She pulled away, her hands moving down my chest. “I will.” She stared at me with the same fiery expression, her nails digging into the skin of my abs. “And just so you know…” Her eyes trailed down my body, taking in my chiseled grooves with obvious obsession. “I was never going to go home with Connor.”
My cock came to life in my sweatpants. It was the quickest I’d ever gotten hard in my life.
She leaned into me and pressed a kiss to the corner of my mouth before she turned and stepped into the open doorway. “I only wanted to go home with you.” A mischievous smile was on her lips as the doors slowly slid shut in front of her. She kept up the expression until the doors closed fully and she was gone from my sight.
As if I’d been punched in the face, I was glued to the spot. The wind had been knocked out of me, and now I could hardly breathe. One of the sexiest women I’d ever seen just teased me with only her words.
And now I wanted her more than I ever had.
I’d just finished a meeting with a few of Titan’s regional managers. Now I had a short break before I met with Kyle Livingston and Vincent Hunt after lunch. We were putting all of her products on international shelves. Kyle Livingston was only along for the ride because he chose to work with Titan over Vincent. He’d remained loyal to her, so she wanted to do the same for him once Vincent had a new offer on the table.
It worked out well for Kyle.
I sat at Titan’s white desk and looked over the folder Jessica had left next to my laptop. My tablet kept lighting up with emails that I needed to address for my own businesses. I hadn’t abandoned all of my work to take care of hers. Instead, I was handling two things at once. It made for exceptionally long days. After hitting the gym, managing two empires, and taking a few breaks in between, by the time I got home, I was ready to go to sleep so I could wake up and do it all over again.
Jessica spoke through the intercom. “There’s a woman here asking for Titan. I told her she wasn’t available, but she could meet with you.”
I held the button down with my forefinger. “What does she want?”
“She wouldn’t share that with me.”
After Titan had been shot, I’d become a paranoid man. Even the sanest people weren’t what they seemed. If you crossed someone in the wrong way, there was no predicting what would happen next. The information Jessica was giving me was mysterious—and a bit concerning. “What’s her name?”
“Bridget Creed.”
That didn’t ring any bells.
“She seems a bit distressed.”
“In what way?” I asked.
“When she asked about Titan, she seemed upset.”
Maybe this was someone Titan knew. She could be a colleague or an acquaintance or something. “Send her in.”
“Alright.”
A moment later, Jessica opened the door and allowed the woman to step inside.
She was in her fifties, but she held herself like a young woman. In a black dress with heels, she had a slim figure. She had brown hair that stopped just past her shoulders. A gold necklace hung from her throat, and she wore a wedding ring on her left hand.
I understood what Jessica meant when she said this woman was distressed.
I could see the sadness around her eyes, the stress in her tight mouth. If she weren’t frowning so severely, she would actually be a pretty woman.
She walked up to my desk and didn’t shake my hand. “Thank you for seeing me, Thorn.”
I didn’t appreciate the way she addressed me so casually, not when I’d never met her until that moment. “It’s Mr. Cutler.” I slowly rose to my feet and extended my hand.
“I apologize,” she said quickly, sighing under her breath. “I feel like I know you…”
“Why?”
“I just…I see you on the news all the time.”
For bullshit that wasn’t even true. I returned to my seat and kept up my cold stare, unsure what I was dealing with. She didn’t seem dangerous, just a little uneasy. I sat back as I examined her, my guard up.
She didn’t take a seat. “When will Titan be back in?”
“She’s still recovering at home. She’ll be back to work eventually, but she needs more time.”
In the time since she stepped into the office, she’d barely blinked two times. Her gaze was glued to my face like she was afraid to miss a single instant. “It’s been taking her a while…were there other complications? Will she be alright?”
Everyone asked me how Titan was doing. Some people genuinely cared, and others didn’t. But even the people who actually knew her didn’t look as upset as this woman. Once it’d been declared that Titan had survived the surgery and was making a recovery, everyone calmed down and started talking about someone else. But this woman’s chest was rising and falling with rapid breathing like she couldn’t get enough air. She was as panicked as I’d been sitting in the waiting room. “Titan is the strongest person I know. If anyone can make a complete recovery, it’s her. I wouldn’t worry too much about it.”
That didn’t erase the lines of worry on her face. If she had nothing left to say, she should thank me for my time and leave. But she stayed put like there was something else to discuss.
“How do you know her?” If they were close, she would call Titan directly. But since she was standing in front
