Alexa
I’m trying hard not to think about the trip to London tomorrow. I looked through the notes on trips for Leo. The information was extensive, from the hotels in each city he was willing to stay in, down to the suites he preferred to the fact that unless he said otherwise to book the rooms and plan for a five-day trip. He didn’t like flying in and out in only a few days. It was rare for him to be anywhere for less than three days. A week, with Leo in a room, well a suite but still so close.
“Alexa?”
I blush for Gertrude to have caught me daydreaming about Leo. “Sorry, I simply can’t put back the red silk and lace or the blue tulle and silk, so I know I want those. Then I already have sheer black, so I’m trying to decide between the black lace and the sheer pink silk.”
“Why not both, dear. Did you know Leo has a thing for black lace? He couldn’t take his eyes off the display when he came in to make sure I was sorted out. Like all men, he thought he was discreet, but I’ve seen men’s response to the lingerie often enough to know it when I see it.”
My eyes go wide. “I, Leo and I—we aren’t. It’s not like that.”
“I didn’t say you were, I just thought I would mention it. Leo’s tastes aren’t very different than most men. Of course, it shouldn’t be about what men want. It should be about what you’re comfortable in.”
Who am I kidding, I want them both. “I’ll take them both.”
***
Leo
I see the bags from Gertrude’s behind Alexa’s desk. The idea of another man seeing her in what Gertrude described makes me savage, it doesn’t matter if the man is her husband.
“Giving Felix another treat, I see. It will probably go a long way to soothing any upset at your being gone for a week.”
Her face is blank as I nod at her bags.
“No? What did Felix think of your last shopping trip?”
Confusion clouds her beautiful face.
“Your husband had nothing to say about your purchases?”
Her eyes go wide, then drop from mine. “Of course, he was surprised but um, he was fine with it. He’s—he doesn’t care about that kind of thing. Felix barely notices things like that. And uh, as far as going out of town, he’s fine, he understands.”
I allow my eyes to run over her very slowing, relishing the tension escalating in her as I do. Alexandra Clark is lying to me. No man who is not gay would shrug off his woman coming home with new lingerie without a discussion about that lingerie. What she said is a lie, yet it is more than that. I am going to find out what it is. When I see the perspiration on her upper lip, I have done what I set out to do, scared the hell out of her. Now I can go into my office.
The minute my ass hits my seat I pick up my phone. Diego answers on the first ring. “How may I help you today, Mr. Kaplan?”
“I want everything on Felix Maine, and I want it now.”
Silence, the name means nothing to him. “Felix Maine, okay. Do you have a date of birth or any particulars you can give me?”
Sonofabitch. Even as I say it, I know the answer. “Felix Maine, Alexandra Clark’s husband. The man in her report.”
The silence is my answer. “Leo, there’s no Felix Maine in her report. She has a cat named Felix but no husband. I’m sending you the electronic file now. Is there something I should know?”
“This is not on you, it’s on me. From now on all reports I order are to be hand delivered to me only. No one else can accept them.”
“Noted. Is there something I can do?”
“No.”
The left part of my brain, the cool one that can only think of the bitch lying to me, tells me to toss her out on sweet, round ass. Only the right side, cannot let go of what it felt like for the elevators to open and not see her at her desk. Then there is the fucked-up head, no brain involved, my cock is screaming to take her now because she is no man’s wife, Alexa is mine for the taking.
I am lost in thought when I hear the knock. Without thinking I answer. Alexa has a package she puts on my desk when I do not take it. “Go home.”
She stops at the door. “What?”
“I said, go home.”