Page 40 of Consumed By You

She whistles as soon as she sees me and it honestly makes my day ten times better. “Damn, you clean up fast.”

“Thanks.” I beam, leaning back on the desk. “Any messages for me?”

“Tons.” She hands me what looks like a small booklet of messages and I gape at her.

“In two days?”

She nods, grimacing. “Yep.”

“Damn, I’ll be here till midnight.”

***

“Thank you for letting us know. We greatly appreciate it, sir…Yes, you too…Have a good rest of your evening.” I hang up the phone, thinking if I have to talk to one more damn person on that telephone, I’m going to lose my shit.

It’s nearly seven o’clock; I’ve been here for six hours. I’m not hungry yet, and I don’t want to go home, so I take out a stack of papers I was going to save for Friday and start typing.

My phone rings and I check the caller ID, seeing the front desk on the screen.

“Hi, Kate.”

“Hey, I’m headed home. Want to walk out together?”

“No, thank you though. I’m still finishing some work.”

“Still? Damn, okay. I’ll see you tomorrow? Want to go to lunch together or something?”

“Yeah, that sounds good. Have a good night.” I smile, really liking having a friend here. Too bad it won’t matter for long.

“You too.”

I take the typed memos I made to put on the board in the hallways of each floor. I walk in a daydream, thinking of still being in the Fairmount, lounging in bed lazily with Benjamin, my head resting on his defined chest, listening to the calm pounding in his chest until long after the sun goes down.

Why can’t he just give us a try? I could make him want me. Only me.

After visiting all the floors and placing the memos, I head back to my office to finish inputting the last merger into the system. I push the door open and come to a complete halt, finding a brooding man staring out the window of my office, hands behind his back.

My heart soars.

“Ben,” I breathe and he turns. I’m staring at him like a complete idiot. “What are you doing here?”

He saunters over to my desk, picking up the work I’ve been doing. “I knew you’d be here.”

His voice is soft and apologetic, a tone I’m not used to hearing from him. It’s a welcome sound.

“You did?”

He nods. “Came straight from the plane, huh?”

How does he know that?

“Your luggage,” he points out, gesturing with his chin, and I understand now.

“Did something come up?” I bravely step closer into the room even though I can already smell his alluring cologne from the doorway. He nods.

I give him a disbelieving look and he smirks. “You look beautiful, Darcy. Red suits you.”

What the fuck is going on?