Dirty Playboy - Alex Wolf Page 0,4

my computer and scroll through some emails and ignore him.

“This is our first.”

I whip my head back, and there’s a smile spanning the width of his face.

What could he possibly be enjoying about this?

I do notice one thing, though. It’s a real smile. It’s the worst, because he’s so cute. No, he’s really hot and he knows it. I have no idea why he’s so fixated on me. There are a million women around here who are much prettier, stylish, and would jump in bed with him in an instant. He wouldn’t even have to try. I am not one of those women, at all. Truth be told, I’m pretty boring. I like my routines. I just do not understand this situation, but right now, it’s making my life difficult, and that’s a problem.

“What are you even talking about?” I glare at him. I don’t want to glare, but I do, because he’s so frustrating. “Why are you smiling about this?”

“Because this.” He wags a finger back and forth between us. “This is our first fight.” He stares off at the wall as if he’s soaking up the moment and logging it away in his memory. Then, he shakes his head, still grinning. “Had to happen sometime.” He locks eyes with me again. “We had a good run there for a while, Patrick. I think we nailed our first little spat, though, better than any of the other couples around here.”

I will kill him. “Do not say things like that around here. You know how bad the gossip is. We are not a couple.” I glance around the room to make sure nobody can hear him.

His eyes roll up to the ceiling. “No, we’re not.” His gaze lands back on mine, and for the first time today he actually looks serious. Dead serious. Piercing gaze, alpha-male serious.

It’s a smoldering stare, and despite my attempts to stop it, my whole body heats up when he does it.

“But we will be.”

Why does he have to say those kinds of things? And why am I sitting here speechless instead of telling him to go jump off a cliff? Why am I not telling him that it’s not happening, and it will never happen?

Because you secretly want it to happen. Because he’s overzealous when it comes to you and he’s gorgeous.

No, he’s not!

Before I can respond, Rick winks right at me, then turns around. Without looking back, he says, “See you at church tonight, Mary Patrick.”

I sit there, almost panting, chest heaving up and down after what he just said. I want to be disgusted, but I’m not. I know he saw every bit of my reaction too. It’s what he’s trained to do. He knows when he said, “but we will be,” that it got to me. Because it did. I’ve never had a man say anything like that to me before, and a pure shock of fear and excitement just passed through my body simultaneously, and the excitement won out. It definitely did, even though I will never admit that to him.

I glance around and, thankfully, don’t see any coworker’s eyeballs staring back at me.

This is getting ridiculous.

The church sanctuary is eerily quiet as I replay today’s events at the office over and over in my mind.

I spent all afternoon trying to get my mojo back after Rick and the jerk client ruined my morning. Rick made it worse. Why can’t I get him out of my head? And now, I’m going to see him here at church any minute. I swear, I am never rid of him, ever. He’s literally more omnipotent than God.

You don’t mind.

Yes, I do.

The man is a con artist and I’ll never fall for it. Maybe if he would just show me his true self once in a while, it would change things. I have zero clue who he is. He feels so fake and I can’t get past that. Still, I continue to be nice to him because he’s always been nice to me. The whole thing is just—weird.

Anyway, the dread creeps back up as I stroll up to the front of the sanctuary after spending most of the evening back in the office, Rick-free. It’s not even dread, really, as I take each step. It’s nerves. My stomach twists in a knot every time Rick is around, even if I don’t see him, I can feel his presence, and I have no idea why. I know he’s in the building, and the anticipation is killing