Page 77 of Forty, Flirty & F*cked

“And you’re saying last night wasn’t?”

I can hear the heat in Connor’s voice, the rumble of dissent.

I take a deep breath, releasing it slowly. “I don’t want to argue. I just want to get to work. On time.”

His frosty-blue eyes turn into glaciers. “Right. Work.”

"Connor..."

"No, you're right." He grabs his jacket. "We should be professional. Never mind the fact that we’re both way past that goddamned point…”

He’s right. Last night, we obliterated anything professional between us.

But now...

Now it’s becoming too easy to want something else entirely. Something terrifying and wonderful and absolutely impossible.

My phone buzzes again:

LILY: Dad's trying to organize a protein powder MLM scheme

LILY: With his kidney support group

LILY: SEND REINFORCEMENTS

I close my eyes briefly. “We have to go. You have a meeting to get to. I do, too, in case anything strange might affect the IPO, and?—“

"Of course." Connor's voice is carefully neutral. "Duty calls."

“I’m just saying…”

"The board meeting's in twenty minutes." He's already moving away. "We should take separate elevators. Maintain that professional distance."

The words feel like a door closing.

I want to stop him. Want to explain that it's not him I'm running from—it's me. The me who's supposed to have everything under control. The me who's lying to him. The me who's terrifying close to falling in love with a man so soon after getting my heart stomped on by another.

But I don't.

Instead, I watch him leave, the ghost of last night's happiness fading like morning mist.

My phone buzzes one final time:

DAD: Don't worry sweetheart! Everything's fine!

DAD: Though hypothetically...

DAD: How do you feel about being the face of Bristol's Protein Paradise?

I drop my head into my hands, Connor's words echoing in my mind.

Professional distance.

Right.

Because that's working out so well for everyone.

19

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