Page 121 of By His Rule

“That won’t work.”

She freezes, her fingers hovering over the keyboard.

“Then I’ll learn that myself when I test it and find a way to fix it.”

“Or you could let me tell you the correct way.”

“I prefer to learn for myself. I don’t need anything to be spoon-fed to me,” she snaps.

“Fair enough.”

Unwilling to pull my cell out and continue trawling through my emails, I watch her experiment with different formulae.

The desire to blurt out the answer she’s looking for is strong, but this time, I refrain. I think I’ve probably already put enough on her this morning.

She’s still got her head in her laptop when we pull up at our destination.

“As much as I appreciate your work ethic, we have other places to be right now.”

She barely looks up as I climb from the car, and it’s not until she joins me on the sidewalk that reality hits her.

“We’re on Oak Street,” she says, her eyes wide as she looks up and down the rows of designer shops.

“Uh…yeah. Where did you think we were going?”

She swallows thickly before taking a step back toward the car.

“I-I don’t belong here.”

I study her as she tries to retreat to the car.

Those pink cheeks and the fire in her from earlier have gone. In their place is nothing but trepidation.

“What are you talking about? Of course you do.”

Glancing at my watch, I find that we have five minutes until her appointment.

Reaching out, I take her hand in mine. “Come on, they’re expecting you.”

I hold her with enough force that she can’t slip free, giving her little choice but to follow me.

We pass several boutiques before we get to the one Melissa suggested—not that she was really aware of what I was looking for, of course. I knew asking Tate for advice wouldn’t work. She’d go straight to Lorelei and tell her what I was doing. Honestly, I wasn’t sure that Melissa wouldn’t do the exact same thing, but she was my only other option.

I certainly couldn’t call up Sasha and ask her advice.

A shudder rips down my spine at the thought alone.

“Here we go,” I say, coming to a stop beside a fully glass-fronted store.

The security guard inside sees us coming and opens the door to invite us in.

Aside from two members of staff, we’re the only ones here.

Perfect.

“Good morning, Mr. Callahan,” one of them gushes as she strides over with a smile on her face. “Lorelei,” she says, turning to the woman currently hiding behind me. Her hand trembles slightly in mine.

It’s bizarre. She is so strong in so many ways, and yet, at the flip of a coin, everything can change.

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