Page 82 of Keep Your Friends Close and Your… Work Enemy Closer?

"You are?"

"Yes, I am. And it'll be a billion times better than the one Max bought with hismilliondollars."

No idea what to say to that or even what to think, I decided in the end to just let her be, leave her alone to let off some of the steam. So I turned back to my own computer, and then to my phone, shooting off a quick message to my assistant about the original email we'd sent and to please act on it.

Tonight, I'd craft and send the actual email back to Dee. It was too important to do right here on the fly, and besides, the timing would be weird. Although, I had to fucking tell her. I just had to.

But not here. Not in the office. I needed her alone. I needed endless time before us with no one around and no interruptions. So the only thing left to do was to ask the woman out. Officially.

Take her to a nice dinner and then maybe a stroll afterwards where I'd confess it all. And maybe, just maybe, she'd forgive me and give me a chance.

Once Dee's pounding keyboard quieted and the sighs coming from the right of me lost their edge, I sent her an interoffice message. "Feel better?"

"Yes," she wrote back immediately. "Thank you."

Realizing I couldn't ask her out on my company computer, I wrote it out on a note and passed it to her. "Can I take you to dinner sometime?" Keeping it simple. Classy.

She smiled as she read it, a smile that lit me up, but also filled me with nerves. Because she was smiling at Jared asking. Not Max. Most certainly not Max.

"Sure," she wrote back.

"Tonight?"

"Can't. I'm busy all week."

"Okay. So when? Friday?"

Instead of writing back, she nodded at me, a light shining in her pretty eyes. "Okay. Friday."

"Friday then, beautiful."

A beat passed before she turned back to her work, and I took a long moment to watch her, to admire her posture, how she held herself, the way her slender fingers curved on the keyboard.

How had this five-foot-nothing woman done such a number on me? She was everything—sexy, smart, and sassy as fuck.

A sound from my phone drew me away, and I looked down to see a text from Dee. "Meet me in the storage room in five minutes."

I held the phone closer to read it again. Was she fucking serious? Did this mean what I thought it did? Or was this just another work thing and I was reading something into it with my dirty mind?

Turning to look at her to try to gauge her meaning, all I got was a view of her sweet backside as she strode away.

Wait a fucking minute. If this had anything to do with actual work, we'd just be going in there together, right? Like we had in the very beginning of this saga when she'd given me the reorganization task.

So... genius that I was, I had to figure that this was something different. Something very different.

My cock twitched at the thought of what was to come. No double entendre intended.

Shit. She'd said five minutes. I needed to note the actual time and not get ahead of myself.

And in pure agony, I waited. And waited. And waited. The whole time wondering what I'd find when I went in there. Of course, I imagined Dee in all sorts of positions. All sorts of outfits. But in the end, none of that mattered. All I wanted washer. Her smile. Her laugh. Her brand of being.

In the back of my mind, I couldn't erase the sense of guilt I felt, try as I might. Because Dee thought she was fucking with Jared, and the honorable thing to do would be to tell her immediately my real name. No matter the consequences to myself. Because there would definitely be consequences. She'd put a stop to this. She would hate me. And she'd never speak to me again.

Fucking hell. I hated that thought.

Not sure what to do, I glanced at my phone clock and it was time.

So I stood up and walked the familiar path to the storage room, which was all the way in the back, out of the way, neglected and hopefully forgotten. I'd let Dee lead the way, wait and see what she had in mind before I jumped to any conclusions.

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