Page 79 of Due Diligence

“You’re an asshole,” I informed him from my spot in the hallway outside of his apartment.

“For?”

“For living in Tribeca, for one,” I remarked as I looked him up and down.

Only an hour had passed since we parted ways at Alex’s party, and Marcus had already changed into a white t-shirt and a pair of black, athletic sweats. Immediately, I knew Loungewear Marcus was my second favorite Marcus, right behind Nightclub Marcus.

Unfazed, he continued to smile at me. He was so frustratingly handsome and seemed to grow more attractive the more I looked at him. I wanted to punch him for that. “Why else am I an asshole?”

“For whatever game you’re playing with me and with Erin.”

Marcus glanced over his shoulder and then looked back at me. “Keep it down. She’s going to hear you.”

“She’shere? Ugh, you’re disgusting. I really never—”

Marcus stepped into the hallway and pulled me towards him by my shoulders. He kissed me hard, taking my mouth with the kind of possessiveness I had grown to yearn for over the past week. “She’s not here,” he said hurriedly, before he kissed me again.

“Does she know I’m here?” I asked as I wrenched my lips from his.

He shook his head. “Nope. I’m not ready to stop yet,” he informed me as he continued his decadent capture of my mouth. He pressed his tongue between my lips and I could feel him smiling as my arms relaxed involuntarily. No matter how hard I tried, my body responded to his and was basically ordering my brain to shut up and get on board.

“Marcus…” I said between kisses. “Does Erin know—”

“Probably.” He lowered his lips to my neck. “She doesn’t care. Even if she did, why do you care?”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I questioned. I finally pulled away from him and took a step back.

Without breaking eye contact with me, he took his thumb and rubbed it along his lower lip, where my red lipstick was smeared around his mouth. He glanced down at the blotch of red on his thumb and back up at me. His expression darkened, andohthat made me flutter with anticipation. He nodded his head to the side, signaling for me to come in. I entered the apartment and he shut the door behind me.

“It means you have three guys named Will in your phone, whose last names are saved as the different places where you met them.”

I froze in place, my eyes widening “Did you go through my phone?”

“No. I just guessed,” he admitted. A frown arose on his face. “Wait, am I right?”

Instinctually, my hand went to my purse. It took me a beat to realize checking my phone to verify his suspicions would be nothing short of an admission of guilt. “My hookups are not the point. The point is, you brought another woman to a party and paraded her in front of me. Now you think I’m just going to come over here to your fancy apartment and screw you on the same night?” Then I finally looked around the apartment and realized we weren’t in Kansas anymore. “Holy shit. How much does this apartment cost you?”

He folded his arms over his chest. “Way too much. But it’s within walking distance of the office, so that’s convenient. And there’s a green patch on the balcony where Frank can use the bathroom. Do you want to meet my dog, by the way? I put him in my office. My cat’s there too, but she hates meeting new people.”

“No, I don’t want to meet your dog. I want to talk about the shit you pulled with Erin.” I paused, shrugged, and admitted, “And then, yeah, after we talk I would love to meet your dog.”

Marcus took a step forward and put his hands on my waist. I loathed how much it excited me to suddenly feel his hands on the tight leather, softly pressing on my body. “Erin and I are platonic.”

“So? I’ve had plenty of platonic relationships that have involved sex.”

Marcus canted his head. “That means they’re not platonic.”

“In your book.”

“In the dictionary, Cass…” He gave me a peck on the lips before I could stop him. “She’s not here; you are. You’re the only person I want here and the only person I wanted at that party. But you turned me down—”

“So you decided to make me jealous?”

“I needed a date. I asked you. You said no. I found someone else. I’m not sure where, in that sequence of events, I can be accused of trying to make you jealous.”

“Why did youneeda date?”

He sighed. “It’s in my contract. I’m supposed to show up to events with a date so I don’t look like a bachelor or a fuckboy—like Alex.”

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