Page 105 of Mr. Hook-up

That would take a few weeks at least.

But, in the end, I knew it would clear her name. It wouldn’t solve who had sent the email, but at least it would prove she hadn’t stolen our designs and software and acted as a mole for Faceframe.

Deep down, I knew she had nothing to do with this. Someone was responsible, and it wasn’t her.

But how I approached that with the guys was a whole different story.

There were many layers to this.

And they all started with Love.

I pushed up my sleeves, despite the air-conditioning vent blasting above me, the sweat already bubbling on my face, and said, “I have something to tell you both. Something that’s probably going to blow your minds.”

“Does it have anything to do with what happened today?” Holden asked, his voice cautious, his expression somewhat concerned. “With Drake, I mean.”

“It has to do with Drake,” I confirmed.

The beginning was the only place to start. It was just a difficult point to get across because Holden wasn’t going to approve of my actions, not after he’d warned Grayson and me about dating our employees.

Not that his approval mattered anymore; shit definitely couldn’t get worse than it already was.

“The moment she came in for her interview, there was something about her that was intensely familiar,” I told them. “I didn’t know what it was, I just knew I’d somehow seen her or been around her, but what caused that feeling, I couldn’t put my finger on.” I rubbed my palms together, the heat from my face working its way to my hands. “That feeling grew over the next two weeks, and if I’m being honest—which is why I called you both in here—I did everything I could to be around her. I came up with excuses to go into her office, I was going for extra coffee when I knew she was in the kitchen, I would try to share elevators with her, I would hang around at the end of meetings just so I could talk to her more.”

Holden’s brows raised. “Because you were trying to pinpoint what it was that was so familiar about her?”

I looked at Grayson. Unlike Holden, I could tell he’d read between the lines.

“Well, yes, Holden, there’s that, but I was also growing feelings for her at the same time. A type of connection that I’d only ever felt with Love.”

“Love?” Holden’s brows stayed raised. “Wait, wait, wait. You mean, she wasn’t just someone you wanted to sleep with—which upsets the hell out of me, but we’ll get to that in a second. You wantedmorewith Drake?”

“Yes.”

Holden crossed his legs, his foot shaking while he silently gazed at me. “You know I’m all about you finding Love or love, but as a cofounder of this company, I’m going to have a hard time supporting that you wanted more with her.” His stare intensified. “Easton, please don’t tell me you’re sleeping with our director of app development and engineering.”

“You mean Drake,” I corrected.

“Her title matters,” Holden countered. “She’s a director at our company—or was—and she’s—”

“She’s Love.” My stare shifted from him to Grayson. “Drake is SaarasLove.”

“She’s ...what?” Holden exhaled.

Grayson’s hand landed on the edge of my desk. “Shut the fuck up.” He lifted his finger, stopping me from commenting, and went on. “Drake Madden is Love. Is that what you’re telling us? That the woman you fell for all those years ago is her?”

“The woman who broke his heart,” Holden added.

“They’re one and the same,” I told them.

I went over to the bar in my office, pouring myself several fingers’ worth of scotch.

I didn’t even know what time it was.

I didn’t fucking care.

Nor did I offer any to my friends when I returned to my desk and took a long drink. “Now you know why she was so familiar to me. Why her lips, eyes, her body, even her goddamn scent were all things that resonated every time I looked at her, every fucking time I got a whiff.”

“You’ve slept with a lot of women, Easton,” Grayson said. “I don’t know how you remembered, especially given that her face was wrapped in lace that night.”

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