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The color rushed to Laia's face. She'd completely forgotten about the woman who'd come up to her. At first she'd told her she wasn't interested, but then she'd glanced over at Claudia, and when she remembered that Nadia would probably show up any minute and she'd have to watch the two of them all over each other, it hadn't seemed like such a bad idea to keep herself occupied.

"She's not—" Laia said, looking toward the corner where the woman was no longer standing.

"Doesn't matter. We're leaving."

They said goodbye to Pol and made the whole walk to Laia's car in silence, until they got there and Claudia opened the door for her.

"I'm not leaving until I see you go inside," Laia said once she was seated. Claudia leaned into the car and looked at her mouth one more time.

"And I'm not going up until I see you drive away. You're okay, right? Not dizzy or anything—because if you are—"

"I'm perfectly fine," Laia said, not knowing that if she'd said otherwise, Claudia would have asked her to come upstairs and stay the night.

"Okay. Go, then. I promise I'm going to bed too."

Laia, who had been so wound up she just wanted to get home and lie down, nodded and drove down the street until she could no longer see Claudia's silhouette in her rearview mirror. Claudia turned around, and instead of going up to her apartment, she walked back to the club—because she knew that if she tried to sleep right then, it would be impossible. Her body was full of a dark, restless electricity that wouldn't let her think straight. So as soon as she got there, she asked the head of security for Nadia, and the man led her through a back door to the office where her friend was sitting, going over a few things before heading out to do a walk of the floor.

Nadia looked up from her desk when she saw her come in, and something shifted in her eyes. She got up, walked to the door, locked it, took Claudia's hand, and guided her to the desk, where she made her sit before stepping between her legs.

"Two weeks is a long time not to see you," she whispered, undoing first her own pants and then Claudia's.

Elvira's niece said nothing. She stood, let Nadia push her clothes down to her ankles, and stepped one foot free so she could open her legs. What comes next she can't remember very clearly—she was on the desk, her hand inside Nadia's pants at an awkward angle, while the club owner fucked her and whispered how much she loved finding her this wet, how much she enjoyed pushing her fingers inside her.

Claudia could only moan. Her eyes were squeezed shut, her chin resting on Nadia's shoulder, and the memory of Laia's hand against hers kept breaking through—the only moment when Claudia could usually stop thinking about everything. Nadia came first, and Claudia followed, trembling and breathless, and she didn't resist when Nadia turned her over and pressed her torso against the desk and fucked her again—only this time, Claudia's thoughts were entirely taken over by Laia. By her laugh. By the way she looked at her like she had no right to. By her mouth. Because Claudia had wanted to kiss her tonight, and that was a problem.

After she came, she got dressed and sat with Nadia on the office couch. Nadia reminded her again that she could talk to her, that she wasn't only there to sleep with her—but Claudia, as always, felt like all her emotions were trapped somewhere inside her chest and she couldn't find the way to let any of what kept her up at night out.

And that's why she's come to work this morning. Because she feels bad for Laia. Guilty over the hit she took because of Claudia's impulses, and the least she can do is show up and not let her down one more time. She walks into the building, pushes through the door onto the factory floor, and stops in the middle of the hallway, looking both ways until she sees Laia coming from the left, finishing her rounds.

"Good morning," Laia says, unable to hide the smile that comes from seeing her there—though it fades a little when she notices the dark circles under her eyes.

"How are you feeling? Is it still hurting?" Claudia touches her own lip.

"Not really, just a little sore," she answers, and then looks at her steadily. "You went back to the bar, didn't you? You look like you're dying."

The comment might have made her laugh, if not for the note of disappointment in Laia's voice.

"I'm here, aren't I? I thought that was what being responsible looked like."

"I guess so. Were you with her?"

Laia is fully aware of what she's doing when she asks. She needs to know. She needs to confirm that the woman she's in love with is still sleeping with her friend, that nothing has changed, that the connection she felt with Claudia last night was just her imagination, that it was only her desperate mind—hungry for a little of this woman's attention—that led her to think Claudia had wanted to kiss her.

"Yeah."

Laia would have preferred a bullet to the eye, but she swallows and nods.

"I'm done down here. I'll see you."

Laia walks away without waiting for an answer, and Claudia stands in the middle of the hallway trying to understand why she suddenly feels so bad about having slept with Nadia.

Chapter 12

"You go—I have to head into Barcelona for some errands at my sister's offices," Elvira says when she and Laia are going over the day's agenda, which includes a trip to the fabric supplier's warehouse to verify that the selection they chose for the season is correct before the full order ships. "The list should be around here somewhere…"

Elvira licks her finger and starts flipping through the stack of papers in front of her.

"This is it. Check every code."