Page 91 of Don't Game Me
“Yes, there will be abut,Noah. I need a personal workspace. An office, maybe even a lab space.”
Noah’s eyes widened. Respect glimmered in his gaze. “We can do that.”
“I need a laptop. I don’t have one anymore. I dumped mine since I was worried it had spyware on it.”
“Sure.” Noah sipped the coffee.
“I’m not calling either of you boss or sir.” She glanced between Jake and Noah.
Michael picked at his nails and whispered to her out of the corner of her mouth, “You should ask for commuting expenses. The subway isn’t cheap. Maybe you want to take a cab every day.”
She whispered back, “Is that a real thing?”
He shrugged. “They’re in a tight spot.”
“Whose team are you on?” Noah asked.
“I’m the big brother, which means…hers.” Michael chuckled when Noah’s face blotched red as if he might explode.
“Fine. Commuter expenses. Whatever.” Noah slammed down his mug of coffee so hard it sloshed over. He muttered a curse and grabbed a kitchen towel.
“Not that. Use those.” Noah pointed at the paper towels.
Michael said, “Bec, I think you better ask for an exclusion to the infamous clause in their contract about dating employees.”
Silence descended as Michael and Jake stared at each other.
“We’ll write in an exclusion,” Jake said. “We’re not discussingthat, because there’s nothing for us to talk about.”
Nothing?As in they were over or perhaps Jake meant to discuss keeping them sex only. No dating. Either way hurt. “I’m taking a shower beforework. You guys work out who’s driving me in this morning.”
Jake watched her walk off to shower with regret festering a hole in his stomach. Well, he’d fucked that up.
He wanted more with her. Yet, as usual, he freaked out when the moment came to commit publicly to something more than easy sex.
“Good luck fixing that.” Michael put the empty plate in the sink. He slapped a hand on Jake’s back. “You need to work on not saying shit that’ll get you in hot water later. I’m outta here.”
Noah glanced up from his cell phone. “I might be in late. Tori wants to work on re-booking the honeymoon. The first time took hours of negotiation. Now she wants to go to Tahiti. You handle contract things with Becca. Try not to make her any madder, will you?”
Both brothers left.
Jake sat heavily on a stool and rubbed his head. Her absence weighed on him. He should go talk to her, maybe even make love to her in the shower.
Sex wouldn’t solve this. It’d be good. Afterward, they’d still be murky as hell. He wasn’t clear what he wanted. Everything about this with her was unchartered waters. Their chemistry made him do stupid things. Maybe it did the same to her.
He should admit to her he thought he loved her. Yet, he didn’t know what the hell love was. Maybe this wasn’t love but infatuation with good chemistry.
29
Becca fast walked out of the elevator toward Jake’s office. She was late to work on her official second day. Yesterday had been mostly about contracts and office space, minutia which had been delegated to Emma. Becca hadn’t seen Jake come home last night, which must’ve been after midnight. This morning, he hadn’t waited for her when he left, as if avoiding her.
Had this hallway to his office always been this long? Her belly fluttered with jitters. She’d arrived hell-bent on resolving their situation. She couldn’t pretend to be a roommate in his place. She wanted in his bed, and him in it too.
She paused outside his office, recognizing his marketing manager who jabbered with big arm gestures. The guy typed at the keyboard of the computer at which they both gazed at the screen. They flipped through a few screens together.
Jake glanced toward the window to the magnificent view. He rubbed a hand over his lightly gelled hair with a look so broken she nearly lost her control and ran to him, to hug him. Between one eye blink and the next, a fake smile appeared on his face but didn’t light up his eyes.
His marketing manager smiled back.
