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He tilted his head, studying me quietly. ‘Honesty?’
‘Yes, please.’
‘I’m more than struggling right now. If this wasn’t your dad’s place I wouldn’t give a shit about anybody’s opinion and you’d be in my arms in a heartbeat.’ He paused and cleared his throat, visibly swallowing. ‘But yeah, you could say I missed you,’ he answered softly. ‘Only because I thought I’d have better control of myself. You didn’t miss me then?’
The urge to kiss him grew stronger. There was a knock on the door. I peered around William’s body, only to see an exasperated Gayle staring at us through the glass door, pointing at her watch before she walked away.
‘Looks like I’m wanted.’ We kept studying each other, my body almost swaying towards him. I felt a ghost of a physical pain with the tension in the room and the fact that we were holding back from each other. ‘Do you know what’s happening with the dating app?’ I asked, trying my best to ignore how he was looking at me. ‘I thought we were done for the week with them.’
William took a step away from the door, letting me pass. My shoulder brushed against him, causing goosebumps to erupt on my skin. He pushed one of his hands into his pant pocket, the other still holding onto his mug. There was something so sexy about him in a suit with his hand in his pocket. And the grumpiness that came with the lack of coffee just added to it. I almost wanted to jump on him and wrap my legs around him and never come up for air.
With my hand on the doorknob, I waited for his answer.
‘They want to pick your brains about a move they want to make, I believe. They wanted to talk to you specifically so I don’t have all the details yet.’
‘Oh. That’s… nice.’
‘I hope it is. I had to listen to that Darren guy from their team ramble on about you for five minutes.’ He had been talking with his back to me, but now he glanced at me. ‘Do you even know how hard it is to hold back from kissing you right now?’
My body jolted at his words, a second wave of heat spreading. ‘Are you jealous, William Carter?’
His gaze turned intense. ‘You never called me by my full name before.’
‘Should I not?’ I opened the door. From the gleam in his eyes I could tell he liked it.
He put the coffee mug on his desk and stalked towards me. My grip on the door tightened as I heard Rick calling my name from somewhere behind me. William drew closer until he was almost a breath away – as close as he could get to me at the office.
‘You should do it more often,’ he muttered, gripping the door right next to where my hand was. ‘You’re avoiding my question.’
I let go of my hold on the door when our fingers brushed, taking a step back. ‘I guess I missed you too,’ I replied lightly, before we quietly lost our minds.
One of his eyebrows shot up. ‘You guess…?’
I gave him a happy smile. He took another step forward. I backed up again. ‘You’re good to go for the meeting, right? Anything you need from me?’
‘Yeah. You.’
Both Rick and Gayle showed up at the same time at the tail end of his words. Gayle dragged William into his office, and Rick guided me towards mine.
When I looked over my shoulder, William’s gaze was still on me.
* * *
I had my phone call with Darren which didn’t last long. Then I went into one of the smaller meeting rooms with the rest of our team, waiting for William to come for the last half an hour.
When he did show up and we saw his face, we all tensed up. I’d never seen him really angry so I couldn’t compare, but anybody could tell he was fuming. The way his jaw was ticking, his lips pressed into a tight line, not to mention the hard look in his eyes. He didn’t glance at any of us as he walked in. With his hands in his pockets, he moved to the windows and gazed out at the New York skyline. We all gave each other a questioning look, but none of us knew what was going on.
Stan, Trisha and I were sitting at the table. I twisted to look back. Rick was standing next to the coffee bar, having topped up his mug just a minute before William had walked in, so he was the closest to him. His gaze darted to me first, but then he turned back to William.
‘What’s going on?’ he asked.
William took a few seconds to face us, his jaw muscles still working.
‘We didn’t get Ephesus.’
‘They picked Kimberly?’ I asked, my voice laced with surprise. I had no idea what my sister had prepared to showcase, but we had worked very hard to come up with the absolute perfect plan. There was no way Kimberly would’ve been able to do that. Not with her experience compared to William’s.
