Hidden

by Cassie Verano

  That was the reason for her docile behavior and how she could never seem to meet my gaze. What the hell did I expect? Here I was a six-two big, black guy a several pounds over two hundred, every part of my body looking like a big ass boulder. And she was a tiny little Asian woman standing about five-two, and just under a hundred pounds soaking wet.

  This shit wouldn’t come out right for me if I didn’t tread carefully. I backed up.

  “How did you and I come to live in the same building?”

  She shrugged.

  “Fate’s a motherfucker, ain’t she?”

  She bit down on her bottom lip, chewed it thoughtfully, and tilted her head slightly as if she had something to say.

  “What’s up?”

  She shook her head.

  “It’s chill. We’re outside of the office. Speak your mind,” I encouraged. I was trying my damndest to be non-threatening, but I wasn’t sure I was pulling that off too well. I wasn’t sure if I knew how to pull it off.

  “It’s just that I don’t believe in coincidences.”

  “What is it that you believe then?” I asked.

  Placing her hands on her hips, she inhaled deeply and looked me square in the eyes. “I don’t know if you’re interested, but I’ll humor you, Kole. I believe that the forces align to bring stars together for a purpose, and in time that purpose will be revealed. Now, what the purpose is at this time? I can’t tell you. But I do know that our encounters aren’t by accident. We have to work together, and we have to live in the same space, at least for a time. But we don’t have to make it miserable for one another, and I hope you don’t plan to make it miserable for me.”

  Where did that burst of courage come from? She stood her ground, continuing to glance up at me.

  “You got that, lil’ shorty. I don’t believe in making trouble where I lay my head. My home is everything to me. Truthfully, I’ve meant to apologize to you, too. I think we got off on the wrong foot the other day, and I’m sorry about that. I was frustrated because I had to return home to shower, get dressed all over again, and I didn’t want to be running late on my first day. So, I might’ve taken some of that out on you.”

  She nodded. “But I know Bear can be a handful, too,” she offered.

  “Yeah, well. Still, we have to work together as you said, so I just wanted to clear the air. Walking around slinging attitude isn’t necessarily professional. I don’t plan on creating any issues for you, Silver. So, if you don’t create issues for me, I think we should be good. Just make sure that you keep that monster you call a dog away from me,” I said.

  Her face broke out into a wide smile, and I swear it looked as if the sun had come out after the storm. I glanced over my shoulder to look out the window. It was still dark outside, the rain was still pouring, and the sun was nowhere in sight. But in this gym, it was.

  “If you’re talking about Bear, he’s a sweet baby. As long as you don’t come near him with those apple streusels, you should be good,” she said, biting back a shy smile.

  I smiled.

  “Truce?” she asked, stretching forth her hand.

  I reached my hand out and took her tiny hand in mine, completely covering it. We shook, and I gave a single nod of my head.

  “Truce.”

  I didn’t miss the way her eyes quickly trailed down my body to my abs and back up again. I blew air out my nostrils and shook my head. She lifted an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.

  “What?”

  “I’m just checking you out...the same way you did me,” she replied, turning away from me.

  I chuckled. “All right, I guess I’ll see you Monday at work,” I said, heading towards the door.

  CHAPTER 7 – SILVER

  “Yummy! Someone brought breakfast,” Claire said, digging into the apple streusels that I had lain out earlier.

  Maria and Gary had already grabbed one with a coffee and were sitting at one of the tables quietly chatting together.

  “What all y’all got over there?” Kesha asked, squeezing in between Claire and Ryan.

  “I didn’t get the memo we were holding a meeting in the breakroom,” Kole teased, stepping into the break room.

  “Someone brought breakfast,” Kesha declared, triumphantly holding up a cheese Danish.

  “Who brought it?” Ryan asked, with a mouthful of food already in his mouth.

  “Kole did,” I said.

  His head jerked as he stared at me, his eyebrows dipping down, creating wrinkles on that smooth, handsome face of his.

  “No, I didn’t,” he denied.

  “Yes, you did,” I insisted, lifting an eyebrow. “Well, remember you asked me to pick up breakfast for the team for this morning?” I said.

  Before he could utter another word, I whispered to him. “You brought them last week, but I prevented you from bringing them in.”

  He smiled. A genuine smile. One that sent flutters straight to my belly.

  He glanced over at the platter again, filled with various Danishes.

  “How’d you know what type to order?”

  “I simply asked Tiff to duplicate the order you had last week. And I’ve even saved you a bear claw. As an apology from Bear,” I said, causing him to chuckle.

  “Thanks for that.”

  “Sure, no problem. It’s at my desk, I’ll get that for you,” I said, turning to leave the breakroom.

  Kole was right behind me. And I could feel the warmth of his body heat covering me like a shadow.

  “Hey, I appreciate what you did back there. You didn’t have to, you know.”

  “I know,” I replied with a shrug. “But it was the least that I could do since I’m determined to walk around with a big dog that I can’t handle.”

  He laughed, rubbing his hand across the back of his head. “Yeah.”

  “Here’s yours,” I said as we reached my desk.

  I handed him a white paper bag.

  “Thanks.”

  “Not a problem. I just wanted to clear the air, too.”

  He winked. “You’ve got it,” he said before retreating to his own office.

  I was glad that Kole and I were getting along better at the office. I don’t know what brought along that change of behavior in him at the gym on Saturday morning, but I was thankful for it. We weren’t the best of buddies by far, but he didn’t look sick to his stomach when he saw me. Neither did he roll his eyes or avoid making eye contact with me whenever we were all in a meeting together.

  Kole had called me into his office to discuss some line items in the budget and some historical items that needed reconciliation.

  It was hard to tell what Kole was getting at or where his line of thinking was going in the big scheme of things. But I knew enough to detect that he had found a problem and he was chasing that line of thought without hesitation. I also was certain he wasn’t going down a rabbit hole.

  “Can I ask you a question, Kole?”

  “Mm,” he murmured, tapping the ink pen in his hand on the desk blotter as he stared at his notepad where he had scribbled numbers that made no sense to me.

  “What have you discovered?”

  His head jerked up, and he stared at me, as though looking through me. I could see the hesitation in his eyes.

  “Nothing,” he muttered and turned his focus back to the paper. I could tell that his train of thought was off now, though. He didn’t hold that same level of concentration he had before. The deep grooves in his forehead no longer rested there.

  “You can trust me, Kole.”

  He seemed to consider my words but obviously changed his mind.

  “I’m here to do a job, Silver. And part of that requires a certain amount of discretion, and there are certain things that I have signed an NDA on. It’s not that I don’t trust you, but I can’t disclose certain issues.”

  I shrugged. “Okay.”

  I bowed my head back over my laptop, focused on the spreadsheet that I had been working on. After a few minutes, he spoke to me.
<
br />   “Hey, Silver?”

  “Yes?”

  “Please remember to keep everything we’re working on in the strictest confidence,” he said.

  “Of course,” I replied, blinking.

  “Thanks,” he said, smiling at me.

  Stunned by its brilliance, I continued to stare at him. But he turned his attention back to his computer. This time when he resumed his concentration, I didn’t return to my task at hand. Instead, I studied him as if he were a statistics test that I needed to pass.

  His high broad forehead was even and smooth, jutting forward just slightly over close-set, narrowed eyes. They were black, his eyes. Almost black as coal, and they sparkled whenever an idea registered in his mind. I couldn’t help but wonder if his eyes were the inspiring factor behind his name.

  Kole’s broad nose was flat on his face over full, thick lips. Whenever his lips parted, one couldn’t help but admire those even, beautiful white teeth. The hair on his head was black with a deep sheen to it. I always got the impression it might be soft to the touch, and he kept it cut low to his head, as he did with his carefully groomed beard and mustache.

  As my gaze wandered down over his broad shoulders and arms encased in the suit that he wore, I thought back to the first day that we met. That day, Kole shared that he taught Taekwondo and practiced MMA. It showed in his sculpted arms and chest when he removed his suit jacket.

  Kole had arms and a chest that could make a girl feel protected.

  “Everything okay?” Kole asked, jerking my attention back to the moment.

  I know that I had to turn three shades of red, bordering on purple.

  How embarrassing to be caught staring at the man. But he caught me, and there was no hiding the fact that I was checking him out. I could tell by the smirk on his face.

  “No...I...uh...I was just lost in thought about something,” I said, shaking my head in horror.

  “All right,” he said, nodding, the smirk still on his face. “Just let me know when you’ve finished the report.”

  “Will do,” I replied, turning my attention promptly to my laptop.

  Whenever I worked on this project with him, I hid out in his office. The set up of our office allowed people to easily walk up behind me and see my screen over my shoulder. Even though I had a privacy screen, if a person stood close enough, they could still make out what I was working on. And since this project was confidential, we didn’t want to risk that.

  But the more time I spent in his office, the more I found that I looked forward to being around him.

  CHAPTER 8 – KOLE

  “Silver,” I called out.

  She jerked her head up, her mouth slightly parted as she removed the pencil she’d been chewing on.

  I stared at her for a moment too long before I turned my gaze back to the monitor.

  “Yes, Kole?”

  “Did you get the email from Elaine in accounting, yet? She was supposed to send you a cumulative report on department twenty-two.”

  “Uh, let me check just a moment,” she said.

  I glanced up at her and noticed her biting her bottom lip and chewing on it.

  Her eyes narrowed as she focused on her laptop. Silver’s hair was pulled back into a chignon with two hairpins holding it in place in opposing directions. The hairstyle she normally wore it in. I’d gotten a glimpse of how long it might be that morning in the gym. I suspected it was fell just at the backs of her thighs.

  Visions of removing those hairpins from her hair flowed through my mind. I wondered what her hair felt like laying against my fingers. Wondered what she’d look like from behind with her head jerked back, her long silky hair wrapped around my fingers.

  Thoughts of her lying on my bed with her hair spread across my pillow filled my mind. I imagined Silver’s legs opened wide, allowing me room to position myself between them. I felt my dick growing hard.

  “Kole?”

  “Huh?”

  “Did you hear anything that I said just now?” she asked, tilting her head sideways and narrowing her eyes.

  “Uh, no. I was calculating some figures,” I lied.

  I’m sure she knew I was lying because I was staring at her the entire time.

  “I said that she sent the report as a password-protected document, but there’s an error opening it, so I’ve requested her to re-send it with a new password.”

  Nodding my head, I replied, “Cool,” and turned back to my computer once more.

  Unfortunately, my mind wasn’t on the report in front of me. The only thing I was any good for now was trying to force images of a nude Silver out of my head. Her scent, her voice, her presence in my damn office were all driving me wild.

  How the hell had this happened? The one girl that got on my last damned nerve was all inside of my brain, and I wasn’t sure why.

  I didn’t have time for this shit.

  We worked in silence for another half an hour before I realized she was standing by my side.

  “Kole, take a look at this,” she said, pointing to something on her computer.

  I inhaled. Wrong move. Silver’s scent was like an aphrodisiac teasing me.

  Pulling a hand down my face, I leaned towards her computer and said, “What you got there?”

  “The report you wanted, and I’ve discovered a few anomalies already,” she said, pointing to one line item after the other.

  I blew out a frustrated breath and said, “Grab your laptop and let’s move to the table,” I said, pointing at the small conference table near the window in my office.

  I moved to the table, and Silver pulled a chair closer to mine and sat down. We spent the next hour discussing the problem she had discovered. After we’d agreed on a resolution for how to address it, she stifled a yawn and stretched in her chair.

  Her skirt rode higher up her thighs, and her breasts were thrust in the air as she arched her back.

  She caught my gaze once again and smiled at me.

  “Is it going to be another long, hard one?” she asked.

  Scowling, I said, “What?”

  “Tonight? Is it going to be another long, hard night for us? We’ve been working late a lot.”

  “Um, if you’ve got plans, you can go ahead and get out of here. I think I can hold this down until the morning,” I said, trying to force the perverted thoughts from my head.

  Had she been teasing me when she said “long, hard,” or was that just my depraved mind?

  Shaking her head, she said, “No, I don’t have any plans. I just wanted to know what to expect tonight.”

  She stifled another yawn, and I glanced at the time on the computer.

  “Nah, I don’t think so. We can get out of here in about an hour if we stay focused and wrap this up now,” I suggested.

  Silver nodded and scooted closer to the table once more. “All right, let’s do it.”

  IRONICALLY SILVER AND I had both walked to the office that day. When I’d learned that bit, I offered to walk home with her, but she mentioned she had to stop by the daycare to pick up her beast.

  I waited outside on the sidewalk for her to return with Bear.

  “Whoa, boy. Down,” she ordered, jerking on his chain as he rushed in my direction. “Looks like he likes you, Kole.”

  “Yeah, well, I don’t think I’m too fond of him,” I said, backing up.

  “Are you afraid of him?” she asked, concern coloring her brown eyes.

  “Nah, I’m not afraid of dogs, but he and I didn’t meet under the best circumstances.”

  “That’s exactly why he likes you. He remembers that you gave him his favorite treat,” Silver said, kneeling to rub her dog and whisper in his ear.

  “Gave? That’s not how I remember it. I specifically recall that beast attacking me and stealing my breakfast pastries,” I said.

  “Stealing?” she scoffed and stood. “Maybe Bear was a bit eager with his assumptions that those were for him. But he didn’t steal your pastries, Kole.”

  Shruggin
g, I said, “Okay, maybe not steal them, but we’re not buddies.”

  We started walking down the sidewalk as she glanced up at me. “Maybe you could be in the future?”

  “Not interested.”

  “Maybe you two got off on the wrong foot. There’s always room for forgiveness.”

  “Forgiven, but not forgotten.”

  “Touché. Maybe he could make it up to you somehow?”

  I stopped walking and stared at her ass as she continued for a few paces. Silver realized I’d stopped, and she tugged lightly on Bear’s chain and turned around to face me.

  “What?” she asked.

  I took a couple of steps, which brought me face to face with her.

  “Are we even talking about Bear and me anymore?”

  Silver glanced shyly at the sidewalk, pulling the corner of her lip into her mouth with her teeth.

  Nodding, I said, “Come on,” and shoved my hands into the pockets of my pants. Silver wasted no time falling in step beside me.

  “So, Korean is your native language. Spanish and English I get. But why Portuguese?”

  Smiling up at me, she said, “I needed an elective in college, and my boyfriend was from Portugal. Thought it would kind of be sexy to speak his language, you know?”

  I nodded slowly. “So, you and this boyfriend...are you...?”

  I don’t know why I was getting into her business like I was, but I couldn’t help myself. I wanted to know more about this lady whom I found myself spending a lot of time with.

  Waving her hand, she scoffed, “That was over by the end of my freshman year. Since I had already enrolled in the course, I decided I might as well continue with it. I found it pretty fascinating and challenging, so I continued to learn the language throughout the rest of my college years. Became great at it.”

  “I’d like to hear it,” I said as we crossed the street to our building.

  “Hear what?” she asked, looking up at me with surprise in her eyes.

  “You speak Portuguese.”

  “Uh-uh,” she said, shaking her head and laughing.

  “Why not?”

  “What would I say?”

  I pretended to think for a moment, staring up at the sky before glancing at her. “I don’t know. Tell me what you really think about me,” I challenged.