Page 52 of As the World Falls

“He’s making an ass of himself and wasting my time in the process.”

She smacks my chest. “Don’t be rude.”

I catch her hand before she can drop it and hold it against my chest as I lean closer into her. She tried to back away but only met the wall as I closed in on her. “That’s a risky move, considering I have you at my mercy right now.”

“Don’t even try anything. We need to be quiet.”

“You’re right. Quiet isn’t the word I’d use to describe any of what I could make you do right now.”

She makes a face of disgust. “You’re sick.”

My blood boils with a delicious heat as I drop my gaze between us. “Is that why you’re turning pink and pressing your chest into me?”

She looks between us, seeing her body cling to mine unwillingly. She straightens and shoves me, making me stumble a step back too far. I nearly fall out of our little hiding spot, and she reaches out, tugging my shirt and pulling me back against her.

I crash into her, planting both of my hands on the wall above her head. Our bodies collide, clinging like magnets that tried to spring apart but couldn’t. Our faces are nearly touching, and when she looks up at me, I can only notice how close her lips are to mine. How easy it would be to cross that invisible line. Right here. Right now.

A slight tremble wracks through her body, and I feel it against mine, making my body come alive with a desperate frenzy I can no longer deny. The need to touch her, to drop my mouth and take hers so unbearably strong. She was close. Too close. I could hardly take it.

Her eyes danced over my face like her brain was trying to work through all the same emotions as I was. Her fingers curltighter into my shirt, and I can’t help but lean just a little closer. She sucks in a breath, and I drop my hands from the wall, letting them land on her hips.

Before I could think to do anything else, muffled voices caught my attention. The closer it got, I realized it was Tobias walking right this way. I looked behind us, seeing the elevator just down the hall facing the corner we turned.

“Don’t move,” I murmur lowly when I face her again. I can almost feel the brush of her lips against mine as I speak, and the forbidden closeness that isn’t quite close enough sends an addicting thrill through me. “Don’t speak,” I add, just to feel it again.

She listens, not doing either as she continues to stare up at me, her eyes blue and wide with so many things I shouldn’t even try to decipher. Tobias’s voice grows louder as he walks past us and straight to the elevator, his phone pressed to his ear and his back to us now. He steps on, never looking back, and the elevator finally closes him inside.

I look back at Cecilia, waiting for her to push me off in a craze, but she doesn’t move. A violent burst of desperation sweeps through me, and I tighten my hands on her hips just before I release her.

“We have work to do,” I finally say, clearing my throat.

She seems to finally snap out of it, pushing herself off the wall and coldly shoulders past me. I keep a safe distance behind her this time as we return to my office. When we get inside, I waste no time giving her some other kind of task to do that will get her out of my vicinity for the time being.

I didn’t want to want her. I hated every reason she was brought into my life. I hated her determination to prove to herself that I was someone unworthy of her and her brother’s time.

I hated all of this, but mostly, I hated that for the first time in what felt like forever, I could actually feel hate or feel anything at all because everything was grey and lifeless until she stormed into my life and made everything turn on its axis.

I needed to be done with her. Wash my hands of her.

I didn’t want to feel anymore.

A knocking sounds at my office door, and I look up to see Tobias walking inside. It was close to nine at night, and everyone in the building was gone, besides us two.

I watched him closer, noticing he hadn’t said anything yet and moving slowly as if nervous. His face was hard, and he looked somewhat angered, and a bad feeling formed in the pit of my stomach. My first thought went to Cecilia. Was something wrong with her? Is she hurt?

“What is it?” I burst out before he could take a seat. He met my gaze, his eyes tired and full of something like remorse, which only made me feel worse.

“The ledgers gone,” he says. I never knew I could feel such relief and doom simultaneously, but apparently, this year has been all about firsts.

“What do you mean it’s gone?”

“I’ve only ever kept it inside my suit pocket and locked away in the glove box of my car. The last I remember, it was locked, but…it’s gone. I can’t find it anywhere.”

“Your car? You kept it locked in your car? Are you mad?” I shout. “Locked or not, that was a naive move on your part. Cars are easily broken into.”

“That’s just it; my car hasn’t been touched. There hasn’t been any sign of anyone breaking into it.”

“So, you misplaced it.”

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