The Last Heartbeat

by Katerina Simms

  Daniel turned from his computer and nodded out to the room, a meeting room six times bigger than the intimate space she’d shared with Luke yesterday. “This is an all-hands-on-deck management meeting. The goal is for us to give Luke our general progress reports, so we can all gain perspective on the company’s projects in preparation for the Schneider visit.”

  “I see.” She tapped her pen’s cold, metallic tip to her lips. “And how are you feeling about the whole thing?”

  “Personally” —Daniel leaned in, his voice dropped to a whisper— “I don’t believe there’s any way to prepare for Ernest Schneider. The man’s obsessed with cleanliness. You should see the list of requirements his PA sent through. There’s a rumor he once destroyed a company after a fly landed in his assistant’s glass of sparkling mineral water. I mean, how do you avoid something as unpredictable as a fly entering a building, much less landing in someone’s drink?”

  She cringed, and just as she prepared to ask where Max and Luke were, the room’s chatter died off.

  Luke marched through the heavy double doors, his quick pace taking him to his spot at the head of the table. A flurry of energy gathered in his wake. Papers rustled, laptops flipped open, and she waited, expecting Max to follow. But he didn’t.

  She switched her attention from the double doors back to Luke’s gaze, locked a moment too long on hers. Her heart pounded, and a hefty weight pressed on her chest. She glanced down at her closed notebook, cheeks hot, while that same heat swelled in her lower belly.

  Damn hormones. Damn Luke being the male equivalent of an ovulation starter kit. Did such a thing even exist? If it didn’t, maybe she’d just come up with his next business venture. All he had to do was find a team of scientists who could extract exactly what it was about him that sent ovaries into hyperdrive. Simple enough, right?

  A little chuckle broke from her lips, and she turned to find Daniel staring at her, his brows lowered in a silent question.

  She shook her head in a plea for him to drop whatever suspicions ran through his nerd brain and cut her some slack. But the corners of his eyes crinkled with a subtle smile. He wasn’t about to let anything go.

  Luke’s commanding tenor crossed the room, calling for everyone’s attention. But as he continued to speak, a deluge of blood rushed to her ears and probably her ovaries too, and she failed to grasp most of what he said.

  His marketing manager then stood, prattling on about some campaign Agathe had heard mentioned during her employee interviews but knew little about. For the most part, she just worked double-time to control her breathing and regain her mangled focus. She had a job to do. Goals to fulfill for the day. She had to succeed and exceed. She had to get over her feelings for Tiluma’s CEO and survive in the wake of yesterday’s awkward meeting… even if that meeting had left her evermore drowning in a thick, soupy haze of conflicted arousal.

  Daniel nudged her with an elbow. She startled. His face scrunched in a look of confusion. “What is it with you two?”

  Shit! Fuck! Poop! Daniel wanted to talk about this now? Here?

  That wouldn’t happen.

  “Nothing. Nothing is with us.”

  “Luke keeps giving you looks. And you look like your mind has shipped off to another planet. Besides, you have a non-existent role in this meeting, so he shouldn’t be looking at you at all. And…” He slanted closer. “Is that sweat on your temples?”

  She forced her gaze down to her notebook, the one she should have been writing in. “No. It’s just warm in here.”

  “Really?” Daniel huffed out a subdued laugh. “And here I thought Melbourne was mere weeks away from winter, and this room had better than adequate air-conditioning.”

  “Fine.” She ground her words through gritted teeth. “Luke’s pissed about the talk we had yesterday. As you predicted, Max never showed for that meeting, but Luke did. I gave him a piece of everyone’s mind, and he didn’t take it well, okay?” She paused, her face hot beneath her lie, and her stomach sinking with a need to throw Daniel off topic. “Do you think anyone else has noticed he’s annoyed with me?”

  Daniel’s attention held a second longer, which only made her stomach sink even more. His brown eyes eventually softened, though the grin he extended didn’t. “No. No one’s noticed. They’re all too absorbed in their own stuff.”

  “Agathe.”

  She startled.

  Luke stared at her from across the room.

  A distinct coldness ran through her body, but she straightened, affording him her full attention.

  “I wanted to thank you for your suggestions regarding Max.” His bottom lip sat slightly fuller than the top, an oh-so-tempting detail she shouldn’t have noticed with an entire room’s attention turned her way. “As some of you might have already noticed, my brother isn’t at this meeting today. Not that his unexplained absence is all that unusual.” A few brave people took up the challenge and chuckled. Luke paused, his strong stare veering to the others in the room, which left an opening for her to observe the way his powder-blue shirt stretched over the steep contours of his well-honed pectoral muscles. “As of today, Max is participating in a management course, and that means for the coming month, he’ll be out of the office two days a week for training.” Luke turned to Daniel. “Daniel will be filling in on the days Max is away.”

  She turned to the man beside her, the fingers on her right hand clenched around her pen. “You were humoring me. You knew about Max’s training?”

  Daniel’s eyes glistened, the laugh lines and dimples around his mouth etched deep. “Yeah. And Luke’s totally reacting like a man annoyed at your advice.”

  She glanced over to Luke, who grinned at her like there was some deep intimate secret only they shared. Then again, given Daniel’s revelation, maybe nothing between her and Luke was all that covert after all. “Thanks to everyone’s honest feedback and Ms. Santos’ advice, Max is getting the additional help he needs. I ask that you all offer him support and patience while he’s learning.”

  The managers all nodded. Some even turned to her and offered an appreciative smile. Her heart gave a deep thud at the public acknowledgement, just as Daniel leaned in, his arrogant smirk stretching his face. “Luke was adamant another day couldn’t pass without Max starting one of the courses you suggested. It’s amazing our human resources department didn’t implode in the mad rush to get him a last-minute spot.”

  She grimaced at Daniel, then shifted her focus to Luke who was giving her another one of those hot looks Daniel pestered her about. Crud! No matter where she turned, there wasn’t anywhere safe to look.

  Luke’s glance lasted no more than a second, but blood rushed through her veins, and her thoughts tumbled back to last night’s confession. A confession clearly not strong enough to cast out her feelings for him. Maybe she was in over her head.

  Maybe she needed the help of a priest or a witch doctor, or maybe the pope himself. Heck, anyone experienced in expelling super-complex possessions from overly awakened female bodies. Because watching Luke take charge of the room right now, shining in his commanding role and praising her, only dragged her deeper into the realms of unavoidable desire.

  In other words, her version of damnation.

  She stared ahead and kept her expression as blank as possible, hoping to mask the sudden chill spreading through her body. The worst thing possible had just happened. Luke Tindall had listened to her. He’d acted on her advice. He’d endorsed her skills before a room full of people—people whose opinions mattered to her and her career. Worse still, he was being nice, likable even; everything but the arrogant, pushy, self-absorbed CEO she’d hoped he’d be.

  And he made hating him impossible. Right when hating him was what she needed most.

  Daniel cleared his throat, but only loud enough for her to hear. “Still want me to believe there’s nothing between you two?”

  Luke stood at the end of a row of cubicles, Agathe’s temporary desk a few spots ahead. The clutter of office cha
irs and computer monitors made him regret his choice to treat her like any other consultant and not give her a private office.

  Most people were yet to return from lunch, but a tall, blond doofus of a male stood next to her desk. Max.

  As much as Luke loved his brother, the guy had a lot to atone for, and his presence now added irritation on top of everything else.

  Luke took a slow breath and continued toward her, a brown gift bag clutched in his hand. His own attempt at atonement. Yesterday’s meeting had been enlightening, but it hadn’t ended as well as he’d hoped. The gap between them still remained open.

  Max’s focus stayed downcast on her, and he rubbed the back of his neck, his ashen complexion paired with an uncharacteristically somber frown.

  “Thanks for taking the time to hear me out.” Max took a step back and almost bumped into Luke, who now stood at Agathe’s desk too. His gaze bounced from Luke to Agathe before his eyes widened. “Oh, I’ll… ah… leave you both to it.”

  Luke gripped his brother’s shoulder and held him in place. “Shouldn’t you be at training right now?”

  Max gave a jovial smile. “They let me out for lunch, but I’m heading back now, promise. I just wanted a few words with Agathe.”

  Luke gave no more than a stiff nod, and Max power-walked away.

  Agathe’s silent attention lingered on Max, her pupils flaring when they finally settled on Luke. “Why are you here?”

  His fingers tightened around the brown paper bag’s handle. “First, tell me why Max was here.”

  The pained look on his brother’s face, coupled with the fact he’d trekked it across a number of city blocks just to talk to a woman he’d avoided at all costs the day prior, seemed worth questioning.

  Her cheek gave a small tic, the face version of a shrug. “He wanted to apologize for ditching my meeting yesterday.”

  A burst of air huffed from Luke’s lips, as close to an incredulous laugh as he could muster. “He did?”

  “Yeah, and then he promised to work on his management issues. I told him his staff needed the apologies and promises more than I did. And he agreed.” She pinned him with another stare and shrugged in a go figure sort of manner. “Turns out Max is all right after all, and whatever you said to him must have struck some sore point. I actually have a speck of hope he’ll change.”

  Luke wasn’t quite sure how to respond to her lack of faith in his ability to keep his brother in check. Then again, he had failed on that front over the last four years, so maybe he needed to take that bit of news on the chin and move on. Still, even though Max at least wasn’t being a nuisance for a change, Luke’s brow tightened into what he guessed was probably a frown. He did want Agathe to have faith in him. Faith, and a whole lot more. “I take it that’s your version of a thank you?”

  “As close as you’re going to get.”

  He nodded slowly at her easy smile, momentarily dumbstruck. Or maybe awestruck. Because the smile on her face, the one she so rarely used, lit up the darkness in her eyes like the moon on a cloudless night. That smile made even the strain in his own heart pop and fade—a thousand tiny fireworks vanishing into the atmosphere.

  “I wanted to talk to you about our conversation the other day.” He paused, while her forehead wrinkled and pinched, even if her eyes maintained a neutral gaze. “Something didn’t sit right with me.”

  “You mean, the part where I said more than I should have?” She raised an eyebrow, almost as though she questioned whether he wanted to lead into yet another abrasive exchange with her.

  “I wouldn’t put it that way. What you said only added minor detail to what I’d already gleaned off you. I’m sure you’ll be happy to know, I’m still as confused as ever. You didn’t reveal that much.” He stepped forward and lowered the gift bag to her desk and her eyelids widened in unblinking silence. “I wanted to give you this.”

  She glanced at the bag but didn’t touch it. “A gift?”

  He gave a light nod for her to open it.

  She shook her head and leaned back in her chair, seeming to distance herself from the gesture. “This is inappropriate. Do you buy gifts for all your employees?”

  “If one of my employees came to me with a personal issue…” He shrugged, even though the firm accusation in her tone indeed bothered him. “Yeah, I might.”

  Who knew a gift could elicit instant objection?

  “I didn’t come to you for that express reason. In fact, I didn’t come to you at all, much less to share any ‘personal issues’. I was expecting Max, remember? And… I’m sorry.” She tore her gaze off him and pressed her fingertips over her eyes, as if catching her temper and shifting to something else altogether. “It wasn’t your fault Max coaxed you into that meeting. What I mean is, everything I said yesterday just sort of… slipped out.”

  He blew an exasperated breath, his mind reeling to keep up with the many moods and directions this woman transitioned through. “Are you sure about that? Look, intentional or not, I can’t pretend I didn’t hear what I did.” He jutted his chin to the paper bag, vowing not to press her issues any more, sensing she probably needed a break from his drilling down on her. “Open it, so you’ll at least know what it is.”

  She gave a small growl, though she reached for the bag. “Fine, but let me make this clear, I’m not a fan of pity gifts.”

  Her shoulders dropped, as a see-through box appeared in her hand, a clear glass teacup contained inside. His chest rose with lightness and exhilaration.

  He’d bought the cup from a small shop on his way into the office that morning, its sides painted with twisted vines and delicate, white, jasmine flowers.

  Her dark stare didn’t leave the cup. “You’ve been watching me. You figured I liked tea things from our brief meeting yesterday?”

  He shrugged with a casualness he didn’t possess, working hard to pretend he didn’t notice the twist of pain lingering behind her furrowed brow. “I know almost every detail about this company, including the fact that the glassware you brought into yesterday’s meeting doesn’t belong to Tiluma. It must have been yours. I also saw how your fingers clawed into the table when I poured the tea, like you were worried I’d drop your precious teapot, even though you were the one to spill it all over yourself and the meeting room carpet.”

  Her lips pinched together, as though she suppressed a smirk. But what drew him most was the ever-so-slight tremble of her fingers as she turned the cup around, inspecting all sides. “I don’t like that you’ve been watching me.”

  Her words were breathy and small, like a child sharing their fear of monsters in the dark.

  “You were sitting right across from me. I had nowhere else to look.” Nor could he have looked elsewhere, even if he’d wanted to. He hung on every second of every interaction with this woman. And yes, he did notice everything about her.

  He stuffed his hands in his pockets and tried to soften his voice, hoping she might come to understand. “I figured you were so down on yourself, you might appreciate a kind gesture.”

  “Well, I guess that’s one way to look at it.” She huffed out a tight laugh. “But you saw a small reaction of panic and somehow decided I valued teacups?”

  “Was I wrong?”

  She frowned and shook her head, her overall expression eased.

  “Then consider yourself lucky I talked myself down from buying the entire tea set.”

  She lowered the cup, still not looking at him. “My own mother hasn’t noticed I like teacups.”

  He tried not to laugh, attempting not to offend her, a second of pride blossoming in his chest. But even as wisps of lightness rose through his body, a dazed sheen invaded Agathe’s eyes. A sheen that left him yearning for her to finally open up to him.

  “You’re not the only one with a past, Agathe.” He kept his tone matter of fact. Maybe a direct approach would get through to her. But her shoulders rounded, like she shut him out further. Either way, she needed to know someone saw her. That someone was him. And
she most certainly wasn’t alone. “If ever you want to talk, I’m happy to talk too. I’ll even share my past with you. I promise, it’s not pretty.” He smiled, hoping to offer a sense of camaraderie, then nodded to the teacup. “And if it makes you feel any better, I’m not trying to buy you with trinkets. There’s nothing personal or pity-filled about that gift.”

  Though he meant the part about not buying her off, there was something personal about the gift. He did intend to win her over. But not with stuff. With kindness and hope, and in allowing her time to notice the unmistakable chemistry hanging between them.

  But even then, neither of them would win anything if she remained chained to the secrets keeping her prisoner.

  She released a quick breath and then cleared her throat, as though shaking off some baffled state.

  “Okay. Well.” She shot to standing, cup held high in a forced show of acknowledgment. “Thanks.”

  He watched her turn and walk away, her gait rigid and fast. He didn’t regret her hurried escape so much, one of many, thus far, because he now knew he had an ability to get her talking, even if her talking did only come in dribs and drabs. He now had a plan of how to get through to her, to disrupt her current state of normal and pry her from the shadows.

  Something he sensed he’d already started to do.

  10

  Agathe tucked her laptop into her work satchel and turned her mind to the darkening sky outside. The day was over, and Melbourne called. She loved the cool autumn nights, the way the streets wound down after a busy workday, only to welcome excited theater goers onto the wide, shop-lined pavements each evening.

  Soon, she’d step out there, too, the city’s lively character on full display, complete with whirring trams and various scents wafting out from bustling restaurants. If she were truly lucky, she’d see her favorite Peruvian band busking the streets. She’d give them a few minutes of her time and offer a handful of coins before returning home to warm tea and a scandalous book.