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“Then not here.”
Blair is silent briefly. “This is why I enjoy negotiating for him.”
“Are you negotiating?”
“If you want me to.”
“Yes.”
“Then I am.”
That settles it. Blair says she will call after Mara’s people respond, and I agree to nothing until she has gone through the final terms with me in a form I can understand.
When the call ends, Rachel says, “Do you have any idea how strange my life is?”
“Yes.”
“You’re supposed to say no.”
“I live here.”
That makes her smile.
I reach across the table and take her hand. She lets me, then turns mine over and moves her thumb slowly across the finer willow between my knuckles. For a while we sit with the bills pushed to one side, Mara’s offer still only an offer while Blair negotiates.
Rachel’s thumb moves over my hand again, and warmth travels up my arm.
“Oh, no,” Rachel says.
“What?”
“I recognize that expression now.”
“What expression?”
“The one where you’re about to make me regret teaching you words for what’s happening below your waist.”
I think about the way she pressed against me in the kitchen.
“I still want to know what your hand feels like on me.”
Rachel goes very still, color climbing her throat again.
She does not take her hand away. “You’re serious.”
“Yes.”
Rachel doesn’t move. Her thumb rests against the willow between my knuckles, and her gaze stays on mine.
I don’t ask her to do it now. I’ve told her what I want. The rest is hers to choose.
Then she says quietly, “You’re getting dangerously honest for this early in the day.”
“Does that bother you?”
Rachel is quiet for another long moment. “No.” Her thumb moves once over my hand. “It definitely doesn’t bother me.”
Heat begins low inside me again.
