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“Exactly If she’s anything like me—”

“A lot like you”

“Then she resents that you got to her,” Evan’s wife says as if that explains everything while she reaches for the powdered creamer

“I’m still lost”

Nia huffs “Do you getto you?”

“No” And finally I grasp what this brilliant wo me “I doubt she does, either That would explain why she’d been crying”

“Crying, too? Oh, then you’re in a heap of shit How did you not figure that out?”

“I thought she was angry that I played her Or panicked that I ht have ruined her opportunity to win her dad’s affection Or…” But as I’, I realize that, while Sloan cares about that stuff, she’s never had her father’s affection She’s too praght never

That means she cried about me Because I bruised her heart Because she doesn’t show her vulnerable side easily, and I conned her into doing just that

That thought disturbs and thrills me at once I hate that I hurt her, but I love that she cares enough to let me past her defenses Or at least she did

But now that I really think about it, I know she cares Otherwise, she would never have kissed asm Yeah, maybe she did that to torment me because she had to knoas hard as hell for her But it’s likely she did that because, deep down, she wanted me, too

Hot damn I can ith that

The rest of the day is a blur of statistics, analysis, and reports Evan calls to say he’s secured awith Michael Astor directly after Sloan’s, and we all breathe a sigh of relief—before we start creating a follow-up presentation for hiht, which is eleven a day in London He reads it over quickly and requests a few changes Poor Nia cli a bout with nausea and most of her dinner

At nearly two am, I send Evan the final draft, then head back to my condo

After a quick shower, I crawl into bed, exhausted But sleep won’t come