“Bring it on.”The words come out taunting, and something flickers in her eyes—awareness, maybe, or recognition of the dangerous magnetism pulling us toward each other.
“I’m going to destroy you so thoroughly, you’ll beg me to stop.”She leans down again, close enough that her breath ghosts across my ear.“And when you’re broken and pathetic and pleading with me to make it end, I’m going to smile and keep going.”
Fuck.The way she says it—low and husky with just a hint of accent creeping in—makes every nerve ending in my body light up.I’m hard as a rock, and from the way her eyes drop briefly to my lap, she knows it.
“You’d better be careful,” I murmur, catching her wrist before she can pull away.“Because two can play that game, and I don’t lose.”
“Neither do I.”She doesn’t try to free her wrist, just stares at me with those dark eyes that seem to see right through me.“And I’ve had a lot more practice being vindictive than you have.”
“Have you now?”I run my thumb across the pulse point on her wrist, feeling how it races under my touch.“I guess we’ll see about that.”
For a moment, we’re frozen like that—her leaning over my chair, me holding her wrist, both of us breathing a little too hard.The office around us fades away until there’s nothing but the thrumming current connecting us and the promise of war in her eyes.
“Jesus Christ, what happened to your desk, Eve?”Joshua’s voice cuts through the tension like a knife.
Eve jerks back, yanking her wrist free and putting distance between us so fast you’d think I’d electrocuted her.The flush on her cheeks deepens, and I can’t tell if it’s from anger or something else entirely.
“Ask your new friend,” she says icily, not taking her eyes off me.“He thinks he’s a comedian.”
“Holy shit,” Steven appears behind Joshua, his eyes wide as he takes in the pink glittery disaster.“Someone really went all out.That’s...actually kind of impressive in a completely psychotic way.”
Joshua looks between us, and I can practically see the wheels turning in his head.“This is about the hot chocolate thing, isn’t it?”
“What hot chocolate thing?”Steven asks, still staring at Eve’s desk in fascination.
“Eve put salt in Caleb’s cocoa powder,” Joshua explains cheerfully.“And apparently he decided to redecorate her desk in retaliation.”
“You put salt in my premium Swiss cocoa,” I remind Eve, enjoying the way her jaw tightens.“Sixty-dollar cocoa that I can’t replace for at least a month because it ships from Switzerland.”
“Sixty dollars?”Steven’s eyebrows shoot up.“Jesus, Caleb, what kind of chocolate were you drinking?”
“The good kind.The kind that doesn’t deserve to be poisoned by unhinged colleagues.”
“Unhinged?”Eve’s smile turns razor-sharp.“Oh, you haven’t seen unhinged yet.But you will.”
“Is that a threat?”I ask, leaning forward with interest.
“It’s a promise.”She turns on her heel and starts toward her glittery disaster of a desk.“Hope you enjoyed your little prank, because it’s going to cost you more than sixty dollars before I’m done with you.”
I watch her go, admiring the sway of her hips and the way her dark hair cascades down her back with each angry step.When she reaches her desk and starts aggressively unwrapping her stapler, I can’t hold back my grin anymore.
“You know,” I call out, “pink really is your color, Princess.”
The look she shoots me over her shoulder makes me want to snicker “We’ll see how good you look in pink when I’m done with you.”
I reach over and pluck one of the wrapped pens from her desk, twirling it between my fingers as I start whistling a cheerful tune.The pink wrapping paper crinkles with each rotation, and I can practically feel Eve’s murderous glare burning into the side of my head.
I lean back in my chair, thoroughly enjoying the show as Eve begins to destroy my artistic handiwork.The moment she rips the first piece of wrapping paper off her monitor, glitter explodes everywhere like a sparkly bomb has gone off.It cascades onto her desk, her keyboard, her clothes, and most satisfyingly, into her dark hair where it catches the overhead lights like tiny diamonds.
She freezes completely, staring at the glittery chaos now coating everything within a three-foot radius of her desk.Then she slowly turns to face me.“Did you sprinkle glitter in the wrapping paper?”Her voice is deadly quiet, the kind of calm that comes right before a nuclear explosion.
I take another bite of my bagel, fighting back a laugh.“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You complete ass.”The words come out in a hiss that sends fire through my veins.“When I get my hands on you, I’m going to shove so much glitter up your ass, you’ll be sparkling for weeks.”
Joshua doesn’t even look up from his screen.“Well, that’s a new one.Death by arts and crafts...”
“I’d help you unwrap all that, Eve, but I’m taking my son to the dentist today and can’t explain why I’m covered in glitter,” Steven says sympathetically from his desk.
