Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 84670 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84670 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
Oh, she was fucking good. A threat ruthlessly delivered, followed by a generous helping of guilt. This woman could have given lessons to my mother.
She dropped her hand to her side and turned her attention to Emily. “Dr. Luo, I think it’s your turn to make some rounds upstairs before all the guests depart for the evening. Maybe we’ll get lucky, and you’ll discover that you have a long-lost friend who’s also rich.”
Humming to herself, Dr. Case strode out of the lab, seeming as if she’d landed the answer to all her prayers while I was pretty sure she’d sentenced me to hell.
“What. The. Fuck,” Emily breathed. “Did she just whore you out?”
“I don’t think she meant her directions quite like that,” I muttered.
Emily scoffed. “Yeah, I wouldn’t be too sure.”
A smirk tweaked one corner of my mouth as I lifted my eyes to her. “Now that she’s got me sold off, she’s set her sights on you. Be careful up there.”
She let out a long, aggravated groan as she shoved to her feet and marched to the door.
I held my hand out, stopping her. “Lab coat.”
She glanced at herself to find that she was still wearing the white lab coat we all wore while we were working. She fought her way out of it and tossed it at my face, obscuring the bright rainbow of colors she was wearing. Emily was in many ways the tiny, slender Asian girl who appeared as if she were sixteen, but then she opened her mouth and you realized she was a twentysomething genius who’d forgotten more about dinosaurs in her short lifetime than most paleontologists who were more than twice her age knew.
“Knock ’em dead up there, killer,” I teased.
She ignored me. “Don’t sit here and panic. When I come back, we’ll put our heads together and come up with a plan to handle Rome. We can even call my girlfriend. She’s an extrovert and fantastic at knowing what to do with people.”
I nodded, trying to cling to the slim thread of hope she was extending me. We were definitely going to need the help of an extrovert on this one because my first thought was to update my résumé and start looking for another job.
3
ROME ASHBRIDGE
I closed my eyes and let out a long, slow sigh of pleasure as I relaxed against the wooden bench in the sauna. This was exactly what I’d needed.
“I don’t know what you’re sighing about. Your week couldn’t have been that bad. You work in a library, for fuck’s sake,” Pierce griped at me from the bench across from mine.
With a smirk, I cracked an eye open and stuck out my tongue. “Not all of us were made to save the world one lawsuit at a time.”
Pierce was a lawyer who specialized in corporate law. Same as his father. And his grandfather. And his great-grandfather. Probably going all the way to medieval times or whenever lawyers had been invented. He had a fantastic analytical brain and was dangerous in an argument, which made him a great and annoying friend to have.
Most of the time, I thought he enjoyed being a lawyer, but it had a tendency to make him a very grumpy ass.
“Did you ever figure out what you were going to do about that date of yours?” Pierce asked.
I’d just closed my eyes and rested my head on the wall. “You’re gonna need to be more specific than that. I date a lot of people.”
“No shit, playboy. I’m talking about that woman you took to the concert at Union Terminal last week. I don’t remember her name. Annie? Alice?”
In a flash, all the tension I’d shed came flooding back. Because talking about Allie meant bringing up memories of running into Liam.
“Allie,” I corrected. “She seemed okay. I cut the night short and tried to ask her out a second time, but she ghosted me. Either she’s found someone more interesting, or she’s not interested in dating someone who’s pansexual.”
“You advertised that on the first date?” I could hear the shock lifting his voice almost an entire octave.
“It wasn’t my intention, but she was there when I lost my temper with an asshole.”
“Okay. Wait. I’m completely lost. When the hell did you lose your temper at the concert? And why?”
“See. This is what happens. You can’t leave early,” I chastised, but it lacked any of my usual playfulness. I sat up and twisted on the bench to face him, adjusting the thin white towel around my waist.
Pierce had left work early today and invited me over for some racquetball and a steam. It had been hard to turn him down since my place didn’t have the greatest extra amenities, and I wasn’t in the mood to use my gym membership, where I’d have to deal with a bunch of strangers. Usually that didn’t bother me, but after running into Liam, I’d found myself more wary of being in public. I didn’t want another surprise like that.