“Is something out of place?”
The last thing I needed was to have food spilled down my front, or, heaven forbid, food in myteeth.
“No, no, it’s not that,” Rox hedged; something she seldom did. Something sheonlydid when she was breaking the news gently.
“Roxiee,” I warned.
She huffed and came closer as if we were gossiping.“He’shere, too.”
My eyes flared, then narrowed as my pulse kicked so hard I became winded.
“‘He, as inwhoexactly?”
A sly smirk formed on her mouth. She dipped her chin to give me a devilish look.
“Guess.”
“No fucking way,” I hissed on an exhale.“Ortiz?”
“Ah huh.”
“You’re messing with me!”
Humor danced in her eyes while her tone grew firm. “Absolutely not. He arrived with Colton.”
I hissed another curse under my breath and turned back to the mirror. Smoothing away non-existent wrinkles in my pencil skirt, then adjusting the neckline of my blouse, I nodded. It had only been two days since I’d met him, but for those two whole days my body had continually smoldered with him in my memory.
“I can do this. I can do this. I can do this,” I affirmed to myself, and took a deep breath to get a hold of nerves.
Rox followed me from the office, tittering beneath audible levels, then peeled off to bring refreshments.
I steeled my steps; each one of them hitting the floor with precision and authority. Outwardly, I was collected. Internally, I was scattered and heated.
Colton and Rafael were seated on the leather couch in reception, deep in conversation. Rafael’s eye’s flicked up, then away, then pinged back as he did a double-take. With the conversation left hanging, Colton twisted my way. His smile pulled wide as he stood, already extending his hand to me.
“Greer! Great to see you again. I’d like you to meet Rafael Ortiz. He’s the man I’d like to bring onboard.”
Rafael snapped out of his daze and dashed a tongue over his lip. I made a quick, yet entirely necessary, appraisal over the length of his body. Dressed dissimilar to Colton, the edge to his appearance hit every spot on my libido.
Black jeans tucked haphazardly into a gorgeous pair of black Timberland boots, a dark blue button-up shirt rolled to the elbow, and a large, what I assumed was a diamond stud in one ear. In other words,holy fuck.
He stepped closer. Each step loaded with the same prowl-like swagger he’d used two nights ago. An accompanying smirk lazily wove across his mouth, and instantly turned my pulse heavy and erratic.
“Mamacita,” he drawled, in his honeyed tone.
“Greer Landon,” I corrected, shaking his hand firmly to remind him that we were here for business.
“Ah, so you twodidmeet.”
My eyes cut to Colton and narrowed. “You could say that.”
An ill-hidden snigger came from Rafael, which I chose to ignore in favor of inviting them to my office.
“Please, take a seat. Roxiee will be here in a moment with refreshments. Or there’s scotch,” I added, because I was leaning toward liquor thanks to being rocked by Rafael’s unexpected appearance.
I didn’t like surprises—especially from clients. Not when my job was to know every sordid detail of someone’s past in order to have a plan for if, orwhen,it blew up in the media. Being caught on the back-foot was a bad look, and one I wanted to avoid, period.
“Any more surprises that I need to know about?” I asked Colton lightly, as I sat opposite him.