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Alex smiled. “You can totally blame that on me.”
Nora kneeled on the bed and held out her phone to show him she had already said as much.
A photo popped up next, a Tree of Life menorah blazing. Blurred in the background was what appeared to be a very well-stocked bar. A large hand threw threes, in either some elaborate gang sign, Alex surmised, or to indicate what night of Hanukkah they were up to. The caption read:
Getting shamashed with my boyz!
Nora’s thumb tapped to both love and quickly save the photo to her own camera roll.
“So on a scale of January to December – where do these guys fit on that calendar you bought for Sylvie?”
Nora laughed. “Jonah’s like the eighteen-month version of theNice Jewish Guyscalendar. The one with the bonus months you didn’t know you needed. Always there for you.” She slid her phone back into her pocket. “Let’s see…Jay would be too busy designing, manufacturing, distributing and marketing the calendar to pose for it.”
“And Avi Wolfson?”
“Avi would be the nude centerfold all the moms would steal from the middle before giving the calendar to their daughters. I’m talking pry-out-the-staples-with-their-teeth steal. He’s the naughtiest nice boy you’ll ever meet.”
“Damn, high bar. Where would I fit in?”
Nora toyed with the belt on her robe. “That depends.”
Alex dropped one knee down on the bed, then swung the other around, so he was kneeling, too. “On?”
“Are we done with the work debrief?”
“Your call.”
“Good.” She opened the robe. With just her bra and panties underneath, she was a vision. “That debrief is over, for now.Yourdebrief is up next, Dr. December.”
ChapterFifteen
Beck’s hands slid into her robe, skimming her hips and pulling her closer. The heavy weave had trapped her body heat, and his sharp intake of breath upon touching her was indication he felt the warmth as his fingertips traveled up.
“Did your parents give you gifts every night for Hanukkah when you were a kid?” Nora asked, reveling in the way his heavy-lidded gaze took her body in.
“Yeah.” His response was barely audible, as he leaned into her warmth. “Starting small…” His lips grazed her clavicle. “…then working up to a bigger and better surprise each night.”
She closed her eyes, arching toward the sensation as the bulky robe fell away, helped by his hands. “Always worth the wait, right?”
“So worth it.” He scooped an arm under her bottom and backed up off the bed, taking her with him. Nora squealed, no choice but to wrap her legs around him as he hauled them both in the direction of the bathroom, with its oversized rain shower.
“Naked and wet with you? Best Hanukkah ever, and we’re only on the third night.”
* * *
“What did he want you to do this weekend, Nora…that couldn’t wait until Monday?”
It was the question Nora had been waiting for ever since they boarded the Baller. Setting pacts and hook-ups aside, she knew the real reason it had taken Beck so long to ask was that they had had to get to this moment. Here. Trust. A two-way street.
He reached into the nightstand, pulled out a crumpled sheet of 8.5 x 11 paper, and handed it to her.
Her name.
It was at the top of the list.
Along with twenty-six others. The ones she thought of every morning as she let herself get swallowed up by that building, penned into that cube ten stories up. The ones out in the wild. The ones that had been like her, with dreams she no longer had or could afford to have.
She felt her stomach drop. Nora had made it her mission to protect them, and she had failed.
