Fall Into You (Morally Gray, #2)(31)

“I’m well aware. I had to read through all the HR rules and sign off on them before I started.” Feigning innocence, she adds, “Why would you mention that?”

What I say is “You know exactly why.”

What I mean is Because I need to see your reaction. I need to know if you’ve thought of me the way I’ve obsessively thought of you. I need to know if you’ve touched yourself while remembering that night the way I have. I need to know if it was more for you than casual sex.

Most of all, I need to know if you want to do it again.

Because if the answer is yes, the rules be damned. I already know I’d break any rule to have her again. I’d break every rule there is just to taste her mouth one more time.

Her voice cool and her composure perfect, she says, “I assure you, Cole, I won’t enter into a personal relationship with anyone at this corporation. Especially a superior. I would never risk my position here for something so trivial as that.”

I can tell she means it. She wants nothing to do with me.

Fuck.

We stare each other down for one long, crackling moment of silence, until it feels as if the air will combust.

Then I drop my gaze to her luscious lips, imagining how they looked stretched around the head of my cock. My voice comes out throaty. “It’s Mr. McCord.”

Forcing myself to look away from her mouth, I meet her gaze. “Like you said, Ms. Sanders, let’s keep things professional.”

I walk to the door and pull it open, but before I walk out, I turn back, hardening my voice. “And from now on, I expect you to be on time.”

She answers without missing a beat. “I will be. Thank you for stopping by, Mr. McCord.”

Without a goodbye, I turn around and walk out, determined never to set foot in her office again.





Shay





I watch him stride through the forest of cubicles toward the elevators until I’m reasonably sure he’s not going to turn around and run back in to snarl some new unpleasantry at me. Then I walk around my desk, sink into the chair, and stare at the wall, stunned.

My hands shake. My heart pounds. I’m ninety percent sure my face is the color of a tomato.

But because I’ve got dozens of people staring in my direction through the glass walls, I can’t throw myself facedown onto my desk and scream or start shouting obscenities as I normally might. I keep it together with sheer willpower until the urge to do something dramatic passes, which is conveniently when Simone shows up again.

She knocks softly on the doorframe. “May I come in?”

“Of course. I was just…” Dazed, I look around the office. “Um. Settling in.”

She chuckles. Hands on her hips, she approaches my desk. “Letting the dust settle, more likely. You okay?”

“Yes.”

“I only ask because you look like you could use a stiff drink.”

I meet her amused gaze and shake my head. “Is he always so…”

“Bad-tempered? Yes. You get used to it after a while. If you last long enough, he’ll start to treat you like a human.”

I recall how he apologized to her for his manners when he first walked in and wonder how long they’ve worked together to get him to that point. Probably thirty years.

“He’s not violent, if that’s what you’re wondering. And he’s not verbally abusive. He’s just very intense.”

“So I’ve been told. But there’s intense, then there’s Cole McCord. His poor receptionist is terrified of him.”

“Marion is terrified of her own shadow. She’s a lovely girl, but a poor match for that position.”

“Why did he hire her, then?”

Simone smiles. “He enjoys terrifying people.”

“That’s just mean.”

She pulls up a chair and sits opposite me, crossing her legs and folding her hands on her lap. Wearing a lovely lavender skirt suit I recognize as vintage Chanel and a pair of beige Ferragamo pumps, she’s classy from head to toe.

“Some people would rather be feared than loved. He’s one of them.”

“Again, mean.”

“Or a defense mechanism.”

I study her for a moment, understanding she’s trying to give me insight into our boss without getting too specific about it.

“He doesn’t terrify you, does he?”

She smiles. “Nor you. Which is why I think you have a good chance of lasting here.”

At least for ninety days until I get that bonus.

Sighing, I push my hands through my hair and look around the office. “I guess you should show me where to get started. I have a feeling Mr. Dark and Stormy doesn’t tolerate dawdling.”

I freeze, horrified that my nickname for Cole slipped past my lips, but Simone chuckles.

“That’s a good one. Most everyone around here calls him the Grinch.”

I say drily, “A cynical grump born with a heart two sizes too small.”

“So the movie described him.” Simone grows series, her smile fading. “But the thing about the Grinch was that his heart wasn’t too small. He was just unbearably lonely.”

Unbearably lonely.

I recall how Cole looked at me at the bar that night we met, how his eyes were filled with such naked longing. How we bonded over our shared misery about our recent breakups.