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Sloane leaned on the handrail behind Ari, her upper body uncomfortably close. Blaming the intoxicating perfume on her inability to think, Ari focused on not getting rattled.
“Don’t you want to place a little wager? Just for fun?”
Sloane’s voice dipped lower. “Or are you afraid you’re going to fall on your face?”
The meaning of her words was incongruous to the sensual contours Sloane was putting on them as she spoke. Ari’s pulse jumped and her chest tightened. Her involuntary physiological response to the sound of her raspy voice and her proximity was disorienting. When her warm breath landed on Ari’s neck, it prompted a volcanic eruption Ari tried in vain to keep under control.
Sloane hesitated before straightening. In a sickening moment of abject horror, Ari realized she’d closed her eyes.
When they flew open, Sloane was staring at her with her stupid hazel eyes filled with equal parts curiosity and amusement.
The doors parted, flooding the elevator with the chaos of a busy courthouse. Phone’s ringing, a baby crying, a hundred conversations, they all assaulted Ari’s ear drums at once.
“You’re a terrible person,” Ari decided, glaring at her, wishing she would get out of her way. “I’m not going to bet against our colleagues.”
Sloane cocked her head to one side. “Is that what makes me so bad?” she asked, her painted lips bending into a tiny smirk.
Despite Sloane using her normal speaking voice and no longer leaning into her, Ari felt every word burn her skin as if it had been whispered against her neck. It was too much to take.
On wobbly legs, she took a step around Sloane and did her best not to run out of the elevator. She settled for a brisk walk and bolted into the Division II courtroom where she’d be safe from Sloane’s messed up games for a few hours.
BY THE TIME Ari made it to her car at the end of a very long day, she was grateful for the open space of the parking garage. It had been worth staying a little later to make sure she was alone when she left, though she’d taken the stairs just in case.
When Ari pulled o her jacket to hang it up in the back seat, she hadn’t expected to find a long, blondish, wavy hair on her lapel, but given her luck she should have.
How long has this been here?
She grabbed the strand with the tips of her fingers as if it might infect her with some transdermal venom. Maybe it was Sloane’s long game for getting rid of her. Anything was possible with Sloane. Even poisoning an enemy.
After flinging herself into the front seat, Ari immediately rolled down her windows. If the hair wasn’t chemical warfare, the world’s strongest perfume was for sure a tactic.
It worked like a hallucinogenic, sending her back to the memory of Sloane’s body against her in the elevator.
The moment Ari pulled out of the garage, with the heat of the city streets invading her car through the open windows, she entered tra c. She wondered if it could even be called tra c when cars weren’t actually advancing, and she kicked herself for waiting the few extra minutes. The decision had easily doubled her commute home.
Shit.
By the time Ari called her parents and told them she’d be late for dinner, she’d barely moved a quarter of a block.
Instead of giving in to road rage, she called Jasmine intending to leave her a voicemail.
“Hey! I didn’t expect you to answer, I’m sorry,” Ari said when Jasmine picked up.
“I was buried in a three-thousand-page transcript. If you hadn’t called, I wouldn’t have noticed I skipped lunch,” she explained, going from the silence of a building to the symphony of a busy, city street.
Jasmine told her all about the interesting case she was working on, making sure to spare any identifying details.
She’d aced their legal ethics course. Ari was so caught up in her case, she’d forgotten why she called.
“How is it going with your nemesis? Now it’s your turn to talk while I scarf down this shrimp tempura roll,” Jasmine said before starting to chew.
Taking a deep breath, Ari filled her in on how Sloane had cornered her and whispered some kind of spell to entrance her like Rasputin or Jafar.
Jasmine laughed. “Was she twirling a spiral in your face too?”
“It’s not funny,” Ari protested, though she couldn’t help but chuckle too. When she said it out loud, it sounded insane.
Sloane hadn’t hypnotized her; she’d just caught her at a strange time.
