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My shoulders deflated slightly before I could help myself.

Must be her magick. Haven’t charmed a witch in a while, though typically they weren’t much harder than human women...

“It’s a bit dingy, isn’t it?” she continued, huffing a bit and glancing around the office as though something more grand would suddenly present itself.

Those brown eyes met mine with such calm and challenge that a surge of arousal shot through me harder than a bolt of lightning to my crotch.

Charming.

I sat down faster than I would have liked to hide my little problem. If she wanted to play that way, then the kid gloves were off.

“We are a matchmaking company,” I said simply, folding my hands on top of the desk and leaning toward her.

Her eyes were pinned on a cobweb hanging from the corner of the ceiling as she twirled a lock of hair around her index finger. Rather than being pissed, she wasn’t looking at me or intimidated by me, I couldn’t take my eyes off that damn finger, so close to her plump lips.

“Escorts?” She sniffed. “I don’t–”

“No,” I laughed, not caring to hide how derisive it was. “We do not do that. Though if we did, you wouldn’t pass muster.”

Her cheeks flushed red at my brief appraisal of her physicality, and inwardly I grinned with victory. Finally, a reaction of some kind.

Don’t be such a dick, Lust.Diana’s voice was in my head, reprimanding.

Ugh, well that was one way to make my boner disappear.

Fucking bitch.

“Then what am I to do?” She shot back, recovering quickly.

I raised one eyebrow.

“You may walk right back out that door you came from,” I drawled, feeling a rush of excitement as her lips thinned further, and her fingernails gripped into the leather of her chair.

Her eyes narrowed, her chin quivered for just a moment, but then she stood and whipped around, storming out my door. I smugly watched her ass through the designer jeans—no doubt supplied by Diana.

Or I tried to watch. The moment her foot crossed the threshold of my office, my chest seized in agonizing pain. A strangled wheeze left me before I could stop it and she whirled around.

“Are you–”

Her eyes widened in concern as I hunched over my desk, my palm ineffectively grasping at my chest.

With her back in the room, the pressure vanished.

This had something to do with Diana. Was it part of her curse where I had to work for her, including hiring this...stray? Or was it something else.

“S-sorry,” I managed. “Down the wrong pipe.”

I pounded on my chest again for emphasis, offering a shaky smile. Her head tilted to the side, wary.

“Apologies for earlier. Things are...tense. We could use help,” I offered diplomatically.

Her eyes narrowed.

She took a step over the threshold of the door.

Hot, white agony shot through me again, and I couldn’t stop the grit of my teeth or the groan of pain that involuntarily left my lips.

She stepped back in. Was that a ghost of a smirk on her lips?