Page 81 of The Rules

It wasn’t confirmation. It wasn’t even a hint.

But God, it sounded like confession.

And now her body was a live wire, thrumming with memory, her legs crossing tightly beneath the table, as if that could contain the reaction he wasn’t even pretending to notice.

You're in a meeting. Get it together.

Kath forced her eyes back to the file, blinking hard, trying to follow the numbers blurring on the page. Trying not to think about how his hand had felt. How deep. How precise.

But it was too late. One offhand comment and she was wrecked again.

She didn’t get far before the next distraction found her.

Kath returned to her desk, settlement terms forgotten the moment Joshua appeared. He leaned against the wall, arms crossed, that easy grin lighting up his face.

"You look like you're having a blast," he teased, nodding at the stack of documents on her desk.

Kath rolled her eyes, but couldn't fight the smile tugging at her lips. "Absolute thrill ride. Nothing says 'party' like reviewing settlement clauses for three straight hours."

Joshua chuckled, sliding into the chair beside her desk.

His knee bumped against hers as he settled in—casual,thoughtless, friendly. "You know what normal people do when they're bored? They take breaks."

"Is that what you're doing right now? Taking a break from actual work?"

"Nah." His grin widened, that golden-boy charm on full display. "I'm performing a vital service. Saving Katherine Winters from death by paperwork."

Kath laughed despite herself, the tension from the meeting with Ben melting away under Joshua's warmth.

Then she felt it—that prickle at the back of her neck.

The awareness of being watched.

Her eyes lifted instinctively.

Ben stood across the office floor, gaze steady on her.

Not staring. Not glaring. Just... aware. Dangerous. Their eyes met for half a second, but it hit like a live wire, electricity crackling through her veins.

Then Ben moved. Calm. Smooth. Strategic. He walked right over to Lydia Carson's desk, his stride purposeful and unhurried.

Lydia smiled up at him. Bright. Eager. Unbothered.

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as Ben leaned in—close. Too close. He said something low, intimate. Too quiet for Kath to hear. Too close for it to be meaningless.

Kath yanked her gaze back to her screen. Hard.

She did not care.

You have actual problems to deal with, Winters. You're not in high school. Get back to work.

She opened the settlement draft, forcing herself to focus. Line by line. Clause by clause. Someone laughed across the hall. A phone rang, then stopped. Normal sounds. Everyday office noise. The kind that should’ve drowned out the pulse behind her ribs.

But it didn’t. Not when she could still feel the ghost of Ben’s voice in her ear.

???

Kath shoved the last file into her bag, her shoulders dropping with the weight of the day. Movements were mechanical, driven by the single desperate need to escape the suffocating walls of Sinclair & Associates.