But she’d managed to stay away from him, spent the night tossing and turning in her own bed. From the first day, she couldn’t help but have a physical attraction to Davis, which surely gave him an advantage as he dug for information. But yesterday had been different. Yesterday, he’d truly seemed shocked when he’d almost kissed her. The way he’d stared at her afterward... She was starting to believe he might actually be developing feelings for her.
The idea made her stomach flip-flop with nerves, made a smile tremble on her lips. But it could never come to anything. He was investigating her company. If she and Davis got together, it would put the integrity of the whole investigation in question, maybe even throw suspicion on her, even after they found the person responsible. Unlike a fling with a handsome FBI agent with an intriguing smile and admirable ethics, that suspicion could stick. It could destroy one of the few things in her life with any permanence. Her job.
“Leila.”
Her head popped up. She’d been so focused on her thoughts she hadn’t even noticed the door open, hadn’t even heard the knock that had probably preceded it.
“Eric.”
Her head of sales was shutting the door behind him, his eyebrows lowered with a concerned expression she recognized.
She held in a sigh, because he meant well. They both missed her father desperately. Eric had taken time off to grieve after the funeral, had called her every day, pushing her to do the same. But the idea of not coming into work, of trying to find some other way to fill her days to distract herself from the fact that her father was never coming back? Even now, it made her skin feel prickly with anxiety.
“What’s going on?”
She shook her head, thrown by his question. “What do you mean?”
“Something happened yesterday after you left work. You left your purse in your office. You never came back for your car. I drove all the way to your house and your assistant answered the door—dripping wet for some reason...”
He paused, like he was waiting for an explanation, then continued. “He swore you were fine, that you’d gone for a walk and realized you were too tired to drive, so he took you home. I would have pushed him aside and come in to check, but I heard the shower going upstairs. Leila, I know it’s not my business, but—”
“I’m not sleeping with my assistant, Eric,” she cut him off, hoping he wouldn’t notice the too-high-pitched tone to her voice. Or that if he did, he would accept it for what it mostly was—embarrassment.
“Good.” Eric’s eyebrows returned to a normal position on his face, but his tone was still troubled as he walked around to her side of her desk. Having him in her personal space felt odd, like they’d gone back in time to when they were more than just colleagues and friends.
“Leila, yesterday when I saw your car still here when I was ready to go home and then I came back inside and saw your purse, I panicked. I was really scared. I mean, after what happened to your dad...” He closed his eyes, blew out a breath that fanned across her face and finished, “It made me realize how much I miss you, Leila.”
A sudden rush of nerves and uncertainty made her feel too hot. She tried to play it off like his words weren’t a big deal. “You see me every day, Eric.”
He put his hands on her arms, slid them down to take her hands in his.
His touch was familiar, but still strange. Eric’s hands were bigger than she remembered, the skin rougher. But they were still warm, still comforting the way they’d been the very first time he’d held her hand when she was thirteen.
“I care about you, Leila.” He met her gaze steadily, his voice solid and clear. “Way more than I should, considering how long it’s been since we were together.”
Her heart rate picked up, but she tried to ignore how close he was standing, tried to act like it was normal for him to be holding her hands in her office. “We’ve been friends for a long time, Eric. We have a lot of history together. Of course you were worried.”
“Maybe we never should have broken up.”
She blinked back at him, speechless, as a mix of emotions surged inside her. Happiness, confusion and uncertainty. She’d waited so many years to hear those words from him. He’d been her first love, the one that got away.
But because it had been so many years ago, things had changed. Were they even the same people they’d been when they were in love? And why now? Was it just fear of losing her, grief over losing her father making him say things he’d later regret?
He knew her well enough that she was sure he sensed her hesitation, even before she said quietly, “Our time is gone.”
Saying the words out loud hurt, but it had been twelve long years since he’d broken her heart without a single word of explanation. Twelve years of them growing into the people they were now. Twelve years of working to forge a real friendship, without the baggage of their relationship.
“Don’t say that.” Eric shook his head, stepping even closer to her, so his feet touched hers and his lips were mere inches away. “Our time never should have ended, Leila.”
She blew out a breath that made him blink as the expelled air hit him. “You ended it, Eric. It was—”
“I did it because your dad asked me to stop seeing you.”
“What?” The shock of the words made her
