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“Are we sure?” Kingsley looked straight at Daniel.
“Some asshole named Harpring came by,” Daniel explained. “He was harassing Anya. I locked him out.” He was doing his best to sit casually on the couch and not look like a man who’d been seconds away from coming one minute ago. He doubted Kingsley was fooled.
“Harassing you?” Kingsley scowled. “Did he hurt you?”
“No, he was only being disgusting. Daniel sent him away.”
“Good,” Kingsley said. “Never liked him anyway.”
“I don’t want him at the auction, if you don’t mind,monsieur,” she said.
“C’est la vie,” Kingsley said. “Whatever you say. There will be plenty of others.” He gave Daniel a look that was almost a wink.
“He might come back.”
“Anya, you can go up to my office and work on the files instead. If anyone comes to the door, we’ll just ignore them today.”
Anya nodded and started to leave. When she stepped into the hallway, she glanced back—not at Kingsley, but at him. Daniel smiled. She smiled in return then went quickly up the stairs. Daniel watched her until she disappeared through the door on the second floor. It was physically painful to pretend indifference, to stay there and not follow her, to kiss her again. But he didn’t want her getting in trouble with Kingsley.
“Well,” Kingsley said. “That didn’t take long.”
Daniel glared at him. “We were talking.”
“Her lips were swollen. Were you talking for ten hours?”
“I was trying to talk her out of being in your stupid auction.”
“Talk her out of it or fuck her out of it?”
Daniel smiled. “Five more minutes and I would have done it.”
“Five more seconds, I think.”
“Guess I’ll never know, thanks to you. Great timing.”
“Have you ever thought that perhaps…you should let her do what she wants? Women like that, I hear.”
“First of all, I don’t think she wants to do it. I think she thinks she needs to do it. And second, I’m not going to take relationship advice from a man who calls his girlfriends his ‘collection.’ Makes you sound like a fucking serial killer with a cellar full of bodies.”
“It’s a joke. And they’re not girlfriends. They’re simply friends I have enormous amounts of sex with.” He shrugged. “Enough about me. Our mutual friend told me Elle paid you a visit.”
“She did.” Daniel stood up. His erection was long gone by now, thanks to Kingsley. If it wasn’t, mention of Elle would have dealt the death blow.
“And?”
“She dumped me. Again.”
“Not surprised but, for what it’s worth, you have my sympathy. She is very special. You know, the way volcanoes are very special.”
“Volcanoes?”
“They’re beautiful, you don’t run across them often, and you’re always happy to get away from one with your life.”
Daniel laughed. He hadn’t thought he could laugh over losing Elle but he already was, one day later.
“Well, I’m alive,” Daniel said. “It’s over. You can tell our ‘mutual friend’ I won’t try stealing his girlfriend ever again.”
“He’ll be glad to hear that. I’m certain he was shaking in his shoes.”
