Page 104

He shakes his head, his expression soft.
“Me either,” I say.
“Good thing we’ve got hot water then,” he grins, flashing his perfect smile.
I grab the bubble bath and pour more into the stream. A layer of fresh froth swirls between us.
“Tell me something,” Marcus says.
I raise a brow suspiciously. “Okay…”
“You said you’ve had a crush on me for two years?”
I groan, covering my face, but I can’t help a smile taking over my mouth.
He laughs. “No, really - I want to know.”
I peek through my fingers and nod. “Yea, I have.”
“So why didn’t you ever try to talk to me before?”
“I don’t know,” I say, my hands slowly dropping back under the water. “I don’t really see you that often.”
“Mmm. You see me often enough.”
I smirk. “Well, why didn’t you make a move on me? Apparently, you couldn’t stop thinking about me after the gala last year,” I remind him playfully.
“I already told you that,” he says confidently. “I thought I was too old for you. I didn’t want to risk looking like a creep. Sexual harassment allegations aren’t really my thing,” he adds with a laugh.
I roll my eyes. “Fine. I don’t know… I just… didn’t have the right opportunity, I guess.”
“Or the right amount of alcohol,” he teases, that devilish look back in his eye.
I burst out laughing as heat burns across my face.
“Okay, yea… maybe that too.”
His foot brushes along my side again, soft and soothing. He studies me, and I swear he’s looking right into the core of me. There’s something so steady in the way he looks at me – his eyes convey his soul and it doesn’t matter that there’s still so much I don’t know about him.
I feel at home with him. Like I’ve found my place. My person.
Then his gaze drops and his hand traces his jaw.
“I had also wondered…” he says, his voice low. “If maybe… you were going out with Carter.”
I blink. For a beat, I just stare at him, before a laugh bubbles out of me. “Carter? As in, the Carter currently dating your assistant? That Carter?”
Marcus’s brows rise in amusement as the softness comes back into his eyes.
“Yea, I mean, he’s your age. You two always seemed close. I remember watching the two of you and just… assuming.”
I laugh again, shaking my head. “He’s also shagged his way through half of Manchester! And just to be clear –no –I amnotin that half!”
Marcus laughs, looking relieved, but there's still a heaviness hanging over him.
"I told you," I say, softer now, rubbing his side with my foot. "He's like a brother to me. Always has been. There's never been anything romantic there, and there never will be."
He exhales, a sound that's part laugh, part relief. "I know. I believe you. It's just – God, that thought stuck with me for so long. Every time I saw you two together, it… bothered me more than I ever wanted to admit."