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“Now.”

Bennett took my hand. “Alas, I must go.” He bent and kissed it.

“Bennett!”

He retreated at once, gifting me a wink as he did so. When I met Cam’s eyes, his mouth curved into a faint smile, and hunger lurched behind my navel.

“Have a great day,” he said, all sarcasm, and I scowled.

But I did have a great day, even though Booboo was still ignoring me and Edmond clearly thought I was a helpless idiot. Xavier remained civil, bordering on kind, though it became obvious why when he asked me out again sometime around lunch, pointing out we could go to my social media blitz that night together.

“I don’t think we’re supposed to date coworkers,” I whispered.

He waved a hand. “That’s not an actual rule.”

Insides writhing, I forced out a smile. “I’d rather not break it, regardless.”

Around quitting time, Ivy compelled me into her office and spilled an impressive collection of makeup products over her desk. “Doll yourself up. Bennett’s going to take the picture.”

I unbuttoned my cardigan and hung it on a hook by the door. She whistled when she caught sight of the back of my dress.

“I know,” I said. “Is it too much?”

“It’s stunning. This is fun, right?” She tossed a full-volume mascara wand at me. “Play up those honey eyes.”

“Honey? They’re just brown.”

She checked her own reflection in a cosmetic mirror. “No. They’re whiskey brown. Like Henley Honey.”

Blinking, I looked into my own mirror. I’d always considered my eyes brown, but an ex of mine had once called them amber. In the right light, I supposed Ivy was correct, and a surge of tingly heat swept over my hands, up my arms, and down my spine for no apparent reason.

With trembly hands, I layered more mascara over the cheap drugstore product already there, then used Ivy’s fancy lip gloss to replace what had long worn off my lips. I removed the silver clip from my hair and let the curled, near-black strands cascade around my shoulders.

Ivy also fiddled with her hair and makeup until a satisfied grin lit her face. “Ready?” she asked, not bothering to remove the mess of products from her desk.

“Let’s do it.”

A quick knock hammered at the same time the door burst open.

“Ivy, what’s Bennett talking about—” Cam’s silvery gaze landed on me, then darted down my entire body, leaving a trail of fire in its wake. His expression didn’t change, but his words died, and he blinked at nothing for several seconds.

Grinning like a fiend, Ivy came around the desk. “We’re trying out a social media invitation. See if we can get some women in the Sugar Lounge tonight.”

“You—” He cleared his throat. “Both of you?”

“Isn’t that the point of the WhiskeyWomen thing?” she asked. “Why don’t you come downstairs and join us? Have a little drink.”

As she spoke, his focus flicked to me every couple of seconds. My face…lips…chest…legs…but it may as well have been his lips for how obscenely my body reacted to it. Pulses woke in inconvenient places, and I dropped my focus to the wood grain of the floor.

Never had a man ogled me like that, as if I was a decadent dessert. Even my college boyfriend hadn’t gazed with such visceral desire. Cam covered it quickly, reverting to his aloof persona, but I couldn’t deny I’d seen it.

His calm voice returned. “Alright. I’ll be down shortly. Thank you.”

Ivy pecked a sisterly kiss on his cheek. “You’re welcome.”

With a small smile in his direction, I ducked out after her, walking close enough to him that his heat seeped through my dress, spinning a reel of spicy and inappropriate thoughts through the forefront of my brain.

“You are lovely,” he murmured as I passed, his fingers ghosting my wrist. “If I may say so.”