Chapter 2: The Debt

The morning light streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows of Vance & Sterling felt different—sharper, more intense. Liam sat at his desk, fingers wrapped around his third cup of coffee, trying to convince himself that last night had been a momentary lapse in judgment. A mistake that wouldn't, couldn't happen again.

Then Chloe walked past his office door.

She moved with the same confident grace as always, her hair pulled back in a neat ponytail, her navy dress perfectly professional. But when she glanced through his glass wall and caught his eye, her smile held secrets that made his pulse spike.

Remember where you are, he told himself firmly. Remember who you are.

Senior Project Manager. Respected. Feared. In control.

Except control felt like a foreign concept when she was within a fifty-foot radius.

---

The morning meeting was pure torture.

Chloe sat three seats down from him at the polished conference table, taking notes with the same focused attention she'd shown yesterday. But every time she shifted in her chair, every time she tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, Liam's mind betrayed him with vivid flashes of the night before.

Her hands on his chest. Her breath against his neck. The way she'd whispered his name like a prayer and a curse combined.

"—quarterly projections, Liam?"

He snapped back to reality to find six pairs of eyes staring at him expectantly. David Harrison, the senior partner, waited with barely concealed impatience.

"I'm sorry, could you repeat the question?" Heat crept up his neck—a mortifying loss of composure that would have been unthinkable twenty-four hours ago.

David's eyebrows rose. "The Henderson account projections. Are we on track for the December deadline?"

"Absolutely," Liam replied, his voice steady despite the chaos in his head. "We're ahead of schedule, actually."

But as the meeting continued, he felt Chloe's gaze on him like a physical touch. When he finally risked a glance in her direction, she was studying him with those devastating hazel eyes, her lips curved in the faintest suggestion of a smile.

She knew exactly what she was doing to him.

---

By lunch, Liam had convinced himself he could handle this. Professional distance. Polite interaction. Pretend nothing had changed.

That resolve lasted exactly thirty seconds after Chloe appeared in his doorway.

"Busy?" she asked, stepping into his office and closing the door behind her with deliberate care.

"Always," he replied, not looking up from his computer screen. "What do you need?"

She moved closer, her heels clicking softly on the hardwood floor. "I wanted to discuss my... assignment."

Something in her tone made him look up. She was standing beside his desk now, close enough that he could smell her perfume—the same scent that had filled his car last night.

"Your assignment?"

"From last night." Her voice dropped to barely above a whisper. "You remember. The debt you owe me?"

The words hit him like a physical blow. He leaned back in his chair, trying to create distance, but she simply moved closer.

"Chloe—"

"I've been thinking about it all morning," she continued, her fingers trailing along the edge of his desk. "About what exactly constitutes proper... appreciation."

"This isn't appropriate," he said, but his voice lacked conviction.

She laughed softly, the sound sending heat straight through him. "Appropriate? Liam, we passed appropriate somewhere around the parking garage last night."

He stood abruptly, needing space, needing air, needing her to stop looking at him like that. But she didn't retreat. Instead, she stepped closer, tilting her head back to meet his gaze.

"You're thinking too much," she said softly. "I can practically hear the gears turning. Professional this, workplace that, reputation, consequences..." She reached up and smoothed his tie with casual intimacy. "But here's the thing—none of that changes what happened. None of it changes what you want."

"What I want is irrelevant," he said through gritted teeth.

"Is it?" Her hand flattened against his chest, right over his racing heart. "Because your body seems to disagree."

Before he could respond, she stepped back, her expression shifting to perfectly professional innocence just as footsteps approached in the hallway outside.

"I should get back to work," she said, her voice bright and normal. "But Liam? We should definitely discuss that project timeline soon. Maybe after hours when we won't be interrupted?"

She turned and walked toward the door, pausing with her hand on the handle.

"Oh, and don't worry about lunch," she added with devastating casualness. "I already ate. I'm sure you have plenty to... digest."

The door closed behind her, leaving him alone with the lingering scent of her perfume and the uncomfortable realization that she held all the power in whatever game they were playing.

---

The afternoon crawled by with agonizing slowness. Every email notification made him hope—and dread—that it might be from her. Every footstep in the hallway made him look up expectantly.

But Chloe seemed to have vanished into thin air.

At four-thirty, his computer chimed with a new message. His pulse spiked when he saw her name in his inbox.

Subject: Project Discussion

Liam,

I've been reviewing the specifications for our... special project. I think we need to schedule some dedicated time to work through the details. I'm available after hours tonight if you're interested in making progress.

I should mention—I have dinner plans at eight, so we'd need to be efficient with our time. But I think we can accomplish quite a lot in two hours if we really focus.

Let me know if you're committed to seeing this project through to completion.

Chloe

P.S. I hope you're ready to pay your debts.

Liam stared at the screen, his mouth dry. The message could pass for perfectly innocent workplace communication to anyone else, but the subtext was clear as crystal.

His fingers hovered over the keyboard. Every rational part of his brain screamed that this was insane, that he was risking everything he'd built for a woman he'd known for exactly two days.

But then he remembered the way she'd looked at him in the parking garage—like he was the only man in the world. The way she'd whispered his name. The way she'd made him feel more alive in one hour than he had in the past five years.

He typed his response quickly, before he could second-guess himself.

Subject: Re: Project Discussion

Chloe,

I'm available tonight. We can discuss the project parameters in detail.

I'll make sure we have privacy to work without interruption.

L

Her reply came back within minutes.

Perfect. My office. Six-thirty.

Come prepared to work hard.

I promise it will be worth your while.

As the workday wound down around him, Liam sat in his office watching the sun sink toward the horizon through his window. His carefully ordered world had been turned upside down by a woman who challenged him at every turn, who saw through his professional facade to the man underneath.

The smart thing would be to cancel. To establish boundaries. To remember who he was and what he stood to lose.

But as six-thirty approached, Liam straightened his tie and headed for Chloe's office, knowing that whatever debt he owed her, he was more than ready to pay it.

Some risks, he was learning, were worth everything.

The question was: would she think he was worth the risk she was taking too?

As he knocked softly on her office door, hearing her voice call "Come in," Liam realized there was only one way to find out.