Chapter 35
COLE
It’s been a week since I last saw Yasmine.
After her mom left the hospital, I thought it was best to leave them alone to allow Ines to heal.
The last thing she needed was me hanging about the place at night, following Yasmine around like a love-sick idiot.
Yasmine said her mom has pretty much been in bed before nine every night anyway, exhausted from the procedure, and I know I did the right thing by giving Yasmine space to care for her.
I’ve checked in with her daily, both day and night, and I’ve barely resisted the urge to visit her just to feel her lips on mine again.
It’s been a difficult week, but I’ve been there for her when she needed someone to talk to, despite her busy schedule preparing the firm’s presentation and having her nose stuck in her laptop while working from home all week.
Not only is she dedicated, but she has also never shared her proposal because she doesn’t want to influence my decision or violate her code of ethics with FusionTech.
It’s felt like the longest week of my life, but now, on Monday, I’m sitting around the boardroom table in Hart Law, watching Yasmine deliver what can only be described as the presentation of the century.
What she doesn’t know is that I’ve stepped back from the decision-making process.
Whatever my brothers and the IT department decide, I’ll accept it.
Then, whoever wins the contract to develop our new app, I will need to work with them to ensure it meets our needs.
They’d be crazy not to choose Yasmine, whose presentation has been the best so far. We’ve sat through six company proposals, and hers is innovative and far exceeds what we asked for.
“So, in conclusion, if you choose FusionTech, your app will not only meet the needs of your employees and customers to streamline your business services and cut administration costs, but also generate another stream of income if you choose to white-label the app. FusionTech will administer, roll out, and manage it through a new, highly trained, dedicated call center. ”
No one else has even considered those two things.
She’s perfect for this project.
She’s perfect for me too.
“Thank you for your time, and if you have any questions, please fire away,” she says, opening her arms wide, preparing herself for queries or concerns.
Mumbles and head shakes circulate around the table, with no one having anything to ask. Because she covered everything, leaving no doubt or misinterpretation.
“I think we’re good, Ms. Montgomery,” Nathan states, reading the room. “I have only one question.”
“Okay.” Yasmine fixes her gaze on Nathan, not intimidated by him in the slightest.
“How long will it take? From start to finish?”
“For a complex app such as this, anything from three to twelve months. But I have already started designing it, so you can cut one month off that timeline.”
Has she? Holy shit.
“You’re good.” Nathan waggles his finger at her, then looks my way with a quirked brow.
Yup, she’s great.
“I’m the best, Mr. Hart, and my team and I will work our fingers off to make your app not only the greatest but the one that everyone wants.
You’ll have other law firms wanting what we design together because there is nothing else like it out there.
We’ll build, sell, and monopolize the market. Together. As a partnership.”
I stay quiet and let that sink in for everyone around the table.
It’s a fucking genius plan. I was hoping for someone to come along and blow us out of the water with their proposal. Yasmine is the only one who has my brothers sitting up in their seats and paying attention.
“Great,” Max starts, “we’ll be in touch as soon as we’ve made our decision.
” Then he closes his notebook and picks up his pen, getting ready to leave, and everyone follows his lead, shaking Yasmine’s hand and thanking her, until it’s just me sitting around the table with Yasmine standing at the end of it.
My brother Max’s wink as he closes the door doesn’t go unnoticed.
My brothers know Yasmine is now part of my life and that we’re dating.
How could they miss it, especially since I’ve been mentioning her for weeks?
That’s why they understood my decision to step back from the decision-making to avoid favoritism, which is fair.
If she lands the contract, it’s because she laid the groundwork nobody else did. Pure and simple.
Today she’s wearing yet another black pantsuit, only this time the jacket has a white collar and is super fitted, making it look more like a tuxedo.
It’s probably just as well I didn’t arrive before my brothers and the IT team, because I was stuck in a meeting all morning.
Otherwise, I would have bent her over the conference table and taken her from behind while she wore that sexy little suit.
While I hadn’t been able to fuck for years until I met Yasmine, now I’ve tasted her and felt her pussy around my cock, when I’m near her, something intensely wild occurs deep in my stomach, causing my arousal to spike and all the blood to rush to the end of my cock.
It’s becoming a huge fucking problem.
But thank fuck my head and heart have moved on from my ex. It was about goddamn time.
Voices from outside the room continue to chatter as everyone from the meeting gathers outside, visible through the open blinds of the floor-to-ceiling windows. It’s obvious they are discussing Yasmine’s presentation, as there’s no other reason for the lively conversation.
“Will they be discussing the proposal?” Yasmine asks nervously, her first sign of hesitation I’ve seen. She wants this contract. I know she does. It’s so tangible that I can feel her resolve lingering in the air, so real and palpable.
Before I get the chance to reply, a text arrives on my phone, and I instantly smile at the simple six-word text from my brother Nathan.
Nathan
Ask her when she can start?
“When can you start?” I ask, looking up and turning my phone around.
Her eyes widen in surprise. “No?”
“Yes.”
“We won the contract?” she gasps, her eyes wider than saucers.
“No, you won the contract,” I correct her.
She covers her mouth with her hands and then does a quirky little dance out of pure joy, and I really love how she becomes completely innocent and childlike in the moment.
“Happy?” I ask, which is stupid of me, because she’s beaming with joy, and it’s bouncing off her.
“You have no idea what this means to me.” Her eyes turn watery. “This will be the biggest contract we’ve ever won.”
“I didn’t do anything; you did it all yourself. And you won the contract. No one else.” I stand up and make my way to her. The need to touch her makes my palms itch. “You were incredible today, baby.”
She squares her shoulders and swallows hard, watching me as I close the blinds, then lock the boardroom door.
“We should celebrate,” I announce confidently, my tone wickedly deep.
“And how will we do that?” she asks innocently, batting her blacker-than-black eyelashes at me.
“Get on the table, and you’ll see for yourself.”
“No… not here.” She darts her eyes around the empty boardroom.
“No one can see in, and the glass is soundproof.”
“I’ve never…”
“Me neither.” It seems we’re doing a lot of firsts together. One-night stand, sex in the office, matching on a dating app with the same person you already met and had a connection with. I want more firsts with her, more of everything with her.
“Up on the table, baby.”
She looks around again, nibbling on her bottom lip as if worried, her knee shaking in time with my heart which is thumping loudly in my chest as I take one step and then another toward her.
“I’ve missed you,” I say.
“How much?” She smiles suggestively, and I can tell she’s already liking the excitement of what I’m suggesting.
“More than you can ever imagine.” It’s weird to think I’ve spent my whole life not knowing she lived in the same city as me, and now I can’t imagine her not being part of my daily thoughts.
“You’re all I can think about.” I say it with my whole chest, meaning it.
Every minute of every day, she consumes me.
In one fluid motion, she pushes her laptop aside, hops onto the table, sits on the edge of it, then lies back on it, her hands over her head, arching her back like a black cat stretching for attention with deliberate flirtatious grace.
A feline softness shapes her gaze, her dark irises bright with reflective light and seductiveness, then she floors me when she says, “Then show me how much you’ve missed me.”