Page 38 of Pretty Lies

Cory chewed on the stick of mint gum, and she watched each flex of his jaw out of the corner of her eye. “All right, fair enough.”

She noticed he didn’t say whether he was that type of guy. Then again, they weren’t anything to each other, and he didn’t have to tell her fuck all.

Still …

Why did he have to look so good?

Sound so good?

Why did he have to be at all?

She knew he was only flirting with her, and yet, the man was so entirely overwhelming that even this felt like foreplay. On another day, that might not be so bad for Della. Right then when she had to be in the right headspace for business, and the situation she found herself in with Cory, to begin with?

She couldn’t focus at all.

“You’re …”

He chuckled. “A lot, huh?”

Oh, good.

He knew it, too.

“Want me to dial it back a touch?” he asked.

“A bit.”

“Whatever you need, princess. Wouldn’t want to be a distraction while you do your job.”

At first, she thought he might have been poking fun. Instead, he righted himself in the seat, switched the song to another on the playlist, and asked, “How close are we to your first stop today?”

“Three blocks.”

“Who is it?”

“A doctor with a gambling and sex habit, oh and a private clinic that he uses to treat wealthy patients.”

Cory whistled low. “Yeah, damn. Where’s your friend?”

“She’ll meet me there. You just—”

He gave her a smile from the side. “Don’t even think about me. Do your job. I’ll do mine.”

Right.

He was her walking wet dream come true. All she could think about was him.

Della liked it a whole lot that he was looking at her with the same glint in his eye that she was sure he found in hers. Somehow, this was going to be a problem. She was sure of it. Life hadn’t proved her differently with men like Cory yet.

•••

“Oh, our new friend is joining us today?” Jennika asked.

Della stood next to her friend in the luxurious waiting room of a doctor’s office. No clients—or patients, she supposed—waited in the leather seats, and the girl behind the desk had already noticed their arrival and had picked up her phone to make whatever call she needed. This wasn’t their first rodeo here, after all.

“Ignore him,” Della said to Jennika, referring to Cory who stayed a few paces back, closer to the bank of elevators that had brought them up to the office. Despite what her father wanted, she was not letting Jennika collect payments from debtors on her own. Not that she couldn’t do it, but sometimes the girl got out of control. Simple as that. “Plan is still the same. We’ve got the strip club later in the week, too, but that’s your choice to come along.”

“Your dad wants—”