21 Wall Street, Tome 1 : Hot Asset

IAN

When her gaze slides back up to mine, I’m expecting the admiring smile I usually get from women, but she looks...

Bored?

Which leaves me feeling off-balance. So off-balance that instead of a smooth pickup line, I find myself nodding at the machine on the counter. “You need help with that?”

Her eyebrows lift. “Do I need help with what? Pushing buttons?”

You can push my buttons anytime.

Her eyes narrow, and I get the sense she’s read my unspoken words and found them lacking. I’m annoyed. And intrigued. It’s been far too long since I’ve had a challenge.

I ease a step closer to her, moving toward the espresso machine. She doesn’t get the least bit flustered by my proximity, so I lean against the machine, patting the top of it with my hand. “Just say the word. Happy to mansplain this to you, little lady,” I say with an exaggerated drawl.

She responds in kind, fluttering her eyelashes, the glasses making the gesture even more mocking. “Oh, could you?”

I smile, enjoying her more than I expected. “What are you drinking?”

“Coffee.”

I roll my eyes. “What kind?”

“Caffeinated,” she says, pulling out one of the company mugs, setting it beneath the spout, and punching the standard drip-coffee option.

“Boring,” I declare.

“Classic,” she counters.

I give her a slow smile. “I’m headed to Starbucks. Let me buy you a real drink.”

She lifts her mug. “I’m good with this.”

“You could be better with something else,” I say, lowering my voice.

She surprises me by laughing, and not a flirty, breathless laugh but an at me laugh. “Seriously? Do these lines usually work for you?”

“Honestly?” I give a small smile. “Yeah.”

“Well ”—she sips her coffee—“let me know when I’m supposed to fake the swoon.”

You wouldn’t be faking anything with me, sweetheart.

I reach out my right hand. “Ian Bradley.”

She ignores the hand and nods. “Nice to meet you.”

I lean forward and whisper, “This is the point where you give me your name.”

She leans forward and whispers back, “This is the point where you take the hint that I’m not interested in what you’re offering.”

Challenge accepted.

She starts to move around me, clearly planning to walk away, but I’m not about to let that happen. I step forward. “Have drinks with me.”

“No, thank you.” She sounds almost amused in her rejection.

“Why not?” I keep the question light, but truthfully? I want to know. It’s not often a woman tells me no, even less common that I care. But here I am fantasizing about her naked, and she could not look more disinterested if she tried.

“Oh, so many reasons,” she says with a sly smile, as she uses her folder to gesture at my neck. “That fresh hickey, for starters.”

I resist the urge to cover the mark with my hand. Damn the little vampire-inclined bartender from last night.

“Hmm,” I muse. “You sure it’s a hickey? Maybe it’s a bad reaction to whatever my dry cleaner did to this shirt.”

The mystery blonde lifts her cup of coffee. “Well now, that’s another reason. I don’t like a guy with a rash.”

I laugh, more intrigued than ever by her sharp tongue. “Who are you?”

“Someone you’re going to regret asking to drinks,” she says with a small I’ve got a secret smile.

“Why—”

“Ian.”

I turn toward the interruption, tamping down my annoyance when I see it’s my assistant, Kate, who looks...

Horrified.

I straighten and forget about Blondie for a moment. “Kate, what’s up?”

She swallows, shooting a nervous look at the woman beside me. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you. You’re not answering your phone...”

“Shit, I forgot to take it off ‘Do Not Disturb’ after my last meeting,” I say, pulling my phone out of my pocket. Sure enough, I have four missed text messages and three missed calls, all from Kate.

I feel my stomach drop out at her first text; my heart skips a beat at the second.

I look up at Kate, now understanding her horrified expression. “The SEC’s here?”

Holy hell.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is the government’s guard dog against financial crimes, only it’s not a badass, useful guard dog.

Nope, the SEC is like a yipping little lapdog, determined to bite ankles, shit all over the place, and ultimately be a huge pain in the ass while providing zero value to anyone other than their own plus-size egos.

“Who’re they after?” I ask.

But I already know. I’ve worked with Kate long enough to know that look on her face, to know when something’s wrong.

They’re after me.

And when the nameless blonde behind me takes a casual sip of her coffee, suddenly it hits me why Kate looks so horrified.

It’s not just because an SEC investigator is investigating me...

It’s because I was just flirting with one.

I slowly turn and face the woman, and she doesn’t even bother to hide her amusement as she tucks the folder under her arm and finally extends her hand to introduce herself.

I shake her hand out of habit, even as ice settles in the pit of my stomach as our eyes meet. Gone is my fantasy good-girl librarian, and in her place is my nightmare: the Securities and Exchange Commission.

She smiles wider at my obvious discomfort. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Bradley. I’m Lara McKenzie with the SEC. Here to inform you that you’re under investigation for insider trading.”