Page 90 of Stand Your Ground

It was my turn to blink at her. “Oh. Yeah. My apologies. You don’t seem stressed at all.”

She glared at me for half a second, and then her shoulders deflated, and she sank back in her chair, flicking her pen onto the desk and pinching the bridge of her nose. She sat like that for a moment before thrusting her other hand out toward me and gesturing for the cookie.

I grinned in victory as I handed it to her.

When she unwrapped the monstrous thing, she took a bite so large it didn’t make sense biologically for her mouth, and then she moaned, sinking farther into her chair.

“Besh fuhgging cookiesh eveh.”

I chuckled. “I’m sure I agree with whatever you just said.” I paused, frowning at the exhaustion that settled in on her face as she took another bite. “Busy week, I take it?”

She shrugged. “Not busy, per se, but hectic. I had back-to-back complex crown or bridge cases that both needed unexpected adjustments. One of our VIP clients insisted on a same-day slot, despite how we insisted that it would be impossible.”

“One of my teammate’s wives, perhaps?”

She didn’t answer, but the look she gave me told me I’d hit the nail on the head. I chuckled.

“And I’ve been avoiding my part of the end-of-year reporting, but now have no choice but to tackle it if we’re going to file on time.” She took another bite of the cookie, letting her head fall back against her chair. “And I’m just so… tired.”

I tilted my head to the side. “Not sleeping well?”

“Not with my mother calling me every night.”

I stiffened at the mention of her mother. We hadn’t talked about her family much since the night of our date. She’d mentioned that the drama was still hanging around at the game before we went to her place last week, but she’d made it clear she didn’t want to discuss it, that what she needed was a distraction.

Was her telling me this now an invitation to ask questions?

Because I had a billion of them.

“Your sister’s wedding,” I mused.

Livia nodded.

“Are you ever going to tell me why this is such an issue, you attending one of the biggest days of your sister’s life?”

Livia strained with the effort to bring her head upright again. “It’s a boring and tragic story.”

“I like tragedies. BigRomeo and Julietfan here. And I think it should be up to me to decide if it’s boring or not.”

She groaned, shaking her head as she wrapped up the rest of the cookie and set it on her desk. “I don’t know, Carter. I’m not really the talking type.”

“Maybe you could try it. For me,” I added.

Stupidly.

Like this woman would be tempted to do anything for my sake alone.

For a moment, Livia seemed to consider it. But she shook her head again and picked up her pen. “Not today.”

I couldn’t fight the flood of disappointment that overtook me, but I battled through the rush of water, undeterred.

“That’s fine,” I said, standing. I rounded her desk and took her pen from her hand.

“Hey!”

“But I think you’re done working for today.”

She cocked a brow at my audacity, the Domme inside her firing up instantly. “Oh, is that so,Rookie? Since when do you call the shots?”