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I hit the button and the doors to my office hissed open. “I won’t fuck it up. I’m getting everything tonight and paying the final bill. Then we’re good to go.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” he said. “So why run a background check on her? She’s eighteen, she barely has a background.”
“She’s twenty-one,” I said. “And yeah, I did. I caught her fucking around with my laptop. I thought she might have been paid to spy.”
“So you kidnapped her?” There was a note of exasperation in his tone. “You could have just brought her home and let her father deal with it.”
“Do you know her father?”
“No, not well.”
“I looked into him as well and he seems like a pussy.”
Cosimo sighed, a deep sound that could only be cultivated by years of friendship.
“Are you sleeping with her, Duran?” he said.
I sank down at my desk and propped my feet up on the edge. “We hooked up, but it was just hands and mouths. She didn’t want to fuck.”
He was quiet for a beat.
“Do you…did you kidnap this girl because youlikeher?” he asked.
“No,” I snapped.
“Be fucking honest, man, I know when you’re lying.”
I ran a frustrated hand over my face. “I don’t know, I don’t know. All I can say is she’s different than what I thought. She feels different and she’s driving me insane.”
“If you slept with her, would you still feel that way?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know, but I think I would.”
There was another short silence. The motor of his car quieted and the door slammed again. His feet crunched over gravel.
“As your colleague, I should say don’t pursue this,” he said. “But as your friend, go for it. You’ve never told me you felt anything for any woman before now. If this is what you want, go all in. Fuck her—what’s her family going to do about it?”
CHAPTER TWELVE
IRIS
He brought me the toiletries I requested and left them hanging on my doorknob. I showered, shaved every inch of my body including between my thighs, and rubbed lotion into my skin until it was supple and shimmery.
I took out the dress I’d purchased for tonight. It wasn’t my style, but I did like that it was elegant. It was a simple black dress that went to the ground with a slit up to my lower thigh. The top was a halter with a corset bodice that cupped my breasts and brought them up high. I slid it on and turned back and forth, appreciating the beautiful silhouette.
It needed something else. I went into the bedroom and took out the hard case that held the moonstone necklace. When I snapped it open, a discreet slip of paper fell out. I caught it and turned it over and my jaw went slack.
A wave of shock moved through me.
Fuck, I was in trouble. Twenty-thousand dollars. For this necklace. This one necklace.
I wasn’t sure if I was going pale or green. He was going to be pissed. It was one thing to buy clothes, which were about a hundred dollars apiece, but it was another to spend that much money on unnecessary jewelry. I took a shuddering breath, trying to decide what to do next.
Would he be angry? Should I just confess and give it back? Maybe he could return it and we could forget about this whole thing.
My hands shook as I finished my makeup and hair and slipped the heels on. Taking a deep breath, I gathered up the box and forced myself to walk downstairs.
The housekeeper was standing in the hall, getting ready to leave for the night.
