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Exhausted and hot,Carmen flung her bag over her shoulder and started out of her office. She’d forgotten to tell the office manager to change the air conditioning settings so it wouldn’t shut off automatically at ten. She’d remembered half an hour after they stopped working and turned her office into a convection oven.
Instead of going home to finish working, Carmen had changed out of her business casual outfit and into yoga shorts and a thin tank top. She hadn’t made time to work out in months, but luckily her gym bag had been making daily trips in the trunk of her SUV.
Her mother had made it clear after the weekly staff meeting that she was displeased with Carmen’s billable hours. Despite her constant work, she’d been spending time doing too many things she couldn’t bill for — like working on Fortune Firestone’s ridiculous suit. Somehow, she’d fallen behind. Despite feeling like all she did was work, she had the lowest billable hours in the entire firm.
Carmen didn’t need to be told that it was unacceptable. She just didn’t know how much more she could give without breaking. And how could she complain if she was being so inefficient with her time that even Barry had clocked more hours than her when all he seemed to do was dick around and pass off his work?
She had to get her shit together. Had to get her head in the game if she wanted to carry on the Old Bear’s mantle. A crack sprouted in her speech to herself. Doubt creating a fissure over the pristine glass.
She pushed it down.
The firm was what she wanted. It wasn’t just her legacy; it was her responsibility. If her great-grandparents could throw themselves to the sea and risk absolutely everything to keep their quest for justice alive, she could work a few more measly hours.
It was nearly one in the morning when she’d finished drafting her client’s interrogatory responses, but at least she was done. Now, when she got home, she could take a shower and go to bed instead of getting back into work mode.
Sticky from sweat, she was contemplating jumping in her pool when the elevator doors opened. July was sweltering, even at night. The cool water would feel amazing running over her scalp and cleansing her body. She hardly ever used the damn thing. She should take advantage of the desire for a shock to her system.
As if the universe had its cosmic ear trained on her thoughts, the elevator doors opened at a parking level above hers. It was only then that she realized that she’d gotten on without pressing the button for her floor. She’d moved onto the elevator like a zombie and thought nothing when the thing started going down.
“Sorry, I—” Carmen started apologizing to the woman in a gown standing at the open doors before she recognized her. “Lola?”
Looking like she’d stepped off the pages of Vanity Fair, Lola stunned the thoughts out of Carmen’s head. Ash brown hair in long waves over her exposed shoulders, Lola’s collarbones were sharp enough to impale. Her olive skin against the heavy black dress made her dark brown eyes impossible to ignore. She was breath-taking, and it was all Carmen could do to keep her jaw from dropping.
“What are you still doing here?” Lola asked, but her tone lacked its usual bite. It was almost earnest and unguarded, like she was simply asking a question and was expecting a real answer instead of a barb.
“I had to finish something.” Carmen’s response was woefully inadequate, but it was all she had to offer. She couldn’t stop staring at Lola. Couldn’t do anything about the buzzing in her body at her proximity.
When the elevator doors started to close with Lola still standing in the garage, Carmen flung out her hand to stop them. Transfixed by Lola’s dark gaze, she held the doors open.
Eyes darting around the elevator like she was scouting for booby-traps, Lola’s suspicions spiked, but only for a moment. Gown swaying, Lola stepped inside.
As soon as she was on, Carmen hit the button for Dominion’s floor.
“Weren’t you leaving?” Lola asked, her voice hoarse and her attention fixed on her.
“I’ll ride up with you,” she said, pulse pumping in her ears, making it hard to think. “You look like the kind of woman who could use an escort.”
The corners of Lola’s full lips twitched and in a dissociative moment, Carmen imagined kissing them. What would Lola do if she closed the gap between them?
If she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear in the corniest, most irresistible move in the book. If she told her that she looked incredible.
If she waved every white flag in her arsenal and told her the truth.
Told her that she hadn’t stopped thinking about her in the weeks since she materialized in her office and kissed her like she’d never been kissed in her life. Kissed her like she’d given a new purpose to lips and tongues and teeth.
What if she asked her out on a real date? Would she put all their nonsense in the past? Could they start again?
And even if they couldn’t change what they’d done, maybe they could have one night. Maybe she could take Lola home. Undress her slowly, kissing every inch of her skin before Lola landed on her bed in a sea of plush, white sheets.
They didn’t have to speak. Not with words. Those always led them astray. Always ruined them. She’d communicate everything Lola needed to know with her fingers. Her mouth.
But then the elevator dinged its harsh electronic chime, and the doors opened on a dark Dominion. And with nothing but a charged look that Carmen felt in every molecule in her body, Lola was gone.
CHAPTER24
Five business days later,Lola had her results. Sitting behind her desk, coffee cup to her lips, she read the report with a furrowed brow.
How could there be absolutely nothing unusual in her system? The blood tests coming back negative, she understood — most substances were impossible to trace after a certain amount of time, and it had taken her weeks to submit her samples.
