Page 41 of His Wall

He looked up.

The grin came up at the corner of his mouth and stayed there. Not the conference-room grin. The other one. The one for me.

"Good morning, Mr. Cross."

"Good morning, Claire."

I crossed to the desk, set the coffee on the coaster and let my hand stay on the rim of the cup for half a second longer than I needed to. He did not look at the cup. He looked at my face.

The whole weekend was in the room with us.

Neither of us mentioned it.

"Halverson at 10:00 a.m. Klein update at 11:30 a.m. Partners' meeting at 2:00 p.m. You have a block at 4:00 p.m. and the London call at 6:00 p.m."

"Got it."

"You want me to push the 4:00 p.m.?"

"No."

"Of course."

I stepped back from the desk. I turned. I walked out.

I decided that morning, I was going to draw a line.

I handed him a folder, and his fingers brushed mine on the handoff, neither of us pretended it was an accident. He held the brush for a count of two. I had pulled my hand back at one and a half.

Then I came around the side of his desk to point at a figure in the Whitfield file, and his eyes dropped to my collarbone. I had felt the air on the line of my throat where the placket fell open, I caught his eyes on it, and I did not step back.

He had asked me about the London call.

I stood beside his chair and walked him through the timing. "Friday at 2:00 p.m. our time, 7:00 p.m. theirs. They're sending the legal package by Wednesday so you have forty-eight hours to redline. The CFO will not be on the call. The COO will. Her name's Margaret Rhodes. She is a woman who likes preparation."

He watched my mouth the whole time.

I finished. I waited for him to write something down. He did not write anything down.

"What?"

"I didn't say anything."

"You're looking at me, Mr. Cross."

"You're looking at me."

The silence sat for a second.

The grin at the corner of his mouth widened a quarter-inch. The corner of my own mouth wanted to do the thing it had been doing all morning. The thing it had done at the river before the kiss, and I held it.

I held it.

"Anything else?"

"No, Claire."

"Of course."