She looks down at the invitation, and some of the fire goes out of her.
I like her angry better than wounded.
“Natalie.”
She looks up.
“I don’t care what he was to you.” My voice lowers. “I care what he thinks he can do to you now.”
Her breath catches.
My office phone starts ringing. I ignore it.
“You’re sure you want to come with me?” she asks.
“Yes.”
“And the room?”
“It’s handled.”
Her blush turns hot enough to make my control bite down hard.
I step back.
Her voice is softer now. “Thank you.”
I look at her, still flushed, still shaken, but standing straighter than she was before. That matters more than it should.
“Don’t thank me yet. We still need to make them believe it.”
Her eyes widen. “What does that mean?”
“It means we start practicing being a couple tonight.”
Before she can turn that startled little breath into an argument, I go into my office and close the door behind me.
My palm still remembers her waist. My cock still has not settled.
Tonight, she learns how convincing we can be.
Chapter 4
Natalie
By four fifty-two, I have spent so much energy trying to avoid thinking about Jordan Richmond that thinking about Jordan Richmond has become my main activity, which feels unfair, unproductive, and possibly bad for my blood pressure.
The man has behaved like a professional all afternoon.
A normal professional.
A deeply irritating professional.
After Lydia and Wesley left, he went into his noon shelter placement meeting like announcing he was my plus one, booking a presidential suite, and rearranging my life before lunch were all perfectly reasonable things for a man to do on a Tuesday.
When he came back, he asked for the Winterglow Heights file in a voice so calm I almost wondered if I had imagined the whole thing.
I had not imagined it.
