The Price of Inertia (The Seven Sins #4) - Lily Zante Page 0,50
you not to touch anything on my desk?” There isn’t an ounce of anger in his voice.
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I must have grabbed it by mistake.”
“That’s what I thought you’d done.” His lips turn upwards, just a fraction, but he look as if he’s trying not to smile. “Where did you find it?”
“Here somewhere.”
“Where somewhere?”
“Why do you need to know?”
“It’s a very important point. I’m a stickler for detail,” he says. I’m scared that he knows Jamie took it.
“I can’t remember.”
“We had a disagreement over this, Mari. You really can’t remember?”
“You call what we had a disagreement?” That’s putting it mildly.
“What would you call it?” he asks.
“Your behavior? Bullying rudeness, in the first instance.”
“Don’t hold back.”
“I won’t.”
“I believe you didn’t.”
My mouth opens but I forgot what I was going to say. Is he referring to me in my underwear? Or the things I called him when I had the chance? I’m trying to deflect his attention from where he thinks I found the pen, but in doing so I’ve inadvertently walked myself into a blind alley.
“Do you need to borrow it still?” he asks. His eyes glitter with something mischievous and it makes me more alert.
I didn’t borrow it. I didn’t even take it, but thanks to Jamie I’m now paying the price for it. “No,” I answer. Then, “Your lunch will be ready soon. Did you want me to add chicken to it?”
He narrows his eyes, because he knows I’m steering the conversation away from what he asked me. “You don’t usually ask me what I want. Are you offering me an a la carte service?”
“You’re the boss. You get to call the shots.”
He gives me the tiniest hint of a smile, but it’s a naughty, knowing smile, as if we share a secret.
Sweet Jesus. I need a fan to cool down my face. I want to comment on his haircut, but I’m scared he’ll make something else of it.
“I don’t mind what you cook. You seem to have a knack for knowing what I need.”
As he leaves I suddenly understand why he’s not angry, why he’s being playful.
He thinks I’m flirting.
He thinks I took the pen on purpose.
He thinks I’m trying to catch his eye.
The look-at-me-in-a-bra stunt I pulled has led him to him to think this. He’s shaved today.
Completely.
Just now.
He definitely had his usual five o’clock shadow last night. That much I remember, even if I don’t remember the haircut. I was too scared to look at him for too long.
It’s the first time I’ve seen him that he’s been clean shaven. Underneath all that growth lurks a fine figure of a man.
My heart starts to race.
My body’s tell tale signs of approval.
I am so in trouble.
Chapter 21
WARD
She took the pen and hid it from me and I have no idea why. Some people are drawn to celebrity, but I don’t consider myself to be one. Authors aren’t in the same bucket as movie stars.
Why would Mari take my pen then pretend she hadn’t? She’s not the type of woman to play those types of games.
I push this new drama out of my head because I’ve wasted too long not writing.
I’m also struggling to forget that I’ve seen her shirtless, and that whenever we talk there seems to be an undercurrent vibrating in the air between us.
I have to block her out.
I look through my notes and poke at my plot in the same way as I poke at my salad. I scratch my face, and my fingers find smooth skin. No beard, because I shaved it off completely. I liked the comfort of my beard. It was a thing of safety, something to hide behind. It also takes a while to get used to having a lighter head of hair. If Mari noticed, she didn’t comment.
Mari and her games.
Women do this sometimes. Mess with your head. My mother did, when I was a child, and then again on her deathbed.
It takes great resolve, but I keep myself to myself for the next few days. Jamie comes and I have my hourly gym session with him every day, but for the most part, I avoid running into Mari.
Jamie says I’m making good progress. I can see it for myself. To begin with, I can do more than a handful of push ups easily. I managed thirty today. I’m also back on track with my healthy eating. Jamie says he’s surprised because most people don’t make such a huge leap in progress. He’s surprised that I