VANESSA

His dark eyes smolder in contrast with his chuckle. "Don't worry, I remember that about you too."

My sharp inhale apparently gives him gratification as his lips curve into a devilish grin. He leans in and because of pure stubbornness—at least that's what I tell myself—I lift my chin in defiance.

His dark eyes lower down to my lips. His teeth grate his bottom lip for a moment before his eyes rise to meet mine again.

It's a strange experience to have everything around you become a muted background, when all I hear is my heart thundering inside my chest and my accelerated breathing. I find myself entranced by his lips, remembering the sinful pleasure they can provide. His warm breath teases my lips in a soft whisper of what could be if I just lean in...ever...so...slight—

"Nessa!"

"Tate!"

I rear back, breaking out of the cocoon of lust in the middle of the sidewalk. Horns blaring, tires screeching, distant sirens and alarms popping off here and there, with conversations varying in degrees of volume and of course the construction work underway on both properties come in full force all around me.

"Hey, it's Crocodile Rock Girl!" A raven haired man with striking blue eyes approaches, singing the catchy tune, off-key, but his enthusiasm makes up for it.

Vivid images of me singing the song on top of the counter at the bar as other patrons joined me, flash through my hazy memory.

He nods, unperturbed by our lack of excitement, beckoning for us to join him as he keeps singing. "Laa, la-la-la-laa." He laughs, slapping Gabriel on the back. "You found her! Did you get her name this time?"

Gabriel rolls his eyes at the chuckling man. "Vanessa, this is my friend Elliot. Not sure if you remember him, but he was at the bar with us."

I glance back at the man holding his hand out to me before I shake it and remember him also at the restaurant. "Yes, I remember."

"Nessa!" Jenny comes to an unbalanced stop after running in her high heels. "We have a problem—"

"Well, it's been fun catching up." I cut her off addressing the men.

The last thing I need is for the competition to hear whatever shitstorm we have going on right now. I focus on Gabriel. "Good luck on your lease up, Mr. Tate."

He laughs, shaking his head. "I think we're way beyond formalities, don't you think, Vanessa?" He smirks, giving me a wink.

"Wait, is he the guy from the vid—" I yank Jenny away, but she cranes her neck to keep staring at the men we left behind.

"It is him, isn't it?" She keeps looking back and I groan.

"Stop staring, Jenny."

A look of concentration has her eyebrows furrowing together. "Tate...Tate...holy shit! You slept with the Gabriel Tate?!" She twists her neck to look at him again. "What's he doing here?"

"Thompson & Thompson hired him to do their lease up with Cindy." I inform her. Focusing on the curb appeal of our building, I make a mental note to order some planters for the exterior. Our A-frames and banners are positioned perfectly, but there's something missing.

"Nessa, did you hear me?"

"Huh?"

Jenny shakes her head. "You're already in work mode, aren't you?" She pulls the door open for us to walk in and I make another note to contact the scent vendor to have them install their air fresheners in the lobby and in each of the floors.

I stop when Jenny stands blocking me. "I know you don't believe in coincidences but it's very serendipitous that your one night stand hottie turns out to be a well-known lease up closer in the industry, don'tcha think? Not only that, but working for our rival..."

Sighing, I nod. "I asked him if he knew who I was...if he was trying to sabotage Emerald having a successful lease up considering the history of our employers' but he looked at me like I was crazy and laughed."

"Then it's fate." Jenny smiles wistfully and I roll my eyes, stepping around her toward the office.

"What's the problem you were raving about outside?" I look over at the leasing desk and notice it's empty. Checking the time on my phone, I turn back to Jenny.

"Yeah, he's a no show." She exhales dropping her bag on her desk across the way. "And he came highly recommended."

"Alright, let's not dwell on it. I need to meet with Gary." I scroll through my phone finding the maintenance supervisor's contact and send him a quick text.

"I had him and Jake do a quick walk around the property and the parking structure, picking up any debris and trash."

"Awesome, thanks, Jenny. Can you post an ad for a leasing agent and then can you make sure all of our applications and other docs are printed on hand and ready?"

"Already done. Well, except for the ad, I'll get started on that right now." She moves around her desk and begins pulling up different windows.

"You summoned?" Gary saunters in, nodding at Jenny. He's been working with Emerald for eight years and this is his second lease up property. Jake, the grounds tech, trails in behind him on his phone. He's been with Emerald a little over a year, and is eager to move up and has expressed interest in moving to the office side of things eventually.

"Jacqueline wants us to get the units that are ready, leased and moved into within the next three weeks," I tell them.

"Twenty move-ins in three weeks? Seems doable." Gary maneuvers a toothpick in his mouth. "Jake and I were going to go through and make sure everything is functioning, and operating as it should in a few of the completed units. This ain't my first rodeo and deadlines make construction rush things sometimes. Mike, the foreman, said he plans on having all the units on the top floor done by the end of the month, and the clubhouse should be done by the end of the week, too."

"That's good to know, we can pre-lease those, while renting the ones that are ready." I nod. "I need you and Jake to make sure the curbs and sidewalks are in pristine condition first thing every morning. The property across from us is a high end property so we need to make sure we do what we can to stand out."

"Heard they have some big shot helping them out." Gary grunts with a shake of his head. "But we can't really compare ourselves since we are offering reduced rates, we don't have the type of budget they have..."

"We use that to our advantage." I straighten my posture. "Not everyone is going to be able to afford three thousand dollars a month in this market. They're pet friendly, we're not. They allow smoking within twenty five feet, we're smoke free. There's pros and cons to each of those, but we work with what we have."

After the short impromptu team meeting we all go to work. I spend the rest of the day focused on updating our ads, planning my outreach marketing for the week and helping Jenny answer the incoming calls from potential residents and set up appointments for the day and the rest of the week and sort through the resumes that started trickling in.

During a lull in the day I filled Jenny in on the awful blind date that led to my now infamous one night stand with Gabriel Tate. I made her swear not to bring it up again. It's bad enough running into him let alone finding out he works for a competitor.

"The leads coming in today seem really promising, I feel good about hitting the goal by the end of the month." Jenny says with optimism in her voice as she shuts down her computer.

"I do too, but I want to get ahead of the curve and get traffic numbers up high this week, too. We need to weed through the ongoing waiting list that Corporate has, too." I lean back in my chair.

"You're not staying late are you?" She asks, stepping into my office.

"No, I'm just going to send out a few responses to the resumes and set up interviews, then I'll head home."

Jenny side-eyes me. "You better, I don't need you burning out at the start of this."

"I'm not going to burn out." I crack my knuckles. "Thanks for all your help, I couldn't do this without you."

"We got this, one day at a time." She smiles at me. "Bye-bye french fry!"

I chuckle and respond with my usual, "Later, tater!"

It's a thing between us.Well, mostly Jenny, she's full of silly–sometimes funny–catch phrases. After five years of friendship I've started picking up on some of them.

Once I finish sending my emails, I shut down my computer and gather my things. I step out after setting the alarm and make my way to the parking structure.

I'm not a fan of parking lots and make quick work of stepping out of the elevator and head towards my car. My paranoia has me checking my surroundings repeatedly and breathing out a sigh of relief once inside my car.

As I pull out of the structure I stop at the exit when I see Gabriel across the street. He's talking with Cindy as they walk towards one end of the building and he gestures with his hands then points to different areas. She nods, but only keeps staring at him instead of whatever he's showing her.

I'm a little surprised to see him still working, but I watch as Cindy throws her head back laughing and touches his arm. Images of his toned arms caging in my body as he hovered over me in the darkness of his room. It feels like a lifetime ago yet I can picture every curve and dip my fingers traced on his hard body.

The alarm on the door of the parking structure sounds off, since my car is blocking the sensor and my eyes snap open.

Gabriel and Cindy glance in my direction. Shit! I hit the gas, not meaning to peel out but it happens and I speed away.

Shaking my head, I berate myself for getting distracted. The last thing I want them to think is I was sitting there watching them. I wasn't. Not the whole time, anyway.