His head snapped up. “What?”
“Relax. It’s speculation based on the way you can’t stop looking at her, and the way she blushes every time you walk by her desk.” Knox settled into the chair across from him. “Plus, there was that little moment this morning where you laughed. In public. People are starting to think you’ve been replaced by a human.”
“Knox—”
“I’m not judging,” Knox said, holding up his hands. “I’m impressed. I didn’t think you had it in you to break the pact for anyone, but she’s special.”
The pact. The agreement they’d made in college about staying single until forty. A promise that felt like a lifetime ago.
“It’s complex,” he said.
“The best things usually are.” The expression on Knox’s face grew more serious. “But you know this could get messy, right? Office relationships, power dynamics, all that HR nightmare stuff?”
“I’m aware of the challenges.”
“Are you? Because from where I’m sitting, it looks like you’re falling hard and fast, and you’ve never had to navigate anything like this before.” Knox paused. “What happens when the fake engagement story falls apart? When Beauchamp finds out you’ve been lying to him?”
“We’ll figure it out,” he said.
“You’d better,” Knox stood. “Because if this goes sideways, it won’t just be your heart on the line. They will be affected, too.”
After Knox left, he sat staring at his computer screen. The rational part of his mind knew he was right. This was dangerous territory, both for him and for business.
But then he caught sight of Devney through the glass, laughing at something a coworker said. She was radiant, alive in a way that made his chest constrict with want and feeling.
He was falling, had already fallen, and for the first time in his methodical life he didn’t have a plan for what came next.
Chapter 18
She wasin her own apartment, surrounded by the usual chaos of her real life—wilting plants, an overflowing laundry basket, a refrigerator holding nothing but expired yogurt and takeout containers—while her mind stayed trapped somewhere else entirely, replaying every moment in his penthouse, every touch, every whispered word. She had been swept away by a night of incredible sex with her boss.
The question was, what happened now?
By the time she showered, dressed, and flagged down a cab on the corner, nothing felt settled. The city slid past the windows in a blur while her body still carried him, while her thoughts kept drifting back to the way he had looked at her, the way he had held her.
At work, the sunflowers from yesterday waited in their crystal vase. Her favorite flowers, something she had mentioned once in passing, and he had remembered.
When the elevator chimed fifteen minutes later, she looked up to see him walking toward her in a charcoal suit that made her mouth go dry. Their eyes met across the office, and theprofessional greeting she had rehearsed never made it past her lips.
He looked at her like she was everything he’d been thinking about. Whatever this was between them, they were both in far deeper than either of them had anticipated.
She settled into her chair, but her focus was a lost cause, her gaze constantly snagging on the man behind the glass. Ronan sat with his head bent over reports, the distance between them feeling like a canyon instead of a few feet of office space. He looked up once, trapping her stare. A sharp, unfamiliar tightness lived in the corners of his eyes before he abruptly dropped his attention back to the page.
Was that regret? The warmth of the morning felt suddenly fragile, like a temporary glitch in the cold, efficient machinery of his life. Maybe she had simply been a convenient comfort during a fever, a variable he was already calculating how to move to the “resolved” column.
Her phone buzzed.
LUCY: Lunch today? Need gossip that isn’t about flour ratios.
She typed back a quick confirmation.
By noon, the tension around her had wound so tight inside her that she couldn’t take another minute. She grabbed her purse and practically fled the office.
Outside, she hailed a cab. As Manhattan blocks rolled past the window, she hoped the distance would help clear her head. But every mile between them felt like a mistake.
The cab pulled up outside Lucy’s bakery, and she paid the driver. Through the window, she could see Lucy finishing up with a customer. When Lucy spotted her through the glass, she held up one finger, mouthed “just a minute.”
A few moments later, Lucy emerged from the bakery. “Thank God you’re here,” Lucy said. “I was about to lose my mind if I had to discuss fondant techniques one more time today.”
