Page 143 of The Re-Proposal

Disgruntled whispers fill the room.

I turn back around, quieting them all with a seething stare. “After today, you’re all f—”

“Excuse me.” The door flings open and Vargas waves at me from outside.

Stunned, I stare at him. He leans his body forward. His upper half is in the room while his feet are technically in the hallway.

“What are you still doing here?” I grunt.

Vargas licks his lips nervously. “Sorry to interrupt, but there’s someone important in the next room. They’re asking to see you right away.”

I scowl so darkly the plant next to the window withers. “It can wait.”

“I don’t think it can.”

I stiffen at his insistence and then I start to pay attention. Under ordinary circumstances, my assistant would never interrupt me.

Not unless it’s about Clarissa.

Vargas gives me a loaded look and nods. “It’sher.”

I don’t need to hear anything else. Nostrils flaring, I button my jacket and stalk out of the room so fast a chair spins.

“What the hell do you mean she’s ‘in the next room’?” I mutter, stomping in front of Vargas. “I told you to get her out of here.”

“You try getting that woman to do something she doesn’t want to do,” Vargas hisses. “She’s as stubborn as you are.”

I give him a dirty look for that comment. “I hope you didn’t set this up.”

He opens the door for me. “Do I look like I enjoy getting my head chewed off?”

I glare at him and swing my gaze forward.

Clarissa is inside my office, sitting in the chair behind my desk. Sunlight pours from the floor to ceiling windows behind her. Her milk chocolate skin glows, drinking in the light. She looks like a woman made of fire.

I take a cautious step inside, wondering what was so important that she interrupted my meeting. Ris has me wrapped around her pinky finger, but she needs to learn that there’s a time and a place to tug on my chain.

“You’re supposed to be at Maggie’s place,” I grunt, moving toward her.

“I need to talk to you.”

Vargas closes the door quietly.

“You could have come in yourself.”

“I couldn’t stop you in front of them.” Her voice is soft, alluring. “You never interrupt a king in his own kingdom.”

My mind knows this is some kind of set-up, but my body doesn’t care. It’s chomping at the bit to have more of whatever Clarissa wants to dish out.

“King?”

She stands and tilts her head coquettishly. I’m not used to this teasing side of her. The Clarissa I know is quiet, innocent, entranced in her own mission to make the world a better place.

But right now, she’s focused on me and it’s incredibly sexy. As sexy as everything she does.

Ris glides over to me, presses her pretty hands on my shoulders and drives me down into the sofa. I let her guide me, ignoring the fact that—at this very moment—my entire security department is waiting, dangling over the proverbial cliff of termination.

None of that matters.

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