Finn follows me into my office and closes the door while I go around my desk.
“Do I want to know what was happening there?” Finn sinks into a chair and plucks a pen from my desk. He spins it in his hand as he studies me.
“No,” I bite out. Fuck. I pull up my phone and look at the texts Talia sent me last night. She wants me to take her out, show her off. Maybe that’s what I need. Talia.
I just need to find a release, and that’s what Talia will do for me. Even as I type, I cringe, knowing this isn’t what I want. She isn’t who I want.
I want red hair spread on my pillow with pale green eyes blazing up at me while her small body writhes on my cock. Fuck.
Me:
Thursday dinner?
Talia:
Will we be having dessert?
I rub the back of my neck. She’s not who I want, but she’s not off-limits. She’ll take care of the immediate need so I can focus on what’s important. Tom’s disappearance and keeping Sara out of danger.
Me:
Plan on it.
I set my phone away from me on the desk and lift my gaze to Finn’s concerned green eyes.
“You know she wants you still. If you want her, you could have her.” He rubs his jaw. Sara. “Tom would get over it.”
Finn doesn’t understand. He thinks it would blow over. He believes Tom would be angry for a while, but then everything would go back to the way it’s always been. Except it wouldn’t just fracture me and Tom. It would fracture all of us.
This isn’t just some woman we all want. This is Sara. The little sprite who followed us around. The young woman who tried to get us to pay attention to her. The grown woman who makes me long for her at night, when I’m alone in my bed, stroking my cock to the memory of her lips, the fire in her eyes, the curves of her body.
“It can’t happen.” I shake my head to rid myself of my dirty thoughts. It hurts too much to think about what can’t be. “Let’s focus on work.”
My phone vibrates, but I don’t look at it.
Finn leans over and glances at the screen. He flinches. “Talia? Is that really smart? I thought you were shrugging her off. She’ll just dig her claws deeper into you if you play with her again.”
I shrug. She’ll help me clear my head so I don’t do anything stupid like kiss Sara, because once I kiss her, there will be no turning back. She’ll be mine.
Chapter 17
Bottom Line
Sara
This week has been moving so fucking slow. It’s Thursday morning so at least I have something more exciting to look forward to tonight than going home alone, eating alone, and going to bed alone.
Peabody is good company, but he’s not very talkative.
At least I haven’t seen the smoking guy hanging around outside. Maybe I was just imagining it last week. Overactive imagination caused by Tom’s cryptic messages.
I look over the column of numbers I’ve been struggling to make sense of for the last twenty minutes, but whatever is wrong is still eluding me. I glance at the time on my computer.
Dante and Wyatt left for a meeting. So I can’t ask Dante. I could ask one of the other associates. It’s not like they’re off-limits, but they don’t treat me like one of them. I’ve tried striking up conversation in the breakroom, but they act like I’m one of their bosses and not another worker bee.
And every time I see Greg, he looks about ten minutes from asking me out and I don’t want to deal with that.
I unplug my laptop, walk over to Finn’s office, and knock on the door. It’s been a long week because I’ve been avoiding the others since that incident with Wyatt. It left me feeling raw and vulnerable.
