Page 35 of Tops
Not that I settled on a singular deity. Religion wasn’t something I factored into a whole lot of my decisions. Don’t be an asshat. Simple enough. But it did remind me to find a way to apologize to Colten. Mike led me into the building and over to a glass elevator, bypassing the front desk. No one rushed to stop us, not even when Mike pushed the button to go to the twenty-third floor, which was labeled executive.
The doors slid shut, and the elevator started its smooth rise. At least this room was larger than Tanner’s one I was in yesterday. I’m not sure I could have handled the trip if I had been pressed shoulder to shoulder against Mike the entire time. Relief still poured through me when the doors opened, and Mike headed out of the small space. We made our way to a door at the end of the short hallway. The tag read “Colten Black. Attorney at Law.”
Mike knocked once and then opened the door for me, but did not go inside. Colten was inside the room, hunched over a wooden desk. Strands of hair hung low on his face while his glasses sat partway down his nose. He looked to see me and quickly adjusted his appearance before inviting me in. Mike shut the door behind me before I heard footsteps walking away.
I took my purse and coat off and headed for a seat opposite the desk. I looked up to Colten, but my eyes were drawn instead to the bookshelves behind him. They were filled with thick-bound academic works. Most of them were law-related, but I also saw other works about Leonardo da Vinci.
“I’m sorry about yesterday,” I said quickly, looking at him. I wanted to make sure I said it. Of course, now I wished I had used more tact as Colten looked at me, rather confused. “When I called you the suit. I’m sorry. I was an asshat.”
“Asshat?” Colten said with a boyish smile and a single raised eyebrow.
I sighed in relief as I took a welcomed deep breath. The air already felt better now that Colten was smiling again. Major improvement from him refusing to look at me last night.
“I was an asshat, and I apologize,” I repeated, giving him a soft smile to show I meant it. “Oh! And nice office, by the way. I bet the views from up here are incredible.”
“Go and see for yourself,” Colten said with a smile as he gestured toward the floor-to-ceiling windows to his left. Two entire walls of his office were made entirely of glass, giving a dizzying view of the busy city below.
As I approached the glass, I felt the nervous excitement of looking down at everything from such a height. It was a thrill, a rushing type of sensation. My heart pounded harder in my chest, making me want to move. It was nothing like the paralyzing fear of a fluttering heartbeat. Fast and hard were not the same.
I didn’t move away from the glass. Preferring to sit and bask in the feeling as I watched all the people moving like ants in a community across their well-worn paths. The city didn’t look like an unforgiving jungle from this angle. It looked like a society within a snow globe to observe. I felt the electric current of Colten before I noticed he had gotten up from the desk to join me at the window. Flashing him a quick smile over my shoulder before looking back at the little society my mind craved to analyze.
Colten gave me a few more minutes before he cleared his throat. I tore my gaze away as I turned to face him. His posture was confused, both shy but assertive. He looked at me like he could control my very breathing with his words, but his body wasn’t ready to back him. He lacked confidence.
Colten really had no idea how attractive he was. All it would take is a little more certainty in how he holds himself, and he would be battling women off him with a stick. He could get a woman as attractive as Hannah on her knees before him while he looked down at the insignificant ant people below.
“You look nice today,” he said, even uncertainty washed into his tone. Maybe it was only the look in his eyes that promised such domineering control.
“Tanner picked it out. He doesn’t seem to like my clothes.” Looking down at my dress, I remembered the best part. “It does have pockets,” I said excitedly as I pushed my hands into the space for demonstration.
His eyes traveled down to where my hands disappeared into the dress’s skirt before he slowly accessed the rest of my body. I fidgeted slightly when his gaze settled on my small breasts, and I hoped he wouldn’t find them too disappointing.
“You wanted to talk about safety?” I said quietly, not knowing how to simply stand there and wait while he mentally calculated my every flaw.
“Among other things,” Colten said cryptically. He turned away from me to take his seat.
I sighed, looking out the window before returning to my chair.
“Tanner said he told you about our meeting with Fynn last night,” Colten said once I was seated.
“You went too?” I asked. Tanner hadn’t said anything about Colten being with him.
“I was the one that got the message to Fynn that we wanted to arrange a meeting. Fynn and I were closer as kids than Tanner and Fynn were. It was a little easier for me to know how to get his attention.” Colten looked away out the window, seemingly lost in his own tale from the past.
“Can you please just explain the history here a little better?” It seemed like Fynn might have had a bigger role in Tanner and Colten’s lives than I had thought. I wanted to understand the dynamics of these men a bit better. Maybe I would figure out why they would want to share a woman when they were all perfectly capable of getting their own.
Colten sighed as he looked down at his desk as if it offered some piece of paper he could hand me rather than telling me. “Fynn was the original third business partner. Tanner, Fynn, and I grew up together. Our fathers had mutual business dealings and lived next to each other. We came up with the idea of being partners when we were just kids.” Colten stopped for a moment. Guess he wanted to watch my reaction.
“When did Nik come in?” I asked. Nik didn’t quite carry himself in the same old money way that Tanner and Colten did.
“Fynn and I are the same age,” Colten said, meeting my eyes now to talk. “When it came time for college, he chose a different path than the partnership. It wasn’t until Tanner was almost finished with his degree that he met Nik, a freshman. Tanner felt like he would make a good third partner, so I met him. Clearly, he impressed.”
“Do you think there is a chance Fynn is trying to get his spot back?” I wondered out loud. Not sure how Hannah or I factored into that.
“I don’t know when it comes to him. Fynn has always been….” Colten trailed off, and his gaze wandered over me again, but this time it made my skin flush. “Unpredictable.”
A shudder rushed through my body as Colten finished. Something about Fynn got under my skin and made me feel like I needed to look over my shoulder.
“Tanner said Fynn wants to meet me,” I said quietly. As if Fynn was the boogeyman, capable of being summoned like a demon from hell.
