Page 24 of The Arrangement

“So how’s Mimi?”

His curiosity piques a certain curiosity in me, too. It’s not until his eyes narrow ever so slightly that I realize what he’s really asking—who was on the phone? It would be so easy to tell him it was Greta. But his nosiness is too entertaining to simply give in.

“Mimi is fine.” I take a sip of the coffee he brought me and shuffle through a stack of papers. “Thanks for the coffee, by the way.”

“Do you and Mimi have big plans for Friday night?”

I laugh. “You really need to rein in the eavesdropping habit.”

“You really should rein in the talking about shit you don’t want me to hear.”

“I’m not an attorney, but I think I’m afforded an expectation of privacy in my office.”

He holds my gaze, opening the door between our offices with a flick of the handle. “Pretty sure this is still my office.”

I fire him a playful look.

“Excuse me.” Brandi pops her head around the corner. “Finance just called, and they need you in the conference room, Mr. Brewer.”

Jason and I exchange a grin.Saved by Brandi.

“Come on,” Jason says, motioning for me to follow him.

We follow Brandi down the hallway, and then the two of us step into the elevator. He doesn’t say a word until the doors close.

“Are you going to tell me about Friday night?” he asks, looking at me over his shoulder.

“Nope.”

He nods, turning his attention back to the front of the elevator. “Is it a secret?”

“Why do you care?”

“I don’t.”

“Seems like you do to me,” I say as the bell dings. I step off the elevator first and walk shoulder to shoulder with Jason down the hall. “What does finance want? I didn’t even grab my laptop.”

He swings the conference room door open. “Doesn’t matter.”

Then why in the world are we here?

When we enter, three men and one woman from finance are rising from their seats. Gannon, Tate, and a handful of staff from Brewer Group, the holding company for all Brewer companies and interests, are on a large screen at the front of the room. All heads turn to Jason as he walks in.

The respect he garners when simply entering a room is a match to my libido every freaking time.

“I tried to catch you,” Gannon says to his brother. “We’re going to have to reschedule this for tomorrow morning. This system keeps freezing and glitching; the tech team doesn’t know what’s happening. Hang on. The connection is flickering again.Fuck…”

The screen goes black.

Jason approaches the computer beneath the screen and turns the volume down. He hits mute before minimizing the screen. He answers the goodbyes from the staff leaving the room.

And then we’re alone.

The energy in the room shifts as he faces me again. The air is thick and warm, perfumed with his cologne. It’s a woodsy scent offset by a slight citrusy note.

It smells like possibilities and danger.

He slips his hands into his pockets and saunters around the room. He nibbles on the inside of his cheek, his brows pulled tight as he thinks.