Page 67 of Meet Me In The Dark

The day after, she lets me get a little closer.

And by the week after that, something must have softened in her, because she almost smiles.

Almost.

And with that barely-there curve of her lips, I’m completely fucked.

Twenty-One

I take the temporary steps two at a time and shoulder into the site office. Darren, the foreman, looks up from a stack of drawings.

“Blackwood,” he greets me, and I tilt my chin.

I scan the trailer before my eyes soak in the only person I came to see.

Celeste doesn’t look up. She’s bent over a set of plans with a pencil tucked in her hair and a dirt smudge on her wrist.

When she finally looks my way, her face is purely professional, and her eyes are icy. We’ve been doing this dance long enough to understand both sides.

“Ms. Morgan,” I say.

“Mr. Blackwood.” She eyes me head to foot and back again. “We’re in the middle of approvals.”

“I’ll wait.” I step fully into the trailer and plant myself next to her shoulder so there’s no mistaking why I’m here.

Darren clears his throat. “I need to go check the schedule for the concrete pour.” Then he heads out thedoor.

Celeste keeps flipping pages, pretending not to notice me. I let it go for twenty seconds, just long enough for her to feel me in her peripheral vision.

“Can I help you?” she finally asks, not looking up.

“I want a walk-through.”

“You have Darren for that.”

“I want you.”

Her mouth does that irritated little twitch I’ve been baiting for weeks. “Happy to.”

She snatches her clipboard and holds it to her chest.

“I didn’t know you were coming today,” she says, eyes on the chalk lines as we head toward the southeast trench.

“I like surprises.”

“Do you?”

“When they look like you, yes.”

Her head snaps around. “We’re in public.”

I look around at the crew. “No one here is listening. They’re all too busy staring at your ass in those pants.”

That gets me the reaction I want. “Is this why you really came here, to antagonize me?”

“It’s becoming a great hobby of mine.”

“Julian,” she says, sweet as poison, “so help me God, I will bury you in this ground and build your damn skyscraper on top of your bones. I’m not doing this with you today.”