LITMIR.BIZ

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cleared her throat. “Nothing I can’t handle.”

      He nodded briskly. “Good. That’s just the kind of attitude we like for a partner to have.” Mr. Braithwaite nodded again, eyes flickering behind her to look into her office. “Keep up the good work. I’ll see you in the morning.”

      Bailey released a quiet breath. “Have a good night, Mr. Braithwaite.”

      He thanked her and headed down the hallway for the elevators. He and Raphael had been dangling the partnership carrot in front of her for the past few months now, stressing how a Braithwaite and Fernandez partner should act, react and behave. And Bailey was success-driven enough to leap for that carrot. With a broken engagement now two years behind her and no immediate prospects for a family of her own, this was something she wanted more than ever.

      Her sister, Bette, thought she was being downright ridiculous about the partnership thing. But her sister never worried about anything. For her, life was one big expensive party where someone else always picked up the tab. She was as carefree about life as Marcus. Only he could actually afford to be. Bette could not.

      Bailey waited until Mr. Braithwaite was halfway down the hallway before she went back into her office.

      Seven’s eyebrow quirked with mischief. “Did I almost get you in trouble?”

      “Hardly,” she said. “This is not the principal’s office.”

      “Not unless you’re the sexy teacher, and in that case, I’ll be more than happy to be your naughty student.” He grinned.

      She shook her head. “No.”

      But his teasing was infectious. She almost smiled as she sat back on the blanket next to him and picked up the remains of her sandwich. Her boss hadn’t noticed anything. And if he had, he hadn’t said a word about it. Surely, something like this couldn’t affect her chances of getting the partnership. She dismissed Harry Braithwaite from her mind and bit into the sandwich.

      “You need to relax,” he said. “It’s a job. Not your life.”

      “For me, it’s the same thing.” She covered her mouth with one hand as she answered him, still chewing.

      “Then we need to change that.”

      We?

      Bailey laughed. Seven’s audacity and the way he stirred her sleeping libido made her want to prolong these moments in his company. He was charming, almost unnaturally beautiful, and she liked him. A lot.

      Seven opened the bottle of white wine and poured some into two of the plastic cups.

      “I can’t.” Bailey held up a hand in refusal. “I’m working, remember?”

      “It’s just sparkling grape juice.” He lifted the cup and brought it to her mouth. “Here, see for yourself.”

      Bailey blushed, warmed by his nearness, the low and intimate sound of his breathing. She smelled his musk, the kiss of sweat on his skin, and swayed closer. Her thoughts flickered on and off like a dying light bulb. Don’t touch him. Tell him to leave. You can’t afford this kind of man in your life. God! He smells so good.

      She’d never felt this deep an attraction for someone. It frightened her a little. Made her want to draw back from the simple offering he made. Seven’s dark, curly-lashed eyes peered deeply into hers, as if he was offering her more than grape juice. She opened her mouth and tasted the crisp sweetness of what he gave her. The grape juice effervesced over her tongue. An unexpected bite of spice made her mouth tingle. She sneezed.

      Seven laughed. “It has ginger in it.”

      “Damn. Ginger always makes me sneeze.” To prove it, she sneezed again.

      He sipped from the same cup he’d asked her to taste. “That is adorable.”

      His laughter mingled with the sound of her cell phone’s ring tone. Smiling, Bailey wiped her nose with a napkin and stood to grab her phone off the desk. Marcus’s image and name flashed on the phone’s display. For a moment, she debated not answering. The last thing she wanted to do was deal with Marcus and his foolishness, especially when she’d managed to all but forgive and forget that he was a friend to her good-looking and damn near irresistible office guest.

      Bailey sighed and picked up the call. “Hi, Marcus.”

      Seven looked up when she mentioned his friend’s name, a frown on his otherwise smooth forehead. Then he looked away, busying himself with taking something out of the picnic basket. Bailey sank down into her chair and turned her attention back to the phone call.

      “You sound happy,” Marcus said.

      “Don’t make it seem like such an unusual occurrence.”

      “Isn’t it? You’re the only chick I’d ever tell she needs to get laid. Since Clive, you act like you’ve been saving the kitty for marriage.”

      Bailey’s good mood abruptly evaporated. “What do you want, Marcus?”

      He had the nerve to laugh in her ear. “I was calling to check on my boy, Seven. Did you take care of him?”

      “We’re talking right now,” she said.

      Marcus whistled. “Damn. It’s like that?” He laughed again, this time with a whole other meaning behind it.

      “No. It’s not.” Bailey’s face flushed with heat, but she kept her voice hard.

      “This is shocking the hell out of me. You don’t have time for any man that’s not—”

      “Get to the point, please. I have things I need to get back to.”

      “I bet you do.” He chuckled, a low and dirty sound. “Anyway, tell Seven that Nilda wants to buy one of his pieces. I’m with her right now. I tried to call his cell but he’s not picking up.”

      Bailey knew Nilda. Another one of Marcus’s friends with more money than sense.

      “Pieces?”

      “Yeah. Your new boyfriend likes to hammer on things and sell them as art. Chicks can’t get enough of him or his stuff.”

      “He’s a sculptor?”

      Seven looked up at her tone of voice. Bailey turned away from him to stare, blinking, out the window. “You didn’t mention that before.”

      “Does it matter? You want clients and he’s got money to help you get that corner office.” The sound of laughter and a popped bottle of champagne gurgled to Bailey through the phone. “Anyway, I gotta go. Pass my message on to the man, will you? He can call me if he wants to get together later.” Marcus hung up.

      Slowly, Bailey did the same. An artist.

      It made sense. All along, there had been something about Seven that reminded Bailey of her father—her dear broke and irresponsible father.

      “You didn’t tell me you were an artist,” she said, voice brittle with the frost of her disappointment.

      Frowning, Seven slowly got up from the floor and sat in the chair across from her desk, putting them at a relatively even height. “You look upset. Why does it matter?”

      “It matters.” Bailey clenched her fist and realized she still held the cell phone in her hand. She put it on the desk and leaned back in her chair. The fact that he was Marcus’s friend, she could have possibly overlooked, but this... This slammed the door on every possibility between them.

      “What’s the problem?” he asked.

      Suddenly, Bailey felt tired. The stress of her day and the seesaw of emotions from Seven’s appearance hit her like a Mack truck.

      “Actually, there’s no problem,” she said.

      “If that isn’t giving me mixed messages, I don’t know what is.” Seven raised an eyebrow in her direction. “What

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