She immediately looked up Mark’s profile for her regular evening stalking session. For all she knew, Denny was doing all of Mark’s posts, but it still made her feel closer to him to know what he was doing or thinking at a particular time. Tonight’s post, though, had her fumbling with her iPad and grabbing it just seconds before it landed in the steaming water. “Delay is the deadliest form of denial.” C. Northcote Parkinson. #Angel.

“Holy crap,” she whispered to the empty room. Was this directed at her? God, it had to be. He’d never used that hashtag before. What did it mean? What was he delaying or denying himself? Her mind whirled as she tried to decipher the words. Her fingers flew furiously across the touch screen as she attempted to find a quote she could use in reply to his. In the back of her mind, the voice of reason said that she would be making a fool out of herself if his tweet wasn’t directed at her, but it was a chance she was willing to take.

Finally, after ten minutes of searching on Google, she found the perfect one. Giggling to herself, she hit the REPLY button and then did a copy and paste. “He who hesitates is a damned fool.” Mae West. #Angel.

Giddy at the interaction with Mark, she waited to see if he would respond—but after twenty minutes, she gave up and left the bath before she turned into a prune.

By bedtime, a few other people had added their own words or quotes about procrastination, but from Mark, there was nothing. Maybe she’d pissed him off. Men, she’d learned, were sensitive and often easily offended. At least Bill had been. She’d never have dared say anything like that to him. He would have struck out at her, and then afterward not spoken to her for days. Come to think of it, she should have said something daily to shock him. It would have forced some kind of reaction from him.

That ball was firmly in Mark’s court now, and Mia had seemed confident that he would make a move at some point soon. She’d shown him that she was interested; now she hoped that he would prove her friend right and approach her. If he didn’t . . . then she was going after him.

Being a good girl had never gotten her anything that she wanted in life, so possibly it was time to try life on the other side of the fence for once. Wasn’t the grass always greener there?

Chapter Five

Mark couldn’t believe it. When was the last time he’d been asleep by nine in the evening? Apparently, he was more exhausted from his weekend of playing nurse than he had thought. It was almost six in the morning now, and he stretched in bed, feeling refreshed. Getting out of bed, he quickly tossed on a pair of running shorts, shoes, and a T-shirt. He usually ran about five miles in the morning before work. He had gym equipment at home but still chose mostly to use a health club near the office for his strength training. He found he enjoyed the bustle of the busy environment—plus he’d passed a few hours with more than one woman whom he’d met there. So far, they’d all been agreeable to the no-strings rule, and he hadn’t been forced to change gyms as his friend Jacob had, more than once, after an encounter went sour.

There was still a chill in the air as he walked down to the beach and began loosening up. He’d been lucky to have lived on the water for most of his life, aside from when he was in college. First in Charleston and now Myrtle Beach. He even had a division in Hawaii and had thought at one time of relocating there. The DeSanto Group designed and manufactured one of the best communication service routers in the world. When Jason Danvers had redesigned his top-of-the-line communications system, he had reached out to Mark and their partnership had been born. They had since upgraded most of the Danvers equipment to include the DeSanto routers and were looking at other ways in which their two companies could continue their collaboration together in the communication field.

His mind wandered to Angel again and he remembered the tweet he had posted the previous evening. Shit, he hadn’t even thought to check it this morning. He hoped she’d made some sort of comment because he wanted to know her Twitter handle. Yeah, so maybe he was stalking her a bit in return. Nothing wrong with that if both parties were in agreement, right? With that in mind, he kicked up his speed and finished his run in record time.

Mark went straight for his iPad when he walked in the door and clicked to open the Twitter app. Looking through the replies, he did a double take when he reached a certain one. “Fuck,” he groaned as he read a reply from @cryswebber. “‘He who hesitates is a damned fool.’ Mae West. #Angel.”

The little minx was teasing him. Unbelievable. He hadn’t been sure what, if anything, she’d do if she read his tweet. Now he had his answer. Crystal Webber, it appeared, had game. And dammit, he was even more intrigued than he had already been. His cock grew rock hard as he pondered her sexy response. He needed to get laid in the worse way if something like a freaking tweet had him on the verge of coming in his shorts like a schoolboy. If she’d attached a picture, then he wouldn’t have been able to hold back. As it was, he knew damn well that he was going to jack off in the shower imagining himself buried balls deep in her hot little body.

Normally, he had sex frequently enough that he wasn’t reduced to getting off by his own hand. He had a sinking feeling this wouldn’t be the last time he would take matters into his own hands while thinking of Crystal Webber.

• • •

Feeling somewhat less tense, Mark walked down the hallway toward his kitchen, where he spotted Denny sitting on a barstool drinking a cup of coffee and holding his iPad. He shook his head as Mark approached, looking vastly amused. Maybe the little bastard got lucky this morning while he had had to jerk off alone.