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Me:You know you won’t be able to bullshit your way through this one.Mr. Casiraghi doesn’t seem the type to have “spiritual advisors.”

Asshole:Are you implying something about my methods, Dani?

Me:That they’re bullshit. Yes.

Asshole:I’m wounded. Are we fighting? I hate it when we fight. Maybe you should come over so we can talk about it.

Me:You’d like that wouldn’t you?

His reply takes a bit longer than his previous ones, and I don’t notice my teeth pressing against my bottom lip until it pops up on the screen.

Asshole:I promise you, Dani. We’d both like it if you came.

I shift in my desk chair, remembering the last time I’d been to his place. Heat courses through me, the memory of his tongue on me and his body against mine leaving me disgusted with myself but still entirely horny. I hate that he always seems to catch me when I’m at my most stressed, that he knows orgasms are my weakness when I’m wound this tightly.

I can’t go to his place again. I know I will regret it tomorrow. Iknow.

I hear apingas another text comes through.

Asshole:I’ve been thinking about touching you all week.

I grit my teeth, closing my eyes as a shudder passes through me.

I amnotgoing to his place.

I’m not.

Three

Ezra

I smile againat Dani’s short response of “Fine.” Then I check the time, thinking she should be here soon. I’ve been waiting patiently to see if Dani would end up as my opposing counsel on the Casiraghi case, hoping for it, actually, knowing she’d be prickly and sour about it. It shouldn’t be so appealing when she puffs up like my cat’s tail, but something about it really inspires the need to rile her up even more when it happens. Touching her is always that much sweeter when I have to work for it.

The aforementioned feline rubs against my ankle then, and I reach to scratch behind Purrgood Marshall’s ears.

“She likes you, at least,” I tell him.

Purrgood arches his fluffy gray body, flicking his tail as he stares up at me, looking bored. He scampers away after another quick rake of my nails against his spine, and I move across the apartment to the wet bar to make myself a drink. Two fingers of scotch usually helps prepare me to handle Dani’s verbal assault, which she insists on before she defrosts. A good therapist mightsuggest there is something seriously wrong with me if they knew how much I enjoy our strange dynamic.

Dani has no qualms with making it immensely clear what she thinks of me as a person, and for the life of me, I can’t even begin to explain why that makes her inability to stop coming to me to fuck her stress away all the more appealing. Touching Dani is like scooping the honey out of the hive after the beesting. Totally worth the pain.

I’m sipping my drink and looking out the wide wall of windows on the other side of the large leather sectional in the living room when I hear three sharp knocks from the front door across the room, and my skin hums with anticipation as I set my scotch glass on an end table and practically jog to answer the door.

Her perfectly arched dark brows are pulled together over her stormy gray eyes when I open the door, her pink mouth pursed as she taps one heeled foot. I smile at her arms crossed tightly over her chest; she always looks like someone forced to solicit for community service when she comes over.

“Hi, honey,” I say sweetly. “How was your day?”

She rolls her eyes as she pushes past me. “I can’t believe you let me brag about the Casiraghi account knowing you were opposing counsel.”

“Don’t be cross, dear,” I coo. “You’re just so cute when you’re excited.”

She narrows her eyes at me. “You’re such an asshole.”

“So I’ve been told.”

Purrgood trots out from wherever he’s been hiding to rub against Dani’s leg, and for a moment, I’m almost jealous of the way her expression changes, the way her mouth twists in a small smile as she crouches to pet him.

“You’re making me envious of the cat,” I tell her.