00:00His secretary's interruption broke the moment before it tipped past saving.
00:04The story behind the construction site accident had cracked open sabotage of a fused device.
00:10Elias's healing floor face was back inside a single breath.
00:14His fingertips smoothed the wrinkles I'd just pressed into his shirt.
00:17The pivot from want to violence was inhumanly fast.
00:21When the secretary reported how I'd handled the press downstairs quickmouth,
00:25smooth as glass, a cruel, almost charmed curve lifted at the corner of his mouth.
00:30Once the office was quiet again, I curled against him like a cat angling for a reward.
00:36My fingertip tracing the deep lifeline in his palm, he didn't answer.
00:41He just shrugged into his coat cold again and signaled that I was off the clock.
00:46I took the chance and wrapped my arms around his waist from behind.
00:50My cheek pressed against his back where I could feel the steady drum of his heart.
00:54In that second, I wasn't a professional con artist who worked under the name Millennium Vixen.
00:59I was the bait in the steel forest most desperate to be eaten.
01:03I hit send and pushed recording his breath, his pulse to Serafina, a token of loyalty.
01:10I pushed the heavy oak door of the office open.
01:13The hallway lights were cold and dizzy bright.
01:17Arthur was leaning against one of the cold marble pillars, blocking my path.
01:21His cologne was aggressive enough to ferment in the narrow corridor.
01:25He stepped in and hooked a strand of my loose hair around his cool finger.
01:30There was a vicious thoroughness in his eyes, like he'd already read me cover to cover.
01:36They weren't kidding about the name.
01:38Millennium Vixen.
01:39Get me Elias' bid number on the merger or every one of those masterpieces of yours from New York.
01:46Runs front page tomorrow.
01:48I looked at him and a small flicker of professional contempt moved across my face.
01:53My scalpel cuts rotten flesh out of marriage.
01:56I don't steal ledgers.
01:58I was about to refuse him in the coldest possible voice, and the oak door behind me slid open without
02:06a sound.
02:07Elias was standing in that cold hallway light, the tailored jacket still in his hand, the one I'd just wrinkled.
02:13He saw Arthur's hand on the bottom of my waist, and he saw, in the same way, something between us.
02:21The End
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