During the day, I admired her smarts and work ethic. At night, she haunted my dreams with her sexy body. I’d have given anything to be able to spend an entire night making slow, sweet love to her.
“Hey, Jude,” Cyrus poked his head into my office interrupting my inability to focus on my work because of April.
“Yeah?”
“I’ve got some things in the conference room. Meet me there?”
“On my way.” I stood, rolled my shoulders, and checked to make sure I didn’t have a hardon, another casualty of working around April. Nope. He was flaccid. Poor guy.
I went to the conference room where Cyrus had a box. April was already there, sitting at the table looking professional and sexy, God damn her.
“These are all the surveillance tapes from Mr. Lassen. There are hours and hours here. I also took the liberty of creating a schedule for us to interview store employees and management,” Cyrus said, taking the lid off the box, and then tossing me a paper with a list of names.
I scanned the list noting he’d divided it up between us.
“I figured we’d divide and conquer. The faster we close this, the better,” Cyrus said.
“What about the surveillance tapes?” I asked.
“We’ll take turns on that too.”
“Would you like my help with that?” April asked.
“I think it would be better if Jude and I did it. You don’t have the experience or training in this sort of thing.” Cyrus pawed through the box.
She flinched. “I’m not a SEAL but I can be observant.”
I didn’t think Cyrus was being rude or distrustful, but I did agree with April that watching tapes didn’t necessarily require military training.
“It could be helpful to have her watch the tapes. She can do the first pass, noting anything that looks suspicious and flagging it for us,” I said.
“I don’t have much to do now since you only have one client. If you really want to get it done quickly, I have the time to help,” April added.
Cyrus looked at me with suspicious eyes, but I tried to keep my face impassive.
“Sure. That would be helpful, April. Thank you. I’m heading out for my first round of interviews.” Cyrus stared at me for a moment, I’m sure conveying the message to keep my hands off her. So far I had, but given the chance, if she was into it, I’d have them all over her in a second.
“I’ll get her set up on the video,” I said. It was the first time I was alone with her and it heightened my already agitated system. I sucked it up, bringing the box to her desk and setting up the videos for her to watch on her computer, showing her how to load and watch them.
When I was done, I got out of her chair and she took a seat. Her scent filled my nostrils, and inside I wept that I couldn’t kiss that spot on her neck where she’d dabbed her perfume.
“Any questions?” my voice was hoarse.
She gave me a wan smile. “No. I think I have it. But if I need help, I know where to find out.”
I nodded and stepped back, hoping I’d be out of the cone of April’s attraction. Like that could ever happen. “I’ll be in my office.”
I closed the door to my office, taking a moment to get my wits about me. Then I went through the list that Cyrus had given me, wanting to do background research on them before questioning them. I’d wanted to know what sort of person I was dealing with, and if possible, know the answers to the questions before I asked them, so I could know if the person was lying or otherwise being deceptive.
With the basics done, I grabbed my coat and considered rethinking wearing a suit to work. I’d kept up with it because April seemed turned on by my wearing a suit, but clearly that was all she’d felt and she’d only felt it once.
“I’m heading out to do some of these interviews,” I said as I passed her desk. “Find anything interesting yet?”
She shook her head. “It’s not quite like TV, is it?”
“It’s tedious. Maybe I should have warned you about that.”
She gave me a small smile. “No. I’m glad to do it. It feels important.”