Page 37 of Caged

“Yeah. Thanks.” My stomach rumbled. I'd eaten a good-sized lunch, but was hungry again.

“Copy that.” He pulled out his phone. “I’m starving. You want to order a pizza or something before we go?”

“Let’s find out what time he’s available and plan around that.”

He pointed at me with his phone. “Good thinking.” He opened his drawer and pulled out a protein bar.

That man is always hungry.

My stomach chose that moment to growl, making me laugh at the timing.

“What?” he asked.

“Nothing, just realized how hungry I am.”

He held the half-eaten bar out. “Want a bite?” He grinned, the specks of gold in his amber eyes sparkling in the light from his monitor.

He’s a good-looking guy. Luckily for me, his attitude made it easy for me to appreciate his good looks without being attracted to him.

I made the mistake of getting involved with a coworker once, and I’ll never do it again.Especially not with my boss’s bad boy son.

Chapter 16

Jay

We stopped at the local big box store and bought two cheap fake gold bands, foregoing the engagement ring.

“With this ring,” I joked as I handed her the ring, sticky tag and all.

“Funny, Sheppard.” She smiled, but didn’t laugh.

She does that a lot; I wonder why. Did she go home and tell her friends how exasperating it is working with us?With me?Did she journal about the men at work driving her crazy?

Or was she afraid to get too close?

“I’m Mr. Bishop now.” I doubled down with a smirk.

Without missing a beat, she answered, “Funny, Bishop.”

A thin layer of ice melted from my heart at her attempt at humor.

Nothing to write home about, but I disliked her a little less hearing her lighten up and seeing her smile reach her eyes.

Her beautiful blue eyes. They reminded me of a cloudless sky on a perfect June day. But they usually stared at me with impatience or disgust so I rarely appreciated how striking they were.

“Let’s go. Darling’s expecting us,” she said.

“After you, Sweetums.”

“No.”

“Sugar pie?”

“No.”

“Snookems? You can’t say no to that.”

“Hell no.” This time she laughed. Maxwell didn’t have a dainty laugh. It was more like a hyena cackling, at least that was what it sounded like when she huffed it out at me. But it was still a laugh.

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