Page 24 of The Refusal

I’m ignoring that comment.

James folds his arms on his chest. “He is like the hottest guy in New York right now.”

“And you know him!” Des nods, his head bobbing excitedly. “God was not smiling on the world when he decided Janus Phillips would not be gay,” he mutters, ducking into his screen to stare at something.

I spread my hands out in a shrug. “Don’t be ridiculous—he’s a client!”

“And?” James is looking at me closely.

I roll my eyes. “Can you imagine the epic fallout if I started up something with Janus?” I start to laugh, but they’re looking at me like I’m some raving cat woman. Oh, God, they’re right, I need to get laid. Janus and I have met twice now for our “mentoring” sessions, and each time we meet all I want to do is kiss that smirking grin right off his mouth. The real worry is that I am going to be tempted into doing just that. How embarrassing would that be? I need another guy to distract me. I’m not even concentrating that well on my work at the moment.

“You mean the kind of epic fallout when one woman says to another: ‘How sensible is she, banging the pants off that incredibly hot guy?’” Des shakes his head at me.

“Or says, ‘I’d tap that if it was within fifty feet of me,’” James adds, and he and Des high-five each other from their swivel chairs.

“Come on, guys, not Janus Phillips, okay? He’s a womanizer. There are loads of pictures of him kissing women in the press—usually models—sometimes different ones in the same week. He’s known as Mister-Couple-of-Months.”

James waves a hand in dismissal. “I’m sure that was ages ago.”

“I’m sure it wasn’t,” I mutter into my keyboard.

Des pretends to think about this. “I can’t convince myself he’s a womanizer. I don’t think he’s a liar or a cheater. He just has the opportunity to take out a lot of stunning women, and why wouldn’t you? Well, if you weren’t gay,obvs.”

“And he’s into you.” James points a pen over the screens at me.

I gawp at him. I kind of know this, but I’m trying to ignore it and other people definitely shouldn’t be thinking it. Janus takes beautiful models to social events. There was a picture of him in the paper at some red-carpet thing last night, so he’s clearly not that into me, or he would have asked me.

Okay.

No.

Just … No, Jo.

Where did that thought come from? I want to slap my head. He’s a client. He’s sleeping with numerous women. A stone sinks to the bottom of my stomach.

“He’s not into me,” I say.

“That’s not the gossip on the hotline.” Des smirks at me.

My head snaps up.What the hell?Has there been something on social media I haven’t seen? Des is one of those people who has eyes and earseverywhere. He always knows someone who knows someone. A hot spear shoots through me.

“Whatgossip?”

“Don’t have a conniption. A friend of mine at the TechConn conference said Janus was fighting off hordes of men and dragging you away.”

Honestly, the tittle-tattle in this industry. All my fears and hopes rush up my throat. Rumors about Janus and me are the last thing I need.

“That was when we got the call about the second hack attempt, okay? He had Matt on the line and needed to talk to me.”

“Oh.” Des is clearly deflated, but a thousand horses’ hooves have started up in my chest. If my staff are gossiping, how many more people are?

James shrugs and goes back to his screen. “Still, it’d be hard to find anyone hotter than him.”

Ugh. I wish he hadn’t said that.

“Guys,” I say, “we need another candidate.”

At that, their heads both snap up and Des gives me an evil grin. I groan as I realize what I’ve said: I’ve agreed to their nefarious plan to set me up with some guy.

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