Page 14 of The Secrets We Keep

“Are you sure your wife wouldn’t mind us going out?”

He shifted, trying to casually adjust himself, and there was a twinkle in his eye as he watched her. “Of course not. We’re just friends, right?”

She grinned and arched a brow. “Right. Friends.”

“So, Anna,” he said, “would you like to have a drink with me tonight?”

Sienna fixed a pretty pout onto her mouth and watched his eyes drop to her lips. “I can’t tonight. Ask me again on Monday.”

He grinned wide and straightened. “Monday, then.”

Turning from her cubicle, Ciro crossed the narrow aisle between their desks and sent her one last flirtatious wink before dropping into his chair and disappearing from view. Sienna shook her head. The man was easily twenty-five years older than she was.

Not that the age gap seemed to bother him much. And if he was too busy thinking with his dick, it would make stealing his credentials to get into parts of the building she didn’t have access to that much easier.

Logging into her system, she checked her email. Not even the years she spent working in IT for the German engineering firm had prepared her for the flurry of emails she received here. Emails scheduling meetings, asking for her input, or just being copied on something someone thought the entire IT floor needed to know, even though it had nothing to do with her actual job.

Every morning it took her almost an hour to wade through the mess, archiving what wasn’t important and replying to what was. Email in and of itself could be a full-time job.

Next she glanced at her calendar. No meetings until after lunch. Afternoon meetings weren’t ideal on a Friday, but at least next week she would begin her three days in the office, two days at home schedule. Showing up to a pointless hours-long meeting was much easier when you didn’t have to wear pants.

She was pulling up the specs for the preliminary project she’d been briefed on at yesterday’s meeting to look at the details when a shadow fell over her desk. She looked up to see Isa staring down her nose, a hint of disdain in the subtle curl of her lip.

“Hey, Isa,” Sienna said, forcing mock cheer into her voice. “Did you need something from me?”

“Just wondering if you know what you’re doing.”

Sienna cast a sidelong glance at her monitors. “With…the project?”

Isa made a big show of rolling her eyes. “Just remember that relationships between employees are strictly forbidden. It’s in the company handbook. Which I’m sure you haven’t bothered to read.”

“I don’t think I’ll have a problem with that one.”

Isa snorted. “Sure. Just try not to get fired like the last one. The workload is hell when we lose a team member. It’ll be doubly so with this in the pipeline.”

Isa didn’t bother to wait for a response, turning on her heel and marching toward the break room at the back of the office.

“Don’t mind her,” Jack said in English from the other side of the wall separating them, his accent smooth and posh. “She’s just mad because Ciro won’t fuck her.”

Ciro poked his head out of his cubicle at the sound of his name. “I hate it when you two don’t speak Italian,” he said. “It isn’t fair.”

“I don’t want to go out for drinks if it will make Isa upset.” Sienna switched back to Italian, keeping her eyes trained on her computer and ignoring Ciro’s grunted protest. “I’d prefer not to make an enemy my first week.”

“Who’s enemies?” Ciro replied. “Isa is just like that. Bitc—grumpy,” he amended at the sight of Sienna’s raised eyebrows. “You’ll see. It wouldn’t matter if you said yes to a drink or not.”

“Well, he is at least right about that,” Jack agreed.

“You see? So when I ask you on Monday to have a drink, you’ll have to say yes.”

Sienna sent him her own flirty wink, shaking her head when he grinned in triumph. Men were entirely too easy to manipulate with the hinted promise of a quick and dirty fuck. But if Ciro was going to make this whole thing easy for her, she’d hardly waste time being upset about it. Maybe it would keep her mind off Luca and all the memories of him she hadn’t been able to bury since he kissed her.

Isa flounced back to her desk, staring daggers at Sienna before flopping into her chair. The sound of her angry typing filled the air, and Sienna rolled her eyes.

Trying to get on Isa’s good side might not be the best use of her time. Especially if Isa had an unreciprocated crush on Ciro. Because Sienna wasn’t going to back down from getting what she needed out of him.

She couldn’t get closer to her targets until she got access to the information she needed. And Ciro was her first step in getting it.

Chapter Eight

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