Page 25 of Reunion
“Come in,” I called out. The offices were a modern design, glassed on three sides with a suggested barrier of a thick frosted glass line that, from where I sat, barely allowed me to see the top of the person’s head on either side of me, or their legs poking out from their chairs. The doors, however, were thick wood.
And once said door to my office opened, there stood Dane, wearing an extremely expensive-looking suit paired with an extremely sexy smirk that he gave me for free.
“Yes,” he said.
“What?” There I went again. I snapped my mouth shut as he closed the door and strolled toward my desk. “I mean, hi.” I dropped back into my chair, trying to find some composure. It was damn hard when you were caught off guard by an incredibly attractive man in a three-piece suit who was a hip jut and smoldering gaze away from something that would grace a billboard. “Wow, you’re really efficient.”
“Sometimes.”
I glanced at the tops of heads on either side of me before looking back at Dane as he parked himself on the edge of my desk. Crap. Now he had the smoldering gaze thing going, too, his gunmetal eyes trained on me with a glimmer of humor behind all the intensity.
“You’re a lawyerhere? I thought you worked at some place with a lot of names I can’t remember.” I vaguely remembered Shay mentioning it a long time ago.
“Whitman, Nesmith, Schweitzer, and Loomis. Metrotech made me an offer to join their legal team a few months ago that I couldn’t refuse.” He thumbed open the button on his blazer and tilted his head, a smile curving slowly. “Hello, again.”
Heat bloomed in my chest, my gut—all over, really—at the nearness of him.
“Hello,” I croaked and then cleared my throat. “Fuck, you’ve really caught me off guard. Gimme a second.”
Dane’s smirk faded. “Sorry. I didn’t realize you worked for HealthCloud until I saw your name on the agenda this morning. We didn’t really get around to that part last weekend.” Agenda, agenda. I had one of those somewhere. Maybe. “You didn’t say anything about being in town, so I assumed that maybe you’d rather I not know. And then I got your text.”
“I’m an idiot.”
“Since sophomore year when you tripped down an entire set of bleachers at the homecoming pep rally, yes. That’s a fact.” He laughed.
“That was your fault, asshole.” Dane had called out my name and tossed one of those dumb mini basketballs in my direction. I’d fumbled it, then fumbled myself into a row of seniors. Clearly his fault. I kicked out at his foot. “I mean I should’ve called or messaged before. You said yes, though?” Christ, his proximity was still throwing me out of whack.
“Yes.” He laughed again. “I’d like to take you to dinner first, unless you want to cut straight to the fucking portion of the evening?”
“Wow. Blunt. Okay.” I blinked, then cracked up, too.
“Just trying to gauge whether I’m meant to be a companion or a commodity.”
I considered the question, then considered him: the ease with which he was poised on the edge of my desk, the unassuming curiosity in his expression.
“What if you’re both?” I narrowed my eyes dramatically at him. “Maybe slightly weighted toward the companion end, hmm? But that also depends on whether you can converse at length onBreakwater.” It was my long-standing favorite television drama and had long ago jumped the shark, but I didn’t care.
Dane’s brows flicked together, and then he pushed off the desk and braced his palms on the armrests of my chair, gaze flickering over my face as heat warmed the tops of my ears. His voice was a seductive purr. “I’ve seen every single episode.”
“You have no idea how hot that gets me.” I reached for his tie and gave it a gentle tug to pull him closer.
“Good.” The tip of his nose skimmed along my jaw. I felt the faintest impression of his lips where my jaw met my earlobe and then the warmth of his breath. “You smell nice. Familiar.” Heat thrummed between us, and then the connection snapped as Dane straightened and took a step back with a wicked grin. “I’ll see you in the meeting which starts in…” He glanced at his watch. “Five minutes.”
“You’re kind of infuriating.”
“You’re incredibly sexy, and if we had even ten more minutes, I’d drag you into one of the supply closets. Instead, I’ll sit through that meeting, thinking about what I’d like to do with you tonight.” He started for the door, tossing over his shoulder as he exited, “I’m glad you messaged. I’ve been thinking about you nonstop.”
I was almost late to the meeting because it took me a solid two minutes to process that last line, and then another to calm down my cock.
11
Dane
“That was really rude of you to force me to eat those last french fries.” Cole patted his nonexistent belly with a groan. He’d demolished both his order and most of mine from Allsaints Diner where we’d grabbed burgers. Initially, I’d planned on taking him to a swank bistro that had just opened, but as we were walking over, we’d passed the retro diner we’d frequented in high school. We’d both slowed and glanced at each other at the same time. In silent mutual accord, our plans had changed in an instant.
“Practically held your mouth open and shoved them in, didn’t I?” I teased.
Cole gave me some dubious side eye.