Page 8 of Sing Your Secrets
“What about fraud? Quinn is an heiress. She’s going to inherit a huge chunk of cash. Can we just say her new husband was—”
“Wait,” Eli interrupts, re-scouring the first page of the paperwork I prepared. “Quinn Sabin? As in Sabin Technologies?”
“Yes.”
“She’s a friend?”
I cross my legs and settle into the back of my chair. “One of my best friends.” I gesture up and down to the designer jumpsuit I’m wearing. “This is actually stolen from her closet.” I hold up my hands in surrender. “Borrowed. Borrowed from her closet.”
“Wow,” Eli mumbles. “All this time…how little I still know about you.”
If Eli is surprised I’m friends with the heiress to the Banks-Sabin fortune, I wonder how he’d react if he knew another one of my friends is a bestselling author, and another one is engaged to Hollywood star Chase Ford and is godmother to his daughter from another woman. Our little gang would be a fantastic telenovela. All we’d need is to throw in the fact my ex-boyfriend is one of the highest-grossing rappers of this decade. Except that story is less gratifying because there’s no happy ending. The minute Petey found his claim to fame, he dumped me—hard. Loyalty, trust, and love were all boring compared to the limelight. It wasn’t enough anymore for Petey to look single. He wanted to be single.
He wanted every woman except the one he had.
At least until recently.
“Make sense?” Eli asks, pulling me back from my trailing thoughts.
“Sorry.” I widen my eyes and blink like I’m trying to focus. “What’s that?”
“I said fraud is a long shot. Unless your friend is lying about her inheritance, and her new spouse only married her for the money.”
I snort. If only. Cody’s infatuation with Quinn is crystal clear and it has nothing to do with money. “Not accurate.”
“Then, I’d recommend a divorce.” Eli hands the papers back over. “Or have them really rethink the wedding day and maybe remember that they’d been drinking.” He winks.
Gasping, I pretend to clutch the nonexistent pearls around my neck. “My word, Eli. Are you suggesting my friends manipulate the law to work in their favor?” Tsking my tongue, I shake my head at him. “Naughty.”
It’s a poor word choice. Naughty. We’ve used that word once or twice in the bedroom…and this very office. His eyes linger on my lips briefly before he runs his hand down his face, breaking his gaze. I could let this awkward tension between us go on, or I could walk right up to the elephant in the room and tell it to fuck off.
“Are we okay?”
“Of course, why?” He tries to smile, but his lips barely twitch.
I let out an exaggerated breath. “Because last week you asked me to be your girlfriend, and I said no.”
Eli shrugs. “It’s okay, Reese. I asked a question, and you gave me an answer. Am I supposed to be mad at you?”
“I’d understand if you were.”
“I’m not going to punish you for being honest.”
Dammit.That just makes me wish I wanted him in the way he wants me even more.
“May I explain?”
Rubbing his jaw slowly, he looks uncomfortable. “You don’t owe me any apologies—”
“I’m not apologizing,” I say, maybe a little too emphatically. “I just want to explain myself. I know you’ll say I don’t owe you an explanation, but I do. You’re wonderful in every single way, Eli. You’re kind, smart, and so attractive. And I really like you…but…”
I trail off as I wait for his permission to continue. Eventually, he rotates his wrist implying I should go on. “Well please don’t stop the praise there. I’m also about to make partner,” he says with a chuckle. His joke is only charming because he’s so damn humble.
“You know my mom got me this job. Henley would’ve never hired an inexperienced paralegal right out of their undergrad, but my mom and Henley went to law school together. They go way back.”
Eli nods slowly, obviously confused with what the hell my mom has to do with me not wanting to officially date him, but he’s polite, so he lets me continue.
“I was supposed to stay in-state for college. I got an academic scholarship, but I gave it up… to chase a boy.”