I nodded, waiting until he was gone before I started scanning the park. There were a lot of different options, from students lying in groups on the grass, to middle-aged people eating lunch, to older people on the benches.
Marco was back much sooner than I had been expecting, holding out a bright yellow umbrella to me. The corners of his mouth twitched up when he handed it over. “Good luck.”
“Thanks, but I’ve got this.” I flipped my hair over my shoulder, took the umbrella from him, and made my way over to the woman I had chosen.
She was fair skinned with light hair, sitting on a blanket on the grass while reading a book. I cleared my throat when I got closer, watching as she realized someone was nearing her and lifting her head to smile at me.
Five minutes later, I headed back to Marco with cash instead of the umbrella in my hand. I flashed him a wide smile and pretended to curtsy while he chuckled and clapped his hands.
“Well done,” he said. “What did you tell her?”
“Umbrellas aren’t only used to shield oneself from rain, but also from sunlight.”
“Brilliant. I’m happy to have you onboard, Addy.”
“Really?” My heart fluttered in my chest. “I’m officially on board now?”
“You have been since yesterday, but yes, you are. We’re going to work out well together as a team. I have to speak to some clients of a company I just bought tomorrow. I want you on those calls with me.”
If it wouldn’t have been extremely embarrassing for him to witness me doing it, I would have punched the air in victory. Instead, I just curled my fingers into a fist, bent my arm, and pulled back in a silent, small sign of my brilliant victory.
From here on out, I was definitely going to be able to pay my rent. And if I got really lucky, I might even be able to do some more traveling. My luck was turning around.
At least, it really felt like it was.
Chapter 11
Marco
Addy’s heat seeped into my side. Even through the layers of fabric between us, I felt her presence so acutely that it was almost painful not to reach for her.
Somehow, it was like my body had become fine-tuned to her frequency, and now that she was this close to me, it was difficult to pretend I didn’t feel any chemistry with her.
It was stupid, pointless, and unrequited, but I couldn’t help it. I felt the air crackle between us like there was a living thing trying to break out of it. And yet she was calmly studying the file in front of her, completely oblivious.
A tiny frown appeared between her eyebrows just before she lifted her gaze to mine. “If I’m understanding this correctly, they don’t want to do business with you—”
“With us,” I corrected almost automatically. “You’re in it with me now.”
If only. But no matter. I would get over this little crush I had developed with a little time. But God, do I want her.
It was early in the morning, and the sun shining into the office was soft and hazy. The sky outside was still streaked with pinks and oranges, and a breeze rippled through the trees on the sidewalk.
Maybe I felt my attraction to her more intensely because we were in that magical, quiet part of the day, the part before the sky turned bright and the streets got busy. It was like we were in our own bubble, and in that bubble, I was more desperate than ever to fuck her.
It was entirely too easy to imagine reaching for her face, less than two feet away from mine, to picture cupping her cheek in one hand and sliding the other into her blonde locks. She’d worn her hair loose today, and it tumbled past her shoulders in a shiny curtain that looked as soft and golden as the morning sun.
I would look into the depths of her blue eyes and—
“Are you okay?”
My head gave the slightest jerk as I came crashing back to earth. I cleared my throat and hoped like hell she didn’t notice the rasp that remained. “Fine. Yeah. Sorry. I just spaced out for a second. We need more coffee.”
“Yes,” she groaned, and hearing the sound falling from her lips did not do good things to me.
I pressed the heel of my hand against my crotch—discreetly—and waited a few seconds before standing up.
“Why did you want us to start so early anyway?” she asked. “I don’t mind starting early, but is it going to be this early very often?”
I shrugged as I made my way over to the coffee station. “No, not very often. It depends on the time zone of our client. This particular client is in New Zealand. That’s a ten-hour difference between us and them, so it’s difficult to schedule a mutually convenient time.”
She whistled under her breath, turning in her seat to look at me with her arm on the armrest and her back relaxed. She looked comfortable here in my office, like we’d been doing this together for years.
With her delectable body wrapped in a black dress with a pencil skirt and low heels on her feet, her pink lips slightly parted, and her eyes fixed on mine, she looked fucking gorgeous. My mind was constantly one minute away from conjuring up a very cliched scene from an office porno.
It was ridiculous, and yet somehow, it had become my reality.
I fixed our coffees and carried the mugs back to the desk, then took my seat beside her again. Another big problem with how close our proximity was as we waited for the conference call to start was that I could smell her.
Not in the weird creepy way. But there was a gentle lavender and vanilla scent that wafted over to me that I knew for a fact was not
