Page 31 of Sass

I squirmed a little in my chair but managed a cool and distracted, “Hi.”

Go, me.

“Working late again?” He shot me a friendly smile which was going to take some getting used to. But then he frowned. “Something wrong?” He walked across and slid yet another coffee my way before dropping his bag to the floor and taking a seat. “Should I have brought beer?”

“Oh, please sit, by all means,” I said tartly, reaching for the coffee. “And make that a Mai Tai, and you’re on. But thank you. Coffee is fine. Still raining, I take it?”

He shucked off his wet jacket and dropped it on the tarp. “Pissing down. And yeah, figured you’d be a cocktail drinker.”

My brow arched. “Because I don’t look like I could throw back a beer?”

“No.” He smiled with far too much charm. “Because you look... expensive.”

I snorted. “Well, you’re not wrong there, at least not if someone else is buying. But don’t let looks deceive you. I like a good beer as much as the next guy, and I can make a decent cocktail last an hour. I can’t afford to throw money around. It has to work for me.”

Leon’s gaze steadied on mine. “I don’t doubt that for a moment. It would be too damn scared to do anything else... along with the rest of us.”

I studied him in return. “You seem to do just fine holding your own, irrespective of my... moods.”

He cocked a brow. “True. But that doesn’t mean I’m not aware of the risks. I’m just up for the game.” His gaze locked with mine and that lick of heat curling low in my belly was back again. “And I carry a vial of holy water, just in case.”

I barked out a laugh. “Are you flirting with me, Leon?”

He bit back a smile. “Not at all. Because that would be an exceedingly dangerous thing to do under the circumstances, wouldn’t you say?”

“The circumstances?” I took a long swallow of coffee and watched his eyes track down my throat. Oh, this was going to be so much fun.

He looked back up. “Yes. The circumstances in which you’re determined to...bed me, I think were the words you used.” He batted his lashes, which almost cracked me up.

“Oh.” I tapped my lip with my finger, then slid the tip inside to suck on it just for a second. “Thosecircumstances.”

“Nuh-uh.” He wagged a finger at me. “I’m immune to your wicked ways.” He tapped his fingers twice on the desk. “You shall not pass.”

I laughed and relaxed back in my chair. “I’m gonna take that as a compliment. That scene was an epic battle and you’ve a lot to live up to. Butno oneis immune to all this.” I waved a hand over myself and this time it was Leon who laughed.

“Soyou say. Now, drink your coffee and tell me what’s got your dander up. Leave me to worry about casting you into the fires of damnation.”

I snorted and reached for the coffee. “Trouble is, I suspect I might like it down there.”

He finished the last of his coffee and nodded. “Me too. Beats the hell out of sharing eternity with a bunch of overachieving do-gooders.”

We sat grinning at each other for far too long, and then, for some unfathomable reason, I told him about my day.

Leon listened without comment until I was done, and even then, he didn’t rush to offer me a solution. They were both admirable traits I’d found to be scarce in men who mostly wanted to solve my problems to show how clever they were. I might’ve been just a little bit impressed.

“So, what are you going to do about it?” He steepled his hands over his chest and waited.

“I’ve been racking my brains trying to think of an alternative before I call him.” I slumped in my chair. “But so far, nothing brilliant has sprung to mind. And I don’t know why the hell I’m telling you all this.”

Leon threw his empty takeout cup in the bin and leaned forward. “Maybe because I’ve run my own business for ten years and I get it.”

I blew a worried sigh. “Yeah, maybe. I’m swimming way out of my depth on this.”

He sat there and said nothing, long enough to make me fidget.

“What?” I narrowed my gaze. “It’s true. And it’s exactly what I was worried about when Rhys said he wanted me to run his business.”

Leon grinned. “How can a kick-arse guy like you, a man who’s run social media campaigns that have aided in the take down of thieving designers and disgusting sexual predators, feel so rattled by a simple manufacturing delay?”

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