Chapter 16
Ruby
By the time I get back to the office, my legs feel like noodles and my soul feels like it’s been tenderised with a mallet.
Coffee was supposed to calm things down. Make things normal. Professional. Clean.
Instead, Jaxon Cole turned caffeine into a weapon.
I push through the glass doors, and the second I step inside the building, the fluorescent lighting hits me like a spotlight on a criminal.
Everyone seems louder. Brighter. Nosier.
It feels like the entire office knows I just had a sexually charged heart-to-heart over a cappuccino with a billionaire who looks at me like I’m his next investment.
My heels click across the lobby like I’m walking toward my own execution.
“Ruby!” Ava’s voice cuts through the air like a bat signal.
I swear under my breath.
I’m not ready. I am not emotionally equipped. My fight-or-flight reflex is SHRIEKING.
But she’s already jogging toward me with the kind of excited energy normally reserved for Black Friday sales and celebrity gossip.
Behind her, Sienna pops out of nowhere like a ninja. Trey appears seconds later with a smoothie in one hand like he materialised from glitter.
“You survived!” Ava squeals.
“Barely,” I mutter.
Sienna leans in, staring at my face way too closely. “You’re flushed.”
“It’s cold outside!” I snap.
“It’s twelve degrees,” Trey says. “You’re warm from the loins upward.”
“I AM GOING TO WALK INTO TRAFFIC.”
Ava pushes a cup into my hand. “Drink this. You look dehydrated from all the sexual tension.”
“It was coffee,” I insist.
“No,” Sienna corrects gently. “It was spiritual intercourse.”
I choke on my own saliva.
We step into the elevator, and the doors close behind us. Great. Now I am trapped with my three emotional-support gremlins.
Ava presses the button for our floor, then turns to me.
“So?” she asks. “What did he DO?”
I take a deep breath.
Do not think about him saying he listens when you talk.
Do not think about him leaning closer like he wanted to taste your next sentence.
Do not think about him saying, I’m pursuing you.
Do not think about…
“—Ruby??”
I blink. “Sorry. Lost in thought.”
“SINNERS’ THOUGHTS,” Trey mutters.
“No,” I say. “ABSOLUTELY NOT.”
Sienna crosses her arms. “Babe. We can smell the desire on you. It’s like a pheromone fog.”
“I’m not attracted to him!” I hiss.
All three of them blink at me like I just screamed that gravity isn’t real.
Ava leans closer. “Ruby. You’re literally shaking.”
I look down at my hands.
Okay, yes. Fine. They’re shaking.
But they’re MY hands. They can shake if they want. They’re free.
“It’s just adrenaline,” I argue.
“From what?” Trey asks. “Coffee? Or the way he said let me take the lead.”
My face heats.
“I didn’t tell you that,” I whisper.
“You didn’t have to,” he says smugly.
The doors open, and I practically sprint to my desk before they can pry anything else out of me.
I flop into my chair and stare at my blank document.
Okay. Work. We are working. We are a professional adult woman doing professional adult things.
My fingers hover over the keyboard.
I type:
“Love can strike out of nowhere..."
I stop.
Backspace.
My brain is still in the café, still hearing his voice, still replaying the way his eyes tracked me like he was memorising every expression I made.
I bury my face in my hands.
“Oh my god,” I whisper into my palms. “I’m in trouble.”
“Hey.”
I freeze.
I know that voice.
I straighten in my chair slowly, dread and heat pooling in equal measure.
And there he is.
Jaxon Cole, leaning one hand on the frame of my cubicle like it’s his personal doorway to temptation.
His suit is perfect,his tie loosened just slightly, and his jaw set in that infuriating, delicious way.
“Hi,” he says softly.
My heart bangs against my ribs hard enough to bruise.
He glances at my trembling fingers. Then at my flushed cheeks.Then at the empty document on my screen.
“Rough morning?” he asks gently.
I swallow. “Not… rough.”
He tilts his head. Heat flickers in his eyes.
“Good,” he murmurs. “I’d hate to think I started your day that way.”
I blink.
He steps closer, not touching me, not invading space, just enough that his scent curls around me like warm smoke.
“And Ruby,” he adds, voice dipping, “this isn’t over.”
Every cell in my body lights up.
Then he turns and walks away. Just like that. Like he didn’t just detonate every organ I have.
I grab the edge of my desk, try to breathe, and whisper:
“I’m so fucked.”
Behind me, Ava pipes up from two desks over.
“We know, babe. WE KNOW.”