Page 64 of The Probability of Us

I stretch on my tippy toes to whisper in his ear, “Oh, I have no intention of sleeping tonight.” Then I kiss his cheek and walk out of the room, only looking back once I’ve opened the door and finding the brightest smile shining back at me.

Twenty-Five

AUGUST CURRENT DAY (WEDNESDAY)

“Why the pantsuits?” Warren asks as his hands run up my legs and tug me closer to him.

“Warren,” I caution even though my resolve on this issue is slowly slipping away.

We got into the office early today, so I didn’t fight him when he closed my office door behind us, but I haven’t changed my mind about office sex. But I know he knows that if he keeps going and unbuttons my pants, I’ll let him. I’ll let him slide them off me, lift me onto the edge of the desk, and have me right here, right now. But I’ve spent so long building my career, and I won’t jeopardize that. And the sexiest thing a man can do is listen and respect what you say, so the fact that he doesn’t push me makes me love him more.

His lips leave my neck, and he laughs, moving to take a seat across the desk from me. “I wasn’t asking because of that, although I’m glad you’re still thinking about it.”

I narrow my eyes at him as I sit in my chair. “Then why were you asking?”

“You always loved your work dresses and skirts and how they made people more uncomfortable when you were being all badass and shit.” The grin on his face makes me laugh, but underneath there’s a warmth seeping through me that he remembered that small detail about me.

“The last time I wore a dress to work was my first day working here.” I know how he’ll react to this story, so I brace myself as I say, “But you have to promise me you’re not going to kill anybody after I tell you this.”

His eyes darken and the muscles around his jaw tense. “I can’t make any promises when you start a story like that.”

“Of course not.” I sigh. “Well, I’m sure it wouldn’t surprise you to hear that Jason is known as the office creep. But on my first day, I saw it—the way his eyes were always on my legs or my body. The way he positioned himself around me. It felt like I was chosen as his next target.”

Warren looks like he’s about to storm out of this room and go find Jason right now. I glare at him until he settles back in the chair.

“I was at a point in my career that I didn’t need to make that statement with the dresses, so for my own comfort, I switched solely to pantsuits.”

“I didn’t think it was possible to hate that guy more than I already did,” he grits out and I laugh because the reason he hated him before was so petty, but this is a legitimate reason. “How has he not been fired?”

“He’s Clara’s cousin, so unless we have solid proof it’s hard to approach her about it.” I tried, since I was who she trusted most aside from him. But anytime I did, she’d talk to him and come back with comments like“Oh he didn’t mean it like that”or when it was about a female on his team not getting a promotion because they wouldn’t go out with him she’d say,“That’s not why, he said Matt shows a lot more promise”even though we all know who did the work on that team. “Everything he does is just on the safe side of that immediately fireable offenses line, but it’s bad enough that I’ve had to move all the females from his team to mine so they could get their promotions and not have to work in that environment.”

Understanding washes over him and his eyes widen. “And you keep his attention on you, so he won’t bother them as much. That’s why he still thinks he has a chance with you.”

I shrug and look away. I’m not sure I ever made the conscious decision to do it, but it took one look of discomfort from one of the younger girls on the team for me to stop openly showing my disgust for him and start directing his attention my way as much as possible. “I can handle him, and my position is high enough that he can’t do anything to my career. But if one of those girls got hurt or did something they didn’t want to do because they felt powerless, or like it would hurt them at work, I’d never forgive myself.”

He’s quiet long enough that I look up and am surprised to find awe instead of anger on his face. “I said it when I first got here and I’ll say it again, I can promise you that these people look up to you like you wouldn’t believe. And rightfully so because you are not only an amazing leader, but an amazing person.”

Color floods my cheeks even as I shake my head. “I’m just doing the right thing.”

“But so many don’t.”

I look back at him and we just smile at each other.

“We should probably go say our hello’s before we get caught in here,” I say.

I narrow my eyes in question when his smile grows. “You’re thinking about it again.”

As much as I fight it, my smile grows in return because I know exactly what he’s referring to and he’s right. We’re sitting on opposite sides of the desk, if someone walked in now it’d look like we were just having a meeting. But I can’t stop thinking about damn office sex, so being in here feels like we’re doing something dirty.

“How did I ever get work done at Triniti?” I ask, staring at him and never wanting to look away. “Because you are such a distraction.”

I stand and walk towards him as he says, “I think you mean you’re just so in love with me, I’m all you can think about, and when we’re in the same space I’m all you can focus on.”

I can see that it was a joke in his eyes, but I lean over, kiss him, then whisper against his lips, “That’s exactly what I mean.”

His hand moves to the back of my neck when I start to pull away and drags me back for another kiss before I step away.

I open the door, so we actually get to work, and jump back when Peter is on the other side, arm raised like he was just about to knock.

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