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Zachary: Perfect. That means I made an impression.

I started to laugh out loud. Zachary was quite different from what I’d imagined.

Grace: How did your meeting go?

Zachary: Good. But next week will be rough.

Grace: Fingers crossed it goes by quickly.

Zachary: Oh, it will, because I’ll play our night together in my mind every time someone annoys me. That’ll put me right back into a good mood and annoy them in return.

I grinned.

Grace: That’s a fantastic tactic. I’ll use it too.

Zachary: You can text or call whenever you do, and then we can reminisce together.

Heat pooled between my thighs at the thought. Holy shit, that sounded almost like dirty texting.

My heart was hammering out of my chest as I imagined getting out of the meeting and just calling Zachary for a quick, what, dirty exchange? I was truly losing my mind. He was probably joking, and here I was seriously considering it.

Zachary: Don’t be surprised if you get a random call from me during the day.

Okay, so he wasn’t joking. I could shut this down, of course, but I was enjoying myself far too much. I hadn’t done that in a while. Yet with Zachary, it was almost like an instinct. I couldn’t stop myself, so I didn’t. That’s why I replied with sass.

Grace: The same holds true for you. Brace yourself.

Zachary: Will do.

Chapter Fifteen

Zachary

The following week was a bit of a shit show. This time of year always was. Everyone was rushing to fulfill orders before business ramped back up in September. That meant our ships needed to arrive on time—every delay cost us money. I hoped the meeting we’d had last week helped with the logistics and that we’d circumvented the quota issues that were pending. As one of the country’s main shipyards, it was important that everything ran smoothly. We safely transported containers of goods and were highly respected both domestically and internationally. It had been a legacy operation of the conglomerate for decades.

On Monday morning, the first meeting was insane. We had a delay with one of our biggest transports, which would cost us a lot.

I needed to blow off steam somehow. So, right before my second meeting, while I drank my fourth coffee of the day, I texted Grace.

Zachary: Week started off awful, but I’m still in a good mood, remembering the way you looked on that bed, completely naked for me.

To my astonishment, she replied right away.

Grace: Zachary, I’m in a meeting.

Zachary: So they’re wondering why you’re blushing?

Grace: They’d better not.

I didn’t say anything else, though. I hadn’t thought this through. Clearly we needed a better arrangement. We couldn’t randomly text; there was a high chance the other one was busy.

Zachary: Buzz me when you’ve got a break.

Of course, she texted me while I was in a meeting three hours later. This one wasn’t going smoothly either, but it wasn’t a totalshit show like the other one. Why couldn’t anything ever be easy?

Grace: It’s not even noon and I’m already on edge. If only someone could take the edge off.

Fucking hell.