"All my friends are couples. Married. With kids. It's all good though. Because I have beer. Who's the loser now?" @Kavon #NotMe I laughed at my phone. Somehow, in the last few days of not seeing Miss Novak, I've given up on keeping her out of my mind. Every time I tried to sway my thoughts to different things, they'd just end up back to those blue eyes, plump lips, and smile that lit up her whole face.

"What the h.e.l.l are you doing? Are you watching p.o.r.n?" A deep, annoying voice invaded my thoughts.

I looked up to Evan carefully watching me, eyes wide. We were in my office, a spread of sandwiches in front of us, and stacks of work to get through. "No, you idiot. I'm not watching p.o.r.n."

"You could have fooled me," he mumbled, lifting his sandwich and biting a huge crescent shape into it. He chewed slowly and pointed his fork in my direction. "Why are you looking at your phone like that? What are you looking at? Pictures? Friends share naked pictures; it's in the guy code. Let's see them."

I held my hands up, laughing. "It's just a funny text. That's all."

Evan shifted in his seat, straightened up. "Yeah? From a woman?" His eyes widened. "Bro, are you s.e.xting someone while you have lunch with me? Ugh. I feel dirty."

I laughed. "No, a.s.s. It's Lexa Novak."

His sandwich fell out of his hands. "Spill. What's going on?"

"Nothing, Evan. I swear."

"So, it's okay if I try to have a go with her, right?" Evan smirked and chewed at the same time.

"I'd have to kill you first." Was it wrong of me to ward off potential dates for her? Yes. Did I care? Not one d.a.m.n bit. If this was so wrong, why the h.e.l.l did it feel right?

"Yeah, I thought so. This is so sweet, Holt. My eyes feel a little watery. Can I be your maid of honor?" Evan teased.

"Shut up." I glanced up at him. "You know Mandy; she's the secretary to the a.s.sistant to the creative director. She's hot. And Lexa's good friend. Very single."

"Interesting." Evan smiled, wagging his eyebrows.

As Evan cleaned up, singing about bringing s.e.xy back, I excused myself to the bathroom but never made it in. Strangely, I found myself in the bas.e.m.e.nt, standing in front of the fact-checking intern who was polishing her nails. I walked past her-she never even looked up-right into Lexa's office.

"You'll never take me alive!" Lexa yelled as she stood on her desk, firing what looked like a Nerf cannon into Frank's cubicle. A bright yellow barrel slid out of the side of another small cubicle, popping an orange foam cylinder out, and hit Lexa in the middle of the forehead. Her pantsuit was askew, face flushed, top b.u.t.ton undone, hair wild. Leaning her head back, she burst out laughing. f.u.c.king gorgeous. This girl was perfect.

"That was a kill shot. Kill shot!" a deep voice screamed out.

"No way," another deep voice called out. "You did not get Lex, I don't believe it." Somewhere behind that was a low feminine giggle.

The door closed behind me with a loud click and there was a moment of silence, then an, "Oh, s.h.i.t."

Lexa's eyes locked on mine, the air around her hummed quietly. "Mr. Holt," she said quickly. "We were just letting off a little steam," she smiled, eyes dancing.

"By all means, continue."

And she did, by popping me in the chest with a foam bullet.

"I win," she winked.

"How exactly is that fair, Miss Novak?" My fingers curled around the edges of the folder I held, nearly destroying it. I could still picture her half-dressed, sitting in the hallway, legs bent, and the white boy shorts that peeked out from behind them.

"War isn't fair, Mr. Holt," she deadpanned.

I could imagine how wild she would f.u.c.k, her face smashed into a pillow as I took her from behind.

Mandy's face peeked out from behind a file cabinet. Her hand reached out, offering me a bright pink gun. "Psst. You're going to need this," she whispered.

My eyes glanced back to Lexa, still standing on the top of her desk. Was that a challenge? Yanking off my jacket, I tossed it onto a chair. I pulled at my tie, rolled up my sleeves, and grabbed for the gun. Meanwhile, she'd shot me four more times.

Storming her desk, I aimed the barrel of the toy gun at her and emptied the chamber, pelting her everywhere.

"You shoot like a girl," she laughed smoothly, then lifted her gun and shot me right between the eyes.

There was nothing left to do but tackle her.

So I did.

Lunging at her, I grabbed her around the thighs and flung her yelping over my shoulder. I spun her around, a.s.s facing everyone, and screamed, "Light her up, guys." Neon colored cylinders catapulted through the office, slamming her dozens of times in the a.s.s. When the bullets cleared, everyone cheered and high-fived each other. My hands gripped her tightly, and I was wishing there wasn't the material of her pants in the way of touching her skin.

Frank smacked her on the a.s.s. "Well, Mr. Holt, if you fire us it would be worth it. She never loses. Even when she loses, she refuses to lose."

I slowly slid Lexa down to the floor, the front of her body gliding like soft silk over mine, until our faces were an inch apart, her front flush to mine. "Hey," I whispered. She smelled like caramel and chocolate, and I could feel the heaviness of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s against my chest and her warm hands around my neck.

"Hey," she answered with a ghost of a smile.

"I just came down to check over some information if you have a minute." My hands gripped her waist. d.a.m.n, could she tell how much I wanted her?

"Yeah, sure," she said, stepping out of my arms. "Just, um, can you give me a minute?" Her hand touched the hair that had escaped from her bun and fell in wild waves against the long expanse of her neck.

"Don't worry about how you look. You're perfect, right now, like this..." I said in a quiet voice.

Her hand dropped against her chest; her breathing faltered. That's the moment it happened. My mind took over, brain flooding with thoughts of her back arched, hair falling over her bare t.i.ts, riding me as I dug my fingers into her a.s.s, pushing her faster. Lips wrapped around me, biting, scratching. Legs flung over my shoulders. I moved in closer, reached up, and touched a curled strand of hair.

A throat cleared. s.h.i.t.

And the rest of the room came into focus. Mandy, Frank, and three other people stood holding an array of neon colored machine guns, watching us closely. s.h.i.t. I completely forgot where I was. This place was a gossip mill. And standing in front of Lexa was confusing. Would she get into the casual friends-with-benefits thing I always go after? Or would anything happening between us ignite an unwanted fire?

Lexa stumbled and walked past me, grabbing Mandy by the arm, dragging her straight into the bathroom. Her eyes looked down, intent at watching her feet stumble away from me. d.a.m.n, I didn't mean to embarra.s.s her. The rest of the army dispersed back into their cubicles, pretending to get back to work. I stared at the bathroom door, wondering what the h.e.l.l she and Mandy could be talking about in there.

"Ah...Mr. Holt, sir, would you like a cup of coffee while you wait? Water? We have a little...a little kitchen area in the back," Frank stammered.

"Water would be great, thank you."

I watched him walk off, only to return a second later with an icy cold water bottle. He nodded to the bathroom door. "I have no idea why girls do that, do you?"

"Do what?" I questioned.

"Go into the bathroom in packs," he said.

"Well, Frank. They are in there talking about me right now," I smirked.

"That's very conceited of you to say," Lexa's voice rang out behind me.

"So, you weren't just in there talking about me?" I questioned with a wink.

"You haven't done anything worthy of talking about, Mr. Holt." She tucked her lips between her teeth to stop herself from laughing.

"Challenge accepted," I said. Her sudden terrified smile was heart stopping.

She blinked. Then she laughed and rolled her eyes. "What do you need me to check for you?"

I handed her the crumpled folder. "And I need to know if maybe...Kevin Trager might be Alex Kavon," I blurted out.

"What? Why?" she asked, looking up at me with wide eyes.

"That's why Sophia..."

"Oh, I see." She did her best to smile, but it was easy to see it was forced. "Well, as far as I know Kevin Trager can't string a sentence together let alone create a news aggregator-slash-blog. He can't even make toast without starting a fire. But then again, there seems to be a lot things in his life that I didn't know about, so I might be wrong." Her smile faded into a frown.

"I didn't mean to upset you," I whispered.

"I'm not upset." Again, her eyes went to the floor, and I reached my hand to her chin and lifted her gaze back up to mine.

Three throats cleared. Our audience shifted uncomfortably by the door. "Hey, we're just going to go get some lunch or something. Lex, you want anything?"

"BLT," she answered, never breaking eye contact with me.

I watched them rush out the door as if they couldn't get out fast enough. My eyes drifted back to hers.

"So tell me what's going on." I caught her lightly on the elbow and gently led her to her seat.

"With what?"

"You," I said.

"Let's see, I won't be getting married, yet I am paying for a wedding. I've been trying to donate it to a charity, but Kevin is fighting me. My mother on the other hand, has registered me for at least half a dozen online dating sites, hoping I could meet someone to marry in the next few days."

My chest did something funny, like it tightened for a minute, and then pumped harder. "You really aren't marrying him?"

She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. "G.o.d, please, not you too. Why do people think it's okay for him to have done what he did and still get to have me?"

"I didn't think it was okay. I don't think you should marry that dips.h.i.t. He doesn't deserve you," I said. My heart continued its strange drumming, beating faster and faster until it became almost painful.

She looked at me stunned, lips parted, eyes wide. My thoughts rushed into erotic overdrive again. This thing between us, it felt...it felt like I was standing on the edge of a volcano about to erupt. It had to be something chemical, something beyond my control. Does she have any idea-even a tinge of a notion of the effect she has over me? Couldn't she see me slowly hanging over her desk, edging closer to her?

She cleared her throat and leaned forward. "Kevin Trager isn't Alex Kavon. I can guarantee that. It's just another case of unfairness. The caterpillar does all the work and the b.u.t.terfly gets all the glory."

"Run the f.u.c.k away with me," I whispered, my voice coming out strange and breathless. "Any woman who can quote George Carlin is the perfect girl for me." I ran my thumb along her chin. She didn't react, she didn't move back. I was more shocked at touching her than anything and she was letting me.

"What?" She gave me a nervous chuckle.

"Exactly. What? Ever notice when we look at each other sometimes we don't notice what's going on around us?" I asked.

"James, you make my head spin. I need a triple dose of Xanax after I talk to you," she whispered.

"You're beautiful," I whispered, pulse throbbing. A small smile tugged at her lips, eyes questioning. She might have been blushing; it was hard to tell in the low light by her desk, but I knew she looked surprised by my words, maybe a bit embarra.s.sed. "Do you even realize how stunningly beautiful you are, Lex?"

She stared at me through narrowed eyes. Then she stood up, flattened down her pants, and leaned her trembling hands against her desk. Her eyes locked on mine.

Mandy's voice echoed in the hallway. Frank's laugh followed.

She pushed off the desk slowly and took a hesitant step closer to me. "Um. James?"

"Yes," I said, stepping closer to her.

"I seem to have lost a pair of panties the night you took me home." Her eyes were so blue-so clear this close.

"White lace trimmed satin? A little pink bow on the front?"

"Yeah," she breathed.

"Haven't seen them."

Her lips spread into a smile. I wanted her. More than I'd ever wanted anyone.

The door opened. We stumbled apart, not realizing until then just how close I came to tasting her lips. "BLT," Mandy mumbled.

I nodded my head and smiled. "Would it be possible to have that file finished and on my desk first thing tomorrow morning?"

"Yeah, sure," she smiled.

"Good, I'll see you then. First thing. Tomorrow. My office."

"Yes, sir." She smirked and saluted me.

10.

Lexa