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She nodded, and they went their own ways, sitting on opposite sides of the long boardroom table. Jake couldn’t take his eyes off her, but she didn’t meet his gaze once. He struggled to concentrate, completely zoning out.
Charles elbowed him in the ribs and pointed to his untouched digital notepad. Heat crawled up his throat and to his cheeks, embarrassment at being called out. It was enough of a distraction to get his head back in the game and start recording the meeting. At least that way he wouldn’t miss anything else, and it left him time to daydream about the woman before him.
After an eternity, the meeting wrapped, and Jake sat back. “We’re going to nudge the other agents out. I want this building as an exclusive listing,” Charles murmured under his breath.
“Hmm?” Jake had already moved on from the meeting, watching Cassidy like a hawk. All he needed was a moment alone. But she was packing up, unclipping the keyboard from her tablet, and sliding everything into the compact messenger bag she carried. She stood, and the man she was with nodded in acknowledgement before she shook the developer’s hand and strode out the boardroom.
Jake shoved his notepad into its leather case and dashed after her, paying no attention to the swivelling heads as he passed in a blur. “Cassidy, wait,” he called, jogging along the corridor to catch her at the elevator.
She looked over her shoulder as the doors opened, and she stepped in, holding the doors open as he took his last few steps. He shot a small smile at the other passengers. “I have another meeting.”
“I won’t keep you long. Let me buy you dinner. Please.”
Cassidy sighed and stepped closer, lowering her voice.
“Jacob, listen, you seem… nice. But like I told you before, I’m not looking for a relationship.” The elevator stopped at a floor, and he shifted to the side, letting people on and off. There were even more people in it than before. “Even if I was…” She shook her head.
“It’s just dinner.”
“It’s never just dinner. You’ll want to start seeing each other more and more, and my work will suffer.”
“Cassidy—”
She held up her hand as the lift opened on the ground floor, and he followed her out, stopping when they were out of the stream of people. “Look, work isn’t even the main reason. Like I said, you seem nice. That means you’ll want to be exclusive one day, and I’m—”
“You just want casual? Because I don’t expect a commitment on the first date. I’d be happy just to go out as friends.”
Cassidy shook her head. “I’m risk averse when it comes to relationships. It’s a lot to negotiate.” She looked at the small silver wristwatch she wore.
“You have a meeting to get to, so I don’t want to keep you, but I’m open-minded. I’m also not an arsehole. If you tell me something, I’ll keep it between us. I’d never say anything to hurt your job or your reputation.” He handed her a card. “That’s my number. Call or text if you want to tell me what we’d have to negotiate. The ball’s in your court.”
“I’m polyamorous,” she blurted. “I want relationships with more than one man at the same time. I wouldn’t ask you to be exclusive, though—I’d expect that you might do the same with other women.”
He opened his mouth, but no words came. He wanted to jump for joy—her opening up, her trust meant the world. A slow smile spread across his lips. “And if I decided I wanted to date another man? How would you feel about that?”
“Turned on,” she whispered, her skin flushing and pupils blown. She bit her bottom lip, her teeth sinking into the flesh there. Good God, he wanted to be the one doing that. It took all his strength—everything in him—to hold himself back from pinning her against the wall and taking her lips.
“There you are.” Charles’s voice boomed over the lobby. Cassidy blinked, and her eyes widened.
“Go, you’re probably already late.”
“Shit,” she muttered, already striding away. She looked over her shoulder, her lips pursed, and shook her head. Jake wanted her to stop, but he knew she couldn’t even if she wanted to. Looked like he’d been right; the ball was indeed in her court.
Three
Cassidy
S
he sucked the last of her Pepsi through the paper straw, frustrated that she’d ended up the designated driver for her girlfriends. Again. They were supposed to be cheering her up. How had she been roped into staying sober? She watched as they tore it up on the dance floor of the club while she sat and minded their seats. They were wasted, and Cassidy knew she’d end up with puke all over her car. Another thing to add to the topics currently pissing her off—one, her friends, two, losing the leasing contract to the sanctimonious arsehole at City Space, three, being unable to get the cute arsehole from City Space out of her head, and four, not being able to wear underwear with this damn dress. Chalk it up to another stupid idea from her friends.
Cassidy toyed with her phone, tempted to call Denyer and give him a piece of her mind. It was the second time in only a few weeks that his agency had screwed hers over. It was no coincidence that it happened right under her nose when he’d distracted her. The developer had an agreement with them; not locked in writing, sure, but an agreement, nevertheless. Each of the agencies was supposed to represent them, leveraging their different strengths to find the right tenants for the building. But she’d been met with silence when the developer failed to return the signed agency appointment. It was only after calling on a favour from a friend of a friend that the truth of why she was being stonewalled was revealed. Apparently, an exclusive appointment had been signed the day of their meeting. With City Scape.
Bastards.
Cassidy swiped her phone screen, her hands shaking. Anger surged through her like a violent thunderstorm, and she clenched her jaw, barely resisting the temptation to throw her empty glass. Bugger this. She opened her message app and bought up Denyer’s number, growling at the letters forming his name.
Her fingers flew as she typed out her thoughts in all caps. Yelling by text wasn’t nearly as satisfying as doing it face to face, but whatever. She didn’t proofread it, didn’t adjust anything before she hit Send. If she didn’t put it out there, didn’t tell him exactly what she thought of him, Cassidy would explode. But there was no release when she’d pressed the button and slammed her phone down, only seething rage that boiled her blood.
