“No,” he growls.
“Duke, he’s the architect. He needs to be involved and it’s not like I don’t share an office with him already.”
“I don’t want him in here. With you,” Duke says, being utterly childish. “So unless you want me to throw him out the window, I suggest we make it a conference call.”
“The windows don’t open.”
“I know, Angel. I can use his head to break glass.” He drains his coffee. “Anything else?”
My heart pulls, as it does every morning when I have to leave. We’re getting better at building a business relationship, but it’s just another charade. “That’s it,” I say, rising from my seat. “I’ll see you Monday?”
“You will. Have a good weekend.”
We hold each other’s gaze and his eyes repeat all the things he’s already said so many times. I want you. I need you. I will have you. Trust me.
When I leave, Duke doesn’t get up from his desk, and I don’t turn around. It’s safer this way. If he touches me, I’ll want him to hold me. If he holds me, I’ll want to him to kiss me. And if he kisses me… It doesn’t matter how close we get, it’s never going to be enough.
Ed’s signing for something when I reach his desk. He pays me no attention, far more interested in the delivery guy.
“Nice package,” I say as we watch him walk away.
Ed tuts. “I didn’t notice.”
I don’t hold back my laugh. “I meant the one in your hand, Ed.”
He rolls his eyes as he grabs a pair of scissors to slice through the tape on the plain brown box. “No, you didn’t.”
I’m about to leave him to sort through the mail, but his expression stops me. My eyes widen too when I lean closer.Inside the nondescript cardboard box is another box. It’s purple and sparkly, and I recognize the branding immediately thanks to our little shopping excursion at the weekend.
“Is that what I think it is?” I ask while my inner voice is praying that it’s for me.
A sales person we’d spoken to had gone to great lengths to explain how they collaborated with an international supplier to produce a customized dildo that replicated your partner’s member. The poor girl had the job of helping with the molding process. Customers could go online and do it themselves, but it could get messy apparently and she was the go-to girl. Had Duke gone to her?
Ed lifts the sealed box carefully from the packaging, balancing it reverently in both hands, weighing it up.
From nowhere, a hand with blood-red nails reaches past me. “I’ll take that.”
There’s pressure against my back as the woman makes to grab for the box and I step to the side. This isn’t a battle I should be involved in. Her accent has immediately given away her identity.
All I can do is look on in horror. If that package was intended for me and ends up in Katarina’s hands, or any other part of her body, I might just die.
Ed refuses to release his hold on the purple box and greets the new arrival as if they weren’t in the midst of a tug of war. “Katarina, how lovely to see you,” he says levelly. “Have you done something to your hair. It looks… human.”
Katarina tugs harder. “Edison, don’t make me hurt you.”
Ed glances over her shoulder at the two men observing him coldly, their leather jackets zipped up, hands clasped in front of them. They look as friendly as they did the first time I spied them coming out of the restaurant with Duke and Katarina. Danyl and Andrey.
“I think I’d enjoy those two manhandling me almost as much as they would.” Ed winks in their direction. “Do you want to subject me to another body search, boys?”
Katarina sighs impatiently. “Not them, durak.”Idiot. “You do know I could break your neck with one arm?” She lifts her free hand in warning and in the process, shows off her stupidly large engagement ring.
But it’s Katarina’s smile that dazzles. As much as it pains me to acknowledge it, this woman is even more beautiful up close. Her skin-tight jeans show off her round ass and her sapphire blue jacket pinches at her waist and pushes up her ample cleavage. Her lips are red, her brown eyes bottomless and her long, raven hair is a silken curtain that falls almost to the base of her spine. Human, and then some.
“The package was addressed to Duke, not you,” Ed says, ignoring her threat.
Katarina snarls as she lets go of the box and checks the discarded packaging. She finds the delivery note and laughs. Then turns it towards Ed.
He reads it out loud, then makes a gagging noise. “For when you’re running on empty.”
