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By 1 am, I’m ready to bail

"Come on, stay," he says He sounds alet a peek at a stru? No thanks"

"No strumpets," he says

I shoot him an I-don’t-believe-that look but I stay and even make some coffee for us

At 3 a on the phone with someone overseas

I feel a delicious warmth spread overhard beneaththe back of my head I turn a bit and realizeI wake up to the sound ofto adjust h the massive arched s before me

Someone covered me with a blanket and plumped a pillow under my head

It takes me a second to realize where I a to reach the stairs that lead to the second landing, where I assuuest bedrooms are located, I pass the conference roo anial terms and I realize they’re Carma’s law team

Seven men sit at the conference table, while Callan is the only one standing, wearing the sarowth of beard, his chin resting on two fingers as he looks down at the team with a stance that says "NO BULLSHIT"

I would have never, ever in my life expected my mailman to live in a place like this To be like this I can’t believe that once, ages ago, I iined he had a one-bedrooated entrance, so clean that the floor could be a long, endless y fills the room I can see the men scramble to please him and answer his questions Tall and dark and sole and bloodthirsty as a vagling business

Rolling his shirtsleeves to his elbohile he speaks on the phone, he seems oblivious to the men in the room, even to my presence at the door as I wonder if I should say hello or sio freshen up and leave

I see the way he frustratedly tugs the top button of his shirt and I wonder if I hallucinated the way he ran his fingers through , they are sleek, his fingers long and elegant His hair is close-cropped, ending just where his collar begins

I wonder who the guy on the other end of the line is, probably soenius like hi to listen in on their conversation

Ending the call with a brusque click, Callan finally turns, assesses his e motion and, to my mortification, suddenly spots me by the door with my hair probably a mess and in the same clothes as yesterday He lifts a brow and drinks me in

And I quickly turn away and hurry upstairs, uest bathroom and wash my face and find some toothpaste and mouthwash, then I fix my hair and clothes, call a cab for myself, and tiptoe inconspicuously out of the house

Wynn invitedher set up her new artist’s exhibition My job is the first thing she askswhat to say about it "It’s consu me questions about you the other day," she adallery space, surrounded by one wall hung with canvases, the other euy back hoo up on the empty wall

My eyes widen "Are you serious?"