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Jude had practically whooped when I got to the best parts of the presentation.

“Shit, if even half the things you say are true—”

“They are.”

“That was really incredible,” Chelsea said. She looked almost awestruck.

“Yeah man,” Eli said. “I’m impressed.”

Even Grumpy Lumberjack Griffin frowned, but it didn’t look like an unhappy frown.

But while all the Kelly siblings’ opinions were important—critical—to the decision making, there was only one person whose opinion mattered to me right now. Cassandra. The woman I’d nearly kissed this morning.

Finally, I allowed myself to look at her.

Cassandra’s eyes were on me, her expression somehow still murderous. But layered overtop of it was something like… admiration.

Relief washed over me in a wave. Elation, too. I’d just saved this project.

And only she and I knew it.

Now I wanted to whoop like Jude had done. Instead, I gave a nod and straightened my tie, unrolling my sleeves to reattach my cufflinks.

While everyone at the table chatted excitedly—except Cassandra, who spoke quietly to Eli—I sat down, sliding the remote over to Lila, who’d give an outline of the technicalities of the six-week review.

I willed myself to focus on Lila and the numbers. Cassandra and I needed to talk, more now than before. I tried my best not to look at her, telling myself I’d catch her the minute the meeting was over. That looking at her would only make things worse.

But it was impossible. Now that I wasn’t in action, my eyes went to Cassandra like they were magnetically drawn to her. I knew that if she interrupted the meeting and asked me right there and then what the hell had happened this morning—why I’d looked at her the way a supposedly married man should never look at another woman—I would have told her the truth.

It was you, Cassandra. You did something—made me feel something.

Also,I’m not fucking married. That would probably be number one.

But I couldn’t say that, not now that we had her business. I was going to have to tread carefully. Be impeccable with my actions and words.

Somehow forget about this morning.

I’d been attracted to women before, sure. I’d wanted to be with them. I’d even occasionally wished I could tell them my marriage wasn’t real. But I’d never been tempted to do that. I’d always been able to push those feelings aside. The company was more important. Our business was more important. Lila’s life was more important.

I’d just have to try harder.

But my eyes kept going back to her.

Why was I so interested in Cassandra, anyway? I was attracted to her, absolutely. Painfully, almost. But there was something else. Something about the way that she held herself—confident but like her shoulders were holding something up. Or like her confidence was an exoskeleton too shiny and perfect to be real. She held deep pain underneath. I could see it in the way her eyes had darted away when I told her she was attractive this morning.

Someone hurt her.

Some men, I knew, went after damaged women because they knew they could control them. They were despicable assholes. But the pain I saw in her—I wanted to find it, to excise it like removing a bullet lodged in flesh. To throw it away and make her see how perfect she was, scars and all.

For a few moments, I focused intently on Lila’s words. She was talking about the order of the review. When we’d be with each department. What kind of interaction we’d have with the staff.

But as Lila went on, Cassandra tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, and I found my eyes going back to her. Her hair, dry and loose now, fell in those Kelly McGillis waves around her face.

God, she was sexy.

When she’d walked into the room earlier, I couldn’t get over how even her walk was sexy. Determined. Sure. Purposeful. She probably destroyed in Manhattan boardrooms when she worked there.

I let myself wonder once more what had happened to precipitate Cassandra taking the fall for her previous company’s wrongdoings. It was clear from Brynn’s research that that’s what had happened when she’d stepped down, with apologies to the shareholders. She had a stellar track record before that and was known for business practices not normally seen on Wall Street, like helping people move up through the ranks, hiring diversely, and privately capping her annual salary while offering bonuses to even the lowliest of staff. She was fierce, but she had a kindness to her, too. Most people like that got chewed up and spit out in business, but she’d persevered. She’d killed it for over a decade. Then she’d stepped down, split from her long-time partner, and taken over her family business away from the bright lights of New York City.