Lou frowned.“She didn’t like you?What’s wrong with her?”
Sawyer’s grin flashed.“Nothing’s wrong with her, and she liked me fine.”
Knox closed his eyes.Cold beer, fresh grass, Sawyer with two black eyes, a broken nose…
“Then what’s the deal?”Lou demanded.
“What she wants…”
Knox’s eyes flew open.
“…she doesn’t want from me,” Sawyer finished, looking Knox dead in the eye.
“What she wants?”Jesse echoed, sounding confused.“What does that mean?”
Sawyer held Knox’s gaze for another beat, then shifted to look at Jesse.“Just what I said.”
“But what does itmean?”
“Jesse—”
“I know, you don’t discuss client business,” Jesse interrupted, a rare impatience tightening his voice.“But you just said she hadn’t hired you, so she’s not a client.”
“Technically, no,” Sawyer allowed.“But we spoke in confidence.”
“But—”
“You might as well save your breath,” Lou advised, skirting around Sawyer to the stove.She picked up the spoon to stir.“He takes that shit seriously.”
“You said what she wants, she doesn’t want from you,” Knox said.
Sawyer nodded.“Yes.”
“So not just sex.”
Sawyer hesitated.“I can’t say.”
“For God’s sake, Sawyer,” Jesse blurted out.
“Watch your tone,” Lou warned, and spooned up a bite of chili.She blew on it, tasted, and hummed in pleasure.“Baby, this is so good.”
“I’m not fucking with you just for fun,” Sawyer told Jesse, then, “although that’s a nice side benefit.”
“For me, too,” Lou piped up, spooning up more chili.
“I promise my clients discretion, anonymity.”Sawyer opened a cupboard, took down a bowl, and handed it to his wife.“And yes, technically she’s not a client at this point, but anyone who contacts me, meets with me, gets that discretion and anonymity.It’s how I stay in business.”
“Nobody else wants any of this, right?”Lou said as she filled her bowl to heaping.
“I start telling client business, I might as well go back to selling tires,” Sawyer continued.“So no, I can’t tell you more.I’m skirting the line telling you what I have, and I wouldn’t have given you that much if you hadn’t spotted us together.”
“Look, I—we,” Jesse amended, “sort of have…feelings for her.”
Lou snorted into her chili.“Sort of.Right.”
Sawyer handed his wife a napkin.“Yeah, I got that when Knox growled at me in the restaurant.”
Jesse looked at Knox, a helpless look in his brown eyes.“We can’t really do anything about it, so—”
