I nodded without taking my gaze off the computer screen. Tony’s office was a smaller security room closer to the reception desk. He had cameras on the floor, but they were mostly directed at my office door, the elevator, the stairwells, and a few other select locations. When I was in my office, he split his time between watching the monitors and sexting his husband until I needed him.
The morning passed quickly, even though I had to deal with shit, as I’d predicted. A few documents hadn’t gotten filed as they should have been—and would have if I’d been at work the previous day. Two typos in one contract had nearly cost the construction company two million dollars, but luckilyZiohad caught it before the client had signed.
While I stuffed my face with two huge chocolate-filled croissants, I had to tear two of the other lawyers and a paralegal a new asshole for being lazy and incompetent. Fuck, I couldn’t take a single day off without the entire legal department falling into bedlam.
At lunchtime, Tony brought in our food that had been delivered, and we ate together. Halfway through the meal, there was a brisk knock on the door before it opened, and the receptionist walked in carrying a huge crystal vase full of red, white, and pink roses.
“Where would you like these, Miss Donati?” Doug asked, looking as if he might topple over under the weight of all those flowers.
Tony jumped to his feet and took the vase from him. “Thanks, man. I got it from here.”
He waited for Doug to close the door behind himself before turning to grin at me. “Nice,” he commented, carrying them effortlessly over to sit on my desk. “Looks like Krenshaw is trying to woo you.”
My heart gave a little leap, but I schooled my face not to give away even a hint of my inner emotions. Standing, I snatched the little white envelope from the bouquet and dropped back into my chair before pulling out the card. It wasn’t handwritten, but the fact that he’d sent me flowers was a first all its own.
Red,
It took my coach calling to yell at me to even get me out of bed this morning. If he hadn’t threatened to come get me himself, I would still be snuggled up beside you right now. But I didn’t want to chance him seeing a single inch of your glorious body.
I can’t stop thinking of you.
Fuck, I miss you.
Promise we can have dinner together tonight.
Yours,
NK
Without realizing it, I sank my teeth into my bottom lip as I read and reread the little note.
Damn.
It might not say he loved me, but he’d said he couldn’t stop thinking about me. He missed me.
Playing with the card, I picked my phone up off my desk and sent him a text.
Me:Dinner. My place at 7.
I didn’t get an instant reply and figured he was still in the middle of practice. It blew my mind that he’d blown off practice yesterday and had gotten yelled at by his coach. Sure, we’d been lost in each other after so long apart, but this was Nolan Krenshaw. He’d never willingly missed a practice a day in his life. Yet he had, so he could spend the day with me.
Of course, it had been spent fucking my brains out, but that he’d missed practice at all still had to mean something.
Or maybe I was just looking for something that wasn’t there. I needed to tread carefully before I got in over my head and drowned my heart in this man again. I was walking a fine line. What I should have been doing was putting as much distance between us as possible, yet I couldn’t wait to see him at dinner.