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Hours later, I’ve managed to get done what I had to, but my office door stays closed. I’m standing by the window, staring at nothing, when Natalie knocks softly.
“Come in.”
“Here are the last of the Baker file copies,” she says, setting them on my desk.
“Thank you.”
“It’s after five,” she says after a pause.
“I’ve still got some things to take care of,” I say. It’s even true. That’s the nature of self-employment—there’s always more to do. “You go on ahead. Finn will escort you home tonight.”
She doesn’t move. I finally turn to look at her.
She’s so beautiful, it hurts my heart just to look at her. I can’t bear the confusion and pain in her eyes.
I turn back to the window.
“We’re supposed to have dinner tonight,” she reminds me. Like I could forget.
“Maybe another night.”
“We’re not leaving without you, boss man.” Finn appears right behind her.
“I said, not tonight.”
“And I said, we’re not letting you get away with that.”
I turn back to them. His expression is mulish. Natalie nods when I glance her way.
“Your old man is a piece of work,” says Finn. “We knew that. No new information here. But he doesn’t get to dictate your life.”
“Isn’t that for me to decide?” I say coldly. It’s not a question. Finn, for once, doesn’t know what to say to that.
“Yes,” says Natalie, coming to stand next to me and laying a hand on my arm. “But we know you’re not the kind of man who lets others make decisions for him.”
“You know that.” It’s more question than statement. Well aware I’m being manipulated, I’m long past the part where I care.
Natalie nods again, all big eyes and full lips, looking up at me through her eyelashes, like she doesn’t know she’s half of my heart walking around in a soft silk blouse.
“I guess the real question is, do you?”
22
NATALIE
For a moment, I’m certain Nic is going to send us away, to force us to leave without him. The scene must have been bad. Finn only told me his dad caught them, nothing more. I can picture it though: the two of them making out on the couch, not hearing the door, or too heated to care. Then, the fallout when they were caught. I didn’t hear it, see it, or have to experience it, so maybe it’s too easy for me to ignore it right now.
“Dinner,” I say, running a fingernail over Nic’s forearm lightly. “And then, if I can ask a favor…” His eyes sharpen, all that intense focus on me in an instant. “I’d really like to see what exactly happened on that couch.”
His forearm flexes under my touch. Finn comes up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist and kissing my neck.
“Live reenactment?” he says. I can feel his smile on my skin. It makes me shiver. “What do you think, Nic? Dinner?”
His expression barely changes, but I see the conflict waging war in his eyes. Confused, aroused, angry, tempted, and so sad. I want to put those demons to rest for him, but I can’t force him. And I’ve had about as much rejection as I can take the last couple of years, so if he says no… but Nic doesn’t let me down.
“Dinner,” he says. The word sounds like a promise.
We make it through the door of his apartment, but dinner doesn’t happen until much, much later.?*
