Page 56 of Most Eligible Billionaire

He sits next to me and hands over a java chip Frappuccino. Because of course he remembered. It’s part of the seducer’s job.

“Thank you.” I sip. “So. A groundbreaking ceremony.”

“It’s one of the things you two’ll be doing now.” He pulls a small blue vest from a bag. It has the Locke Worldwide logo embroidered on the side of it.

“Oh my god.” I put the cup in the holder and hold it up. “I don’t know about this.”

“Come on,” Henry says. “A little team spirit.”

“Poor Smuckers. He’s officially on team Cock Worldwide.”

Henry narrows his eyes. “What was that?”

“Cock Worldwide?”I study his eyes, get lost there for a second. “What? Are you honestly telling me you’ve never heard that?”

He gives me this look, like he thinks I’m joking. “Cock Worldwide. That’s not a…thing.”

“You don’t know?”

He looks uncertain. “Nobody calls us that.”

I snort. “Yeah, nobody except everybody who stands on the ground looking up at the giant cranes. I get that the logo is supposed to look like a building between two bushes, but seriously? And just…the giant cranes? Erecting massive buildings?”

He looks at me, genuinely surprised. It comes to me that nobody wanted to tell him because they’re too busy worshipping him.

“People wouldn’t call us that,” he says.

“It’s cute that you don’t even know.”

“I thinksomebodyhas an overactive imagination.”

“Oh, meaning me?” I say. “You think it’s only me who calls it that?”

“Yeah, I do. Which reveals the direction of your thoughts.”

“So arrogant,” I say, as if his nearness isn’t a tickle. As if my skin isn’t pure shivery nerve endings when I get around him. “I’m not the one covering the city with massive phallic symbols emblazoned with my name. It’s the direction ofyourthoughts we should be concerned about.”

“Like a Rorschach ink-blot test,” he teases. “Some people see cranes, the progress of a city, but you see somethingquite different.”

“Oh,pull-ease.” I snatch the vest from his hands and get Smuckers out of the purse. “You ready to be on team Cock Worldwide, buddy?” I put the vest on him. It fits perfectly.

“People wouldn’t call us that.”

“Think what you want. The world is your golden crib.”

Henry reaches over and runs his finger over the cursive L in Locke, a move that brings his arm and hand dangerously close to my lap.

“The loop on that L looks like a C. You have to at least admitthat.”

“Well…Cock Worldwide, huh.” He seems to ponder. “If the name fits…”

“Oh my god!” I grab his hand. I'm just laughing now. “You are so bad!”

He grins at me, and there’s a whoosh where the whole world stops. And I think he’s going to kiss me. I know he’s going to kiss me. And I want it.

God, how I want it.

I let go and sit back, cross my arms, take a shallow breath.

---