Page 49 of Due Diligence

“I’m sure you have other things to do.”

“Whatever. I’ll work a little late tonight.” He slid his chair up next to me so I no longer had to look over my shoulder to see him.

Eventually, his hand traveled to the back of my chair and stayed there. I hated how much relief that small gesture brought me.

We couldn’t do this.Icouldn’t do this.

I just wished he wouldn’t make it so hard not to.

Chapter 14: Marcus

Cassie stretched her arms up and let out a yawn. I watched as she tilted her head to the left, elongating her neck as she rotated from side to side. It took every bit of willpower I could muster not to lean forward and put my lips on her skin so I could taste the faint, sweet echo of her perfume.

For the last ten hours, she and I had been going over Libra’s financial documents and I spent every minute of all ten of those hours trying to build up enough courage to tell her I hadn’t stopped thinking about Friday night. Not once. And that wasn’t an exaggeration; the only time I came close to thinking about anything else was when I called my moms on Sunday night at the same time Frank got into Sammy’s litter box. But still, it was incredibly telling that the only thing that could keep me from thinking about Cassie was the simultaneous distraction of my parents and my corgi batting around a clump of cat litter.

Gracefully, she lowered her arms. She released a soft hum that bordered on a moan, which naturally shot straight to my dick. “That’s probably enough for one day.”

I checked my watch and saw it was nearly seven. “You think?”

“We can finish the rest tomorrow.” Cassie stood and hoisted her bag off the chair. “Are you heading out?”

“I probably should. I can get the rest of my work done at home.” I returned to my side of the table and picked up my backpack. While I put my stuff away, I looked up at Cassie and saw her lingering by the door to the room, scrolling on her phone.

Briefly, I wondered if she was waiting for me to walk her out. I didn’t know why that thought made me so nervous. I watched her, taking in the way the dress she wore fit her like a second skin. If I hadn’t seen so much of her magnificent, unclothed body, I would want her to wear that dress every day.

I stared too long, because at some point she noticed. She looked up at me and glanced side to side, in the universal gesture forWhat the fuck are you looking at?

“Question,” I said, mostly to deflect, but also because I really did need to ask her something.

“What’s up?”

“On Friday, you mentioned you could get my binder out of the data room. I don’t know if you meant that…”

Cassie furrowed her brow momentarily, but after several seconds her expression softened. “Oh, right. Of course I meant it.” She nodded her head in the direction of my office as she led the way. “Let’s do it now.”

“Great, thanks,” I said as I trailed after her through the empty office. “I know this is against the rules, but I just—”

“It is,” she responded. Cassie took out my key and unlocked the door. As she opened it, she raised a shoulder. “This is more important.”

She didn’t wait for me to react. She disappeared into the office, leaving me standing outside. If she had waited a beat, she would have seen the look of complete and total admiration that crossed over my face.

Screw the rules.

In a split-second decision, I opened the door to my office and entered. Cassie was behind my desk, going through a stack of binders neatly piled in the corner. She paused when she saw me standing there, her expression fixed with confusion.

“What do you want?” she asked after a moment.

I paused, no response. I hadn’t planned that far ahead. I toggled two options: one, be honest and tell her that every time I thought about her, my heart rate went up and my palms started to sweat and I forgot how to put together coherent sentences; or two, I could try to play it cool—nonchalant and seductive like Alex would.

“Marcus,” she said, cutting into the silence. “What do you want?”

Well, it looked like I was going with option one, because the only thing I could do was stare at her wordlessly. Luckily, I was well practiced at keeping my face neutral. I had done it countless times over the years, suppressing eye rolls and grimaces and outright frustration working with Alex. Hopefully it ended up looking more like option two.

“Okay then,” she murmured. She put down the binder she was holding and folded her arms instead. “Is this the part where I find out you’re going to murder me so I can never tell anyone what we did on Friday?”

Not expecting that comment, I pulled my eyebrows together. “That’s dark.”

“I watch a lot of Dateline,” she deadpanned.

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