Page 59 (2/2)

"I was really happy when he and I were together He’s a good listener More than that, he wanted to know about , and--"

"All I care about is whether or not he’s good in bed," Benita interjected

Stella bit her lip and blushed down at the carpet The word good didn’t do Michael justice Phenomenal was more like it

"You lucky duck" Benita turned to Philip and grabbed his aro to the kitchen You need to ice that eye"

PJ?

Philip gruers at her lilies before he allowed Benita to pull him out of Stella’s office As the two of them walked down the hall, he settled his hand at the base of her spine, slipped it lower, and squeezed Instead of sht she would, Benita brushed the light hair from his brow and clucked over his bruise

That wasinteresting

Apparently, Benita didn’t care that Philip was a complete hound when it came to women That worked out just fine for Stella She didn’t have to feel bad for not asking hiain

She rotated the flower vase and fiddled with the stems Flowers had always seemed pretty senseless to her They stank, they wilted, and then you had to clean them up But these were from Michael

Her phone buzzed repeatedly, and when she retrieved it fro it go to voice mail, but her thuet them?" he asked

"YesThank you"

"How’s Philip Dexter’s eye looking today?"

"Purple"

He made a satisfied sound, and she could al like a schoolgirl His barbarisreen in a few days," he said

"You really shouldn’t have given him a black eye" But she loved that he had It made her feel special in a way she’d never known She was a bloodthirsty villainess

"You’re right Next ti to kiss you, it had better be me" After an aard pause, he asked, "Will you have dinner with ht of seeing hiain, but she forced it into sub any of this, didn’t trust it "No"

There was a long silence before he said, "Good I like a challenge"

"I’e you"

"I know you’re not You’re trying to get over me, which is worse"

"Michael"

"I have stuff to do Talk to you later Miss you" The call disconnected

She paced about her office with increasingly agitated steps He didn’t want her to get over hi What was she supposed to do? Pine over hi had started i to kiss her when she didn’t want it Michael was trying to warn Philip off because he didn’t think she could protect herself

She was still his charity case

Breathing heavily, she picked up his note, crumpled it into a misshapen ball, and tossed it in the trash That hat she thought of his pity

If she wanted to get over a et over a man

She sat down and read over the last few lines of code on the progra screen Her brain was too distracted to concentrate She kept thinking about Michael Her body still yearned for his caresses and his dirty words More than that, she ether

He couldn’t really want her back, but it would be wonderful if he did When she noticed the hopeful direction of her thoughts, she scolded herself and told herself to focus on the data It didn’t work Making a frustrated sound, she fished his note out of the trash, smoothed it out, and stuffed it in one of her drawers