Once again, Eve pushed away anything resembling feelings, her hand gliding over Casey’s smooth skin, slipping between her legs, happy to distract herself by bringing this gorgeous woman to another orgasm.

  18

  Casey stretched her arms out, her legs tangled in the sheets, a familiar ache in just about every muscle as she slowly opened her eyes, adjusting to the light that streamed through the crack in the white curtains.

  Casey had the bed to herself, and that didn’t surprise her. Eve had probably already left for the office, and for some reason, she didn’t feel quite as lonely as she had that morning in Miami.

  She stayed where she was, her eyes fluttering closed as she relived as much as she could recall about last night. It had been such a blur, but there were moments that Casey would be able to vividly remember for months to come.

  And there was one in particular.

  Eve’s gorgeous face when she’d come. Their eyes briefly locked before Eve had shut her eyes, her lips parted, her fingers digging into Casey’s back.

  Casey’s skin tingled, that memory a little too vivid. She threw back the sheets and went in search of her clothes, scooping up her underwear from the carpeted floor, and putting them on before she found her bra.

  She had just got her top back on when the heavenly scent of coffee drifted into the room, and then Eve was coming through the doorway in an oversized navy t-shirt, her hair falling across her shoulders, her face free of any makeup, two mugs of coffee in her hands.

  Casey drew a shaky breath, momentarily dazed.

  How would she ever get over this woman?

  “Morning,” Eve said. “Do you need to be anywhere? I have about half an hour before I have to get ready. I thought we could have coffee, but it’s fine if you need to go.”

  Casey shook her head, padding over to Eve, her jeans still in a pile a few feet away from the door. “No, I have nowhere to be,” Casey said. “I’ll just freshen up. Be back in a minute.”

  Casey slipped into the bathroom, glancing over at the enormous shower with a bench and a rainfall shower head, and she couldn’t stop herself from imagining the two of them in there together.

  Casey stared at her reflection, running a hand through her long hair, doing her best to tame it before washing her face and rinsing her mouth.

  When she went back into the bedroom, Eve had the pillows propped up behind her, her knees tucked into her chest as she sipped her coffee, throwing her a shy smile.

  “Did you sleep okay?” Eve asked as Casey got back into bed.

  “Yeah. What time is it?” Casey didn’t see a clock, and her phone was still in the pocket of her jeans.

  “Seven-thirty.”

  Eve had Casey’s coffee on her nightstand. “Thank you for this,” Casey said, taking a sip. “You’re sure I’m not keeping you from getting to work?”

  “No. I’d normally be getting ready now, but I’m not rushing in today. We’ll be bidding on the auction for as long as we can, and that doesn’t start until ten, so once I’m in there around nine, it’ll be fine.”

  “Yeah, I’m meeting Laura at a coffee shop to keep an eye on it.”

  “Are you excited?” Eve asked.

  “Not really? I mean, I am, but I’m trying not to get ahead of myself.”

  Eve arched an eyebrow. “No drawings?”

  “No.” Casey smiled. “All my ideas are in my head. We’re opposites in that way. I won’t draw anything until I officially have the project.”

  “Superstition?”

  “Yeah, I guess.”

  Eve nodded. “I get that.”

  Casey took another sip of coffee, completely comfortable having a relaxing morning in bed with a woman she knew she was falling for.

  This was not at all what she’d imagined her trip to New York would look like, and she had no idea how she was going to go back to her normal life in California after this.

  19

  Eve absent-mindedly cracked her knuckles as she waited for the clock to tick over to ten o’clock, and she could see just how far away their budget was from what the warehouse site would actually go for.

  Her eyes flickered up to the clock on the top of her desktop screen. 9:57AM. She’d hardly gotten anything done this morning, just going through her emails, and answering anything that didn’t require too much thought.

  Her mind was preoccupied with thoughts of last night. This morning too. How easy it had been. Relaxed. Normal.

  With Wynn, if either of them stayed the night, they’d always shot out of bed the next morning, both of them preferring to get to the office then stay in bed and talk. The more Eve thought about her friends-with-benefits situation, the more she realized how much it didn’t suit her.

  Or maybe it had. Back then. Now, it all just felt so… Cold.

  Eve had always appreciated their friendship, and that had somehow never changed, but she vowed to herself, then and there, as the clock struck 10:00AM, that she would never sleep with Wynn again.

  They would go back to being friends and nothing more.

  Eve stifled a yawn as she stared at the screen, waiting to see the first bid go live, but nothing was happening. She fumbled, blindly finding her mouse to click refresh, and the page reloaded with a banner across the listing saying that it was no longer available.

  “What?” Eve muttered to herself as she sat back in her chair. Her immediate thought was that the Deckers had somehow gotten to the seller first, but before she could put anymore thought into whether this was genuine or a technical glitch, Drew burst through the door without knocking, a smile plastered on his face.

  Wait, why was he smiling? Shouldn’t he be pissed off that they couldn’t even bid?

  “We got it,” Drew said with a fist pump as he pushed the door shut behind him. “We fucking got it!”

  Eve’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean we got it?” Her eyes fell on her screen again, trying to piece together how they could have outmaneuvered the Deckers. “The auction never went live.”

  “And that’s how we got it,” he said with a smirk. “We can’t be outbid if there’s no auction.”

  Eve shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

  Drew stood with his hands on his hips, still standing on the other side of her desk. “On Saturday night, in Brooklyn, I happened to talk to the owner. I had no idea it was him. He actually came over as a fan. His name’s Rory. But we were talking for a while, and he told me how he used to go to my games with his grandfather, and how those were the memories he really cherished now that he was gone.”

  “Okay…” Eve stared at him, waiting to hear the rest of this story, still not entirely believing that this was happening.

  “And he said that his grandfather left him this rundown property, which of course, caught my attention. I was expecting an old home, but Rory said that his grandfather ended up purchasing the factory that he worked in when he came to this country as an immigrant. Now, he was retired at the time, and he had no idea what to do with it. It was more of a statement, you know? Immigrant comes here with nothing, works his way up, and buys the very place he got his first job.”

  “Wow.”

  “And that factory is our warehouse,” he said, his grin from earlier more of a lop-sided smile now. “But the thing is, Rory didn’t want to sell it. That’s some serious family history there. But he also didn’t want to let it waste away like it had been for the last few years, since he’d inherited it.”

  Eve shook her head. “I can’t believe it,” she said softly. Things like this never happened. Their business was always so cutthroat.

  “I mentioned the address, and he was obviously shocked to hear me say it, so I explained what I did for a living and gave him my card. But the deal was done there. I could see it in his eyes when I explained that we bring these kinds of buildings back to life. I told him about your plans to use as much of the original brick as possible and have exposed walls in the interior design. He loved it. He genuinely loved the idea of people living there.”

  “How much?” Eve asked, still doubting that it could be this easy. There had to be a catch.

  “A quarter of a million below our highest bid. It was a fair and generous offer. The Deckers would have given him more. We know that. And I told him that if it went to auction, he would get more, but it would almost certainly mean that the warehouse would be demolished and potentially a skyscraper would replace it.”

  “Holy shit.” Eve pushed herself out of her chair, her knees almost weak. She leaned on the edge of her desk, a smile coming to her lips.

  Drew came around the side of her desk, and Eve stepped into his arms, hugging him as they swayed back and forth. She shoved him away with a brotherly push, both of them grinning like idiots.

  “I knew I kept you around for a reason,” Eve said with a laugh, another one of their jokes. When Eve was hard at work in the designing phase, Drew was absent, because that wasn’t his strong suit. This was. Making a deal. Finding a connection.

  “We’re going to Brooklyn.” Drew’s cheeks were flushed as he turned to leave, and Eve couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen him like this, so alive. Maybe not since he broke his previous sales record.

  Eve picked up her phone, not even realizing what she was doing. Her thumb hovered over Casey’s name, and the shock that this was who she wanted to share her news with and not Wynn hit her hard, but then the realization that her good news would be devastating to Casey hit her even harder.

  “Fuck,” Eve murmured as she sunk into her chair.

  20

  Casey was late to the coffee shop where Laura had suggested they work from. It was only around the corner from their hotel, but Casey had spent the night at Eve’s in Chelsea, so by the time she freshened up, got changed, and put on some makeup, it was almost ten o’clock.

  Casey spotted Laura at a couch in front of the windows, her laptop opened on the coffee table in front of her while her thumbs flew across her phone. Casey ordered a pumpkin spiced latte and joined her, ready to savor her first fall coffee of the year and hopefully watch the Deckers win this auction.

  “Morning,” Casey said with a smile as she took a seat beside Laura.

  “Hey. You know I want to know how last night went, but I’m going to be distracted until I see that Jeff actually has this deal done. I know he’s confident, and this is what they do, but until I actually see it…”

  “I know.” Casey took a sip as Laura leaned forward to refresh the page, the time just changing to ten o’clock as she did. “I don’t think I could live this auction life.”

  “No, me neither.” Laura frowned as she hit refresh again, and the page changed, a banner now across the listing saying that it was unavailable.

  Laura turned to meet her eyes, and Casey checked the laptop again, refreshing the page once more, but the banner was still there.

  “What just happened?” Casey asked, her voice quivering. “Do you think this is why they were so confident they’d win? Because there wouldn’t be an auction?”

  Laura shook her head. “No. Jeff was talking about how much they were willing to bid. No, they were definitely planning on actually winning this. What the fuck?”

  Casey’s heart jumped when both of their phones rang at the same time. Jeff was calling her. Leo was calling Laura.

  “Good news?” Casey asked with raised eyebrows.

  Laura didn’t look so sure. She pushed herself off the couch and took the call as she went outside.

  Casey took another sip of coffee and answered, leaving her mug down before leaning back into the cushions. “Hey Jeff.”

  “Casey…”

  Her eyes fluttered closed. She could hear it in his voice. “What happened?”

  “The auction never went live.”

  “Was it a tech thing?”

  “No. I’m afraid not. It looks like a deal was done before the auction could start.”

  “Is this normal?” She wanted to ask how he hadn’t seen it coming, how he could have been so confident, but she held back.

  “No. Not at all. Sellers go to auction to make money and get a quick sale. They get to skip listing their property and having to go back and forth with their real estate agent. I don’t know why it was pulled.”

  “Right. Okay. Where do we go from here?”

  “I’m so sorry, Casey. This has honestly never happened to me. When we go to an auction, we win, but I’m afraid there’s not much we can do when there’s no auction.”

  Casey slowly exhaled, her eyes lifting to see Laura coming back inside. “Okay. Thanks for calling.”

  “I know you’re disappointed. We are too. But there will be more opportunities to work together.”

  “No, I know.” Casey said those words to be polite, because right now she couldn’t see them working together ever again. She knew it wasn’t exactly his fault, but she hated his arrogance.

  “Thanks for coming to New York, Casey. I know things didn’t work out, but hopefully you still had a good trip. Safe travels, okay?”

  “Thanks.” Casey hung up just as Laura sat down beside her. She wanted that deal. She’d spent so many hours thinking and dreaming up ideas, visualizing what she could do with that site.

  But if she hadn’t come here to meet the Deckers and see the site, she never would have run into Eve.

  “Do you know who got it?” Laura asked, her jaw clenched, her voice low. “Drew Fucking Ford.”

  Casey’s stomach dropped. “What? Are you sure?”

  “Yeah. Leo just told me that he had to know who got their property. Fosatti Ford Development, that’s who. He wasn’t at all surprised that Drew had figured out how to steal the site before it could even go to auction. He said they’re always in competition.”

  Casey couldn’t focus on Laura’s words.

  Eve got the warehouse?

  She swallowed, her throat tightening. Was that why Eve had done those drawings? Because she knew they were going to get the building?

  But then why had she made it seem like that was the most unlikely thing? She was just as confident as Jeff was that the Deckers would end up with the site.

  “I’ll book the soonest flights back?” Laura asked, blowing out a breath as she slammed her laptop shut.

  “Yeah.” Casey stood up, her mind foggy, her thoughts jumbled. Could Eve have been lying to her this whole time?

  But why? She couldn’t have gained anything from it. Casey hadn’t given her any inside knowledge. Unless Eve had let her think that she would be the one working on this project so that they’d end up in bed together again.

  Casey had made it clear how she’d felt when it looked like there was a conflict of interest.

  Casey didn’t know what to think. She just followed Laura out, making the short walk back to their hotel in a daze.

  She’d pack, and she’d be back in her office in Los Angeles in the morning, to the partnerships she knew and trusted, ready to get back to her old life.

  21

  Eve downed what was left of her beer, her throat aching as the hours went by, and she slowly came to the realization that Casey wasn’t going to talk to her. Around her, every member of her team was enjoying themselves, most of them at the bar even though they had a few tables reserved.

  Drew was in his element, but Eve couldn’t celebrate. She’d gone with him to Brooklyn that afternoon and met Rory. She stood in front of the warehouse, her drawings fresh in her mind, and while she knew they would do an amazing job, she couldn’t stop thinking about Casey. She’d probably experienced her fair share of disappointments coming up in this business, but Eve had a feeling that this was different. It was New York. A chance to work in a new city, with one of the biggest development firms.

  Eve’s gaze snapped down to her phone, lit up on the bar beside her empty glass, but it was just a text from Wynn saying that she couldn’t make it tonight and to enjoy herself.

  Eve scooped up her phone and slung her bag over her shoulder as she went outside, tapping Casey’s name as she pushed open the door.

  Eve had tried her around lunchtime, and then after they’d come back from Brooklyn. Both times Casey hadn’t answered. Eve didn’t think she’d have any better luck now, but what else was she going to do? She didn’t know where Casey was staying, and she didn’t want to get too crazy here, but she also needed to explain what had happened.

  Eve hated the idea of Casey going back to Los Angeles disappointed, and eventually, Casey would find out that they’d gotten the warehouse. Eve wanted to be the one to tell her.

  She ended the call and stood outside the bar, leaning against the wall, not entirely sure what to do with herself.

  Why wasn’t Casey answering her phone though? Even if she was devastated, couldn’t they say goodbye? Meet one more time, even for just a drink?

  That was the part that Eve didn’t understand. When Casey hadn’t answered her first call, she thought maybe Casey was meeting with the Deckers or maybe Laura, trying to figure out what had happened.

  And then a wave of nausea came over her. She pushed through the door, the noise and heat of the bar enveloping her as she strode towards Drew, grabbing him by the arm.

  “Did you talk to the Deckers today?” Eve asked, her hair falling from behind her ear.

  “Yeah. Leo called me right after I left your office. He was trying to congratulate me, but he was really struggling to get it out. I wish I hadn’t left your office. You should have heard him.”

  Eve wiped a hand across her face as she left him standing there, weaving her way through the crowd to get to the door, to the fresh air, because she felt like she was going to be sick.

  Casey knew that they’d gotten the deal.

  Eve’s breath hitched, a worse thought entering her mind. Not only did Casey know that they were the ones who got the property, she might even think that Eve had known all along, that they’d had a plan to do this from the start.

 

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