I sat down and smoothed out my blue sheath dress and crossed my legs. My blond hair hung in loose curls cascading over my shoulders. I had chosen a bra that pushed up my breasts. I usually took time and care to get ready for work because of the high-profile nature of many of my patients.
Today, though, I had taken more care than usual. I knew my dress highlighted my curves, and I’d spent extra time on my hair this morning. Normally, I would just put it up in a bun, but for Dirk, I wore it like I did that night at the Cherry Pie Gentleman’s Club. I hadn’t really realized how I was dressing until I got to the office.
Why was I trying to impress this handsome man? He was my patient. Not a dating prospect. With my notepad in my lap, pencil in hand, I returned his smile.
“Thank you, Mr. Baxter. Are you really ready to get to work now?”
“Call me Dirk. Yes. I’m ready. Where do we begin?”
“Let’s start with why you did such an exhaustive investigation of me, Mr. Baxter?” I asked, as I made some notes.
“SOP Miss Davenport. I have to be careful about who I deal with.”
“SOP?”
“Standard Operating Procedure.” His tone seemed condescending, but barely. Perhaps I felt a little sensitive.
“Did you do an exhaustive investigation of your wife, Mr. Baxter?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I’ve learned a lot since then.”
“Like what?”
“I’ve learned that I may not be the best judge of a woman’s character, especially when I’m…” his voice trailed off, searching for the right words.
“Attracted to them?” I fixed him with my stare.
“That is an adequate description.”
“Anything else?”
“I have more to protect now than I did when we married.”
“So, did you protect yourself before you got married?”
“Yes. Scarlet signed a pre-nup.”
“You didn’t trust her?”
“I trusted her.”
“Yet, you still had her sign a prenuptial agreement?”
“Yes, I felt it prudent.”
“Prudent is an interesting choice of words. Why did you have her sign a prenup?”
“My business was just taking off. I knew I was going to be running a business ten times the size of what it was then. If I was wrong in my assessment of Scarlet, I didn’t want it to affect my company.”
“You hedged your bet?”
“Yeah. Something like that.”
“Is safety important to you, Mr. Baxter?”
