“Light auditing?”

“The team at PricewaterhouseCoopers does the in-depth auditing, but I do some initial work. My background is in financial analysis, so it’s just something I do to tighten up the process.”

He dipped his head in recognition. “It doesn’t sound like you need me to do that,” he responded. “Or…”

It took me a beat to realize he was asking if he needed to hang around me today. Once that realization hit, my ears began to heat. I couldn’t believe I spent fifteen minutes planning an outfit, ultimately opting for the tightest sheath dress I owned, only for him to tell me he would prefer to keep his distance today. It was borderline humiliating if anything.

But maybe it was for the best. Staring at him now, I could only imagine the problems it would create if we had a repeat of Friday night.

He was a seller. I represented the buyer. This simply couldn’t happen.

I raised a shoulder. “Up to you.” If he wanted to do something else, he was welcome to it.

He lifted the coffee cup by his laptop up to his lips and he took a drink. For a moment, he stared off to the side in the direction of the brick wall to his left, while he considered my guidance in silence. “Maybe I’ll just get you going and then I’ll step away if it’s not productive for me to be here.”

“Sure.”

Marcus walked over to the seat adjacent to mine. When he was next to me, the presence of his body lit up carnal memories. That recognition then sparked a momentary identity crisis for me; I really couldn’t remember a single occasion when a guy in a polo shirt and loafers had any effect on me. I allowed myself a brief glance in his direction, which was a huge mistake because I noticed he was wearing an Apple Watch. It was unsurprising, based on everything I knew about Marcus, but it was just so…nerdy. And then I devolved into a second (though luckily still brief) identity crisis because I found myself looking at that Apple Watch and thinking it was the most adorable thing I had seen in months.

“Did I do something?” he asked.

I didn’t blame him for asking; I had been quiet for about thirty seconds, glancing at him like a teenager who didn’t even know how to be in her own skin. I managed to bring myself back to earth, just in time to say, “Can you see my screen?”

“Yep.”

“Great. I work best when I start from the earliest numbers and work my way to the present. You hired a Chief Financial Officer five years ago, right?”

“Right. His name is Morgan.”

“So, it’s safe for me to assume the messiest record keeping is from the earlier years, I’m guessing.”

“None of it is messy.”

When I looked over my shoulder at Marcus, he was reclining in his chair with his arms folded over his chest. Even that simple, relaxed posture reminded me of Friday night—and immediately had my libido on alert.

“You sure?”

“Of course I am. I was the one tracking the finances.” He raised his thumb up to his mouth and pressed it between his lips as he chewed on the nail. “But I welcome your thoughts.”

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