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“I just thought you—”
“See, rook, that’s where you’re mistaken. You don’t know me. You don’t knowanythingabout me, especially not my reading preferences. If I wanted to read about rape, I’d pull out one of my own journals.”
On God, if my eyebrows sink any lower, I won’t be able to see out from under them.
“Are you just talking about old journals? Or current ones, too?”
“Why do you work for Cyrus?”
The subject change out of left field catches me off guard, and I all but stutter out, “I chose to.”
“What does he have on you?”
“Nothing.”
“I’m not buying that. You’re too sweet to willingly work for someone like Cyrus.”
“I’msweet?” Now I do laugh. “What the fuck makes you think I’m sweet?”
She gestures to me, saying, “Your overall sweetness.”
“Because I don’t condone women being raped?”
“Yet you’ll buy a book about a woman doing it to men?”
“I don’t fucking know what happens in that book. It said on the back she falls for one man.Fallsfor him.”
“Do they fuck in it? Consensually?”
I unclench my jaw to spit, “I. Don’t. Know.”
“You’re sweet,” she practically purrs, drawing all of my attention to those lips of hers. Fuck, I want to feel them again.
“Nothing about me is sweet.”
A buzzing noise like a phone vibrating cuts through the tense silence causing Lex to return her feet to the floor. Gaze locked on her desk as she shuffles papers around, she doesn’t so much as glance my way.
I don’t have time to ask why the sudden change when Kaisin approaches her door.
She knew he, or someone, was coming. How? With her door closed, there’s no way she could smell anyone.
Right as the CFO pokes his head in, I speak up again, starting midsentence so it sounds like I’m finishing up. “Should have those finished by the end of the week.”
“Sorry to interrupt, but, Reece? You got a delivery.”
I shake my head. That doesn’t make any sense. “What is it?”
He looks at Lex who’s avoiding eye contact with both of us, her lips tugged to one side, not exactly in a smile but in a way that’s just as out of character for her. Mischievous maybe? She is mischievous, but she doesn’t let it show. Not like now. What the fuck is going on?
“Honestly, I’m not even sure. You’re better off seeing it for yourself.”
I’m out of the chair, charging out of Lex’s office, already imagining all the different scenarios I’m about to walk into. I didn’t leave anything incriminating out. Did Lex?
I smell it before I see it, the unmistakable scent of Sage, and lengthen my strides. The closer I get, the louder voices grow, each of them talking about “him” and “how generous he is.” My first thought is Cyrus, except nobody’d ever mistake him for generous. But he’s the only person who knows I work here.
I round the corner before coming to a complete stop. Taking in the potted tree in front of my cubicle, I notice hundred dollar bills tied to most of the branches, and among the cash, a lone card. A dozen or more sets of eyes on me, I go over and open it. In looping, delicate script is a generic message wishing me and my fiancée a long marriage full of love and happiness. At the bottom are two printed first names followed by one last name: Kordin and Lenox Debrosse.
“Mr. Souza?”
