She smiled at him and shook her head, clearly over him before he even got started.Smart woman.I took a swallow of the smoky amber liquid, wondering how long I was going to have to wait before I could ditch my nosey friend and figure out how I wanted to respond to Alex’s text.
“Was there something else on your mind?”I tossed it out there all casual like but I could tell by the arch of his eyebrow he wasn’t buying it.
“Why yes actually, there was.Unless you have somewhere else you need to be?Like maybe in a tub somewhere?”
“Shut up.What is it?”
“I’m just messing with you.It can wait until the morning.Sounds like you’ve got your hands full.Or are about to,” he said, grinning.“I’m glad.You’ve been alone too long.And unlike me, one-night hookups never really seemed to do it for you.”
I opened my mouth to tell him it wasn’t like that—that I was still alone.Whatever Alex and I were doing, it wasn’t a long-term relationship.But when I started to speak, I realized I didn’t want to say the words out loud.How fucked up was that?
“Thanks.”I should stay and talk until Jared was ready to go, but it felt like my phone with Alex’s photo was burning a hole in my jacket pocket.
“Go on,” he said, waving me away.“I’m going to head downstairs to the bar for a bit.See if I can find someone new to the city in need of some company.”
I didn’t wait.I shook his hand and headed for the exit.My phone was in my hand before I hit the bottom of the stairs.
“OOH, WHAT’S IN THEFANCY box?”I asked, glancing at the boutique store package resting on Charlotte’s orderly desk.
After we left the deposition, I’d gotten a dozen or so increasingly demanding texts from her, culminating with an admonition to get my pretty little ass into her office at nine or she’d show me what a flogger could really do.She was tiny; I could take her.But I loved her so I hauled my butt into her office in the morning to answer questions I’d much rather avoid.
“I have many, many questions.”She peered at me over the top of her reading glasses, managing to look like a cross between a sexy Alice in Wonderland and an angry nun.“But since you went first, you tell me.Why is Erik Jensen, Esq., sending gifts addressed to you fromLes Bains de Merto my office?”
“It’s from him?”I asked, taking a step back and staring at the pale-blue box printed with delicate white shells as if it might hold a snake.That’s what did in Cleopatra, right?Not that I was comparing myself to the Egyptian queen or anything, but trust a dangerous man and the next thing you knew, you were getting snake deliveries.
“Open it, and then start talking.Or better yet, talk while you open.What the actual fuck, Alex?”
“I don’t know why he sent the box here.”I hadn’t given him my home address, but with the resources his offices had, I was sure he had it already.And if he hadn’t wanted to send it there, I knew he had my post office box.It was on the contact on my website.That he’d sent the box to Charlotte meant one of two things: either he was trying to poke at me and wanted witnesses or, more alarming, he read me well enough already to know seeing my friend would be one of the first things I did in the morning.Bolstering my courage, I picked up the box and carried it to the small sofa, letting it rest on my lap while I worked up the nerve to open it.I didn’t know the store but it wasn’t likely to include sex toys or anything.And if it did, I could explain them away.It would be a lot more comfortable to have Charlotte think Erik was making fun of my profession than explain why he’d be sending me thoughtful gifts.
“Let’s revisit the where,” she said, sounding like her patience had started to fray.“And move on to the why.”
“I don’t know that either.”Honestly, the only thing I had a real shot at was thewhat.Setting the lid of the box to the side, I peered inside.Nestled in the palest green-blue tissue paper was a collection of glass bottles filled with liquids the color of sea glass.The elegant handwritten labels with words likeAphrodite’s PearlandMermaid’s Dreamswrapped the slender bottles, and there was a huge natural sea sponge tucked into the side of the box, with a card resting on top.Ignoring Charlotte’s impatient noises for a moment, I slid the pure white cardstock from the envelope.
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THANK YOU FOR THE GIFT.USE THIS NEXT TIME AND IMAGINE IT’S MY HAND, OR TONGUE.YOUR CHOICE—THIS TIME.
