I hesitated before I pressed to connect the call, staring at the number on the screen, trying to get my shit together.
This was just business, and it was how Dad would have wanted me to handle it. To make everything right and professional again.
I pressed the green button and waited while the dial tone sounded in my ear.
“Patrick Crenshawe.”
My mouth dried up as he announced himself, his voice sending tremors to my core. Hearing it so close to my ear, so intimate again, seemed like a recreation of how he’d growled soft words to me as we lay naked together and his body had moved inside mine last night.
I grew wet at the unexpected thoughts and fumbled the phone as I struggled to hang up without even speaking.
Shit. Shit, shit, shit. I clenched my teeth as I squeaked my frustration to the empty room.
This was exactly the reason I didn’t see men. I didn’tentertainthem, I didn’t visit with them, I didn’t randomly go their homes and fuck them, and I didn’t fall in love.
I just stayed well out of the way because men led to complications.
Men…and friends. Relationships. All of them. If I didn’t let people in, I didn’t have to trust, and if I didn’t trust, I wouldn’t be let down and humiliated again. Trust led to destruction. So yeah, there were complications.
Being a shifter usually created those complications, and I wasn’t ready to deal with those yet. So yeah, no love life of any kind at the moment, and this was why.
I couldn’t even make a phone call. I couldn’t even go about actual business because the voice of the man on the other end of the phone line turned me on.
Last night was supposed to purge the anxiety from my system. It was supposed to relax me after the most difficult of days.
And as I considered the way I was amped back up and ready for him, my skin tingling in anticipation of his touch, I’d be ready to hop back in bed with him at this very moment. For more of hisrelaxation.
Oh, I didn’t want to do business with the man, but I’d slip back into that heated pool again anytime. Just the memory of the warm water on my skin and his heated gaze on my body relaxed me…then excited me.
I shook my head, trying to move my focus away from Patrick Crenshawe and his pool, and I snorted in disbelief. Just who had a heated pool in a top floor apartment, anyway?
If I couldn’t speak to the man directly or hold myself together long enough to even place a simple call, perhaps it was time to do some research.
I pressed the button on the intercom. “Charmaine? Could you and Wes come in here, please?”
“Yep.”
I cut the connection and waited. When they entered the office, it was with expressions of concern and Wes carried a box of Kleenex.
Perhaps they were expecting to find me in here as a broken mess, crying over all of Dad’s files. And maybe that would have been the truth of the matter if I hadn’t just redirected my focus into finding out as much as I could about the CEO of Apex Asset Management.
“You okay?” Wes edged forward and set the Kleenex down on the edge of the desk.
“Yep.” I stood and gestured to the small couch in the corner of the room. “Take a seat. We need a quick chat.”
“What’s up?” Charmaine crossed her legs as she sat and looked at me expectantly.
I walked around the desk and perched against the edge of it.
“Well, I hate to be unprepared, so I want to find out as much about Apex Asset Management as I can.”
“Okay.” Charmaine nodded. “I can put a file together for you.”
“And…” I hesitated and swallowed. “I also want to know everything there is to know about Patrick Crenshaw.”
Charmaine nodded again and left the room. “I’ll be right back.” She threw the words over her shoulder before she closed the door, the very model of efficiency.
Wes edged closer to me, and I glanced at him.