Page 22 of Divine Sense

I’d been counting my blessings that her family hadn’t called me to their home for any additional meetings the last few weeks. Ever since she stayed at my house, keeping her out of my mind had been nearly impossible and answering her text last week had clearly been a mistake. Now she thought she could text me whenever she wanted, or worse, be myfriend, which was making my attempt at keeping her as just a client significantly more difficult.

You fucking moron, she does not think of you like a friend. Afriendwould not show up like she did today or look at you the way she was just looking at you.

I pushed the thought of her being anything other than a friend, anything other thana client, out of my mind. Going forward, I would just have to ignore her completely and wait for these feelings to go away on their own. I walked back to my desk and wrote ‘Ask Kendall to remind Miss Sinclair of proper communication channels’ on a pad of paper.

Needing to take a break from work, I reached for my phone and unlocked it. While there were over twenty texts in our group chat, there was another message on the screen my eyes lockedon first. A number I hadn’t programmed into my phone but I’d memorized already during my nightly reading sessions.

1 New Message: Unknown

I hope you don’t get that excited for all your clients who come to visit you or else I’m going to have to try a lot harder.

My jaw fell open as I came to realize that my attempt to hide myself had failed.

Don’t forget Jack, the color of the evening is green.

Staring at her message, more of the same thoughts I’d been trying to ignore flooded my mind. Ones of how breathtaking she looked as she slept in the guest room. How her smile caused me to feel one of my own growing with very little effort. The way my neck grew hot every time she called me ‘Jack.’ She’s my age, it wouldn’t be weird if we were friends, would it? It’s okay to be friends with her, she’s more of a peer than a client anyway, right?

I typed a message back, changed the settings of a few things in my phone, and set it down again as I tossed the note about speaking with Kendall in the garbage.

Flower:

Don’t forget Jack, the color of the evening is green.

Green just happens to be my favorite color.

14

MAGNOLIA

It’s been a couple days since I went to his office and surprised him with the invitation. I had lied when I told him my mother was going to put it in the mail. Neither she nor my father knew he would be coming to the party, but I figured they wouldn’t think twice about it since his company was running the security for it. What I hadn’t lied about though was my desire to see him again.

After talking about him with Margaret, I couldn’t keep the image of him from creeping into my thoughts. I would be doing the most mundane things—washing my hair, cooking dinner, going for a walk—and then his deep brown eyes and the feeling of his strong arms wrapped around me would tug my attention to them. And once he was there, it was hard to get him out.

I liked him.

And while I thought he maybe liked me, too, I wasn’t sure. But I wanted to get to know him more and find out.

Sending him the text message was my last ditch attempt to get a read on how he felt about me. I mean, I couldseehow he felt about me in his office even though he tried to hide it. ButKolbi was a big man and it took a lot more than just his hands in his lap to cover up those feelings. I told myself that if I texted him, and he ignored me again, I would leave him alone unless he came to me. He’d told me multiple times that I was aclientand he kept the relationships with his clients ‘strictly professional.’If that’s what he really wanted, I could respect that, I thought.

Thank god he texted me back.

I’d just gotten back from an afternoon pilates class and was well on my way to shower when I walked into my closet full of designer heels and expensive dresses. When my eyes landed on the white satin pumps with the bows on the back, his sultry voice rang out in my mind.

‘None of my clients have ever walked into my office over lunch to hand deliver an invite to a private party they’re throwing, wearing a pair of shoes that are borderline sinful.’

I stared at the shoes and smiled to myself, recalling how his Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat as he took me in, standing in his office for the first time. I felt my cheeks flush at the memory of how it felt to tower over him for once.Maybe one day I can do it again in a different way,I thought to myself as I pulled my cashmere robe off its hook. I was halfway out of my closet when the shoes I was planning on wearing to the party on Saturday caught my eye.

They were a pair of bejeweled Mary Jane’s with a wide block heel from Sarah Jessica Parker’s new line that sparkled in the light. Each individual crystal was hand placed and they went perfectly with the emerald party dress I’d ordered three weeks ago just for the occasion. I picked the shoes up off the shelf and held them up in front of me. With my free hand, I snapped a picture of them and sent it along with a text.

Would you say these are more or less sinful than the ones I wore to your office?

I held my breath and watched my phone, willing him to text me back. It was the middle of the work day, I shouldn’t expect him to be able to answer right away. When the three dots popped up on the screen within a few seconds I couldn’t ignore how my heart started to beat faster in my chest.

I would say it’s the middle of the work day and I’m in a meeting right now.

My heart stuttered for half a beat, worried I’d annoyed him until he quickly texted me again.

But I would say they’re about the same level of sinfulness as the ones from before.

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