Page 32 of Hate Notes

"It's been on your desk since nine this morning," I said sweetly. "Maybe if you spent less time watching me, you'd have noticed it."

His nostrils flared.Definitely getting to him.

"Anything else?" I asked, unable to resist pushing just a little further. "Or did you just come by to loom over me menacingly? Because I have to say, the whole tall-dark-and-brooding thing? It's a little..." I gestured vaguely with my hand.

"A little what?" he asked, voice dangerously low.

"Distracting," I finished with a small smile.

For a moment, neither of us moved. The air between us felt thick with possibility—the kind of tension that made me want to grab his perfectly straight tie and pull him down to my level.

Then someone dropped a stack of papers nearby, and the spell broke.

Orion straightened, his professional mask sliding back into place. "Five o'clock," he said. "My office."

"The proposal's already there," I reminded him.

"I know." His eyes locked with mine one last time before he turned and walked away, leaving me to wonder exactly what kind of game we were playing—and who was actually winning.

I waited until he was safely back in his office before pulling out the rest of my sandwich. Through the glass walls of his office, I could see him sitting at his desk, definitely not looking in my direction.

I took a big, deliberate bite and watched as his hand tightened almost imperceptibly around his pen.

Why was pushing his buttonssofun?

I chewed my sandwich as I wondered to myself if Orion was the only one getting too distracted in this arrangement. As much asI loved this new job and wanted to fit in, I had to admit I was far more preoccupied with teasing Orion than I should’ve been.

It wasn’t as if I wasfallingfor Orion like Kora continued to insist. I was just… having fun interacting with him. Taking things beyond “fun” would turn my revenge scheme into something a lot more complicated than I bargained for.

So all I had to do wasnotfall for Orion Foster.

15

EMBER

"You haven't given Cole any dirt yet?" Kora asked, her eyes wide with disbelief as she lounged on my ratty couch. "None at all? Hasn’t it been like a month since you started at Foster Real Estate?"

I paused my aggressive assault on a bag of low-calorie popcorn the size of a body pillow to shoot her a guilty look. " Five weeks. And I've been busy actually working. And I mean really working. Did I tell you about Eleanor Golding? She was this super tough client nobody could crack, but then I noticed she had this one ceramic duck on her desk during a video call. Turns out she collects them. So I sent her one, and now she calls me just to chat about her collection."

"That's... great?" Kora said slowly. "But what does that have to do with getting revenge on Cole?"

"Nothing. I just... I don't know. I kind of love this job? I think Orion put me in client relations because he wanted me to fail spectacularly, but it turns out I'm good at it. Like, really good. I'm doing something that matters for the first time in my life. I'mnot just plugging numbers into a spreadsheet or proofreading meeting notes. And Moira—my terrifying vampire boss—actually smiled at me yesterday. Well, her lip twitched. But for her, that's basically a hug and an invitation to be bridesmaids at each other's weddings."

Catman chose that moment to materialize from whatever dimension he spent his time in, hopping onto the coffee table to give me his signature one-eyed stare of judgment.

"Don't look at me like that," I told him. "You're still my favorite undead creature." I scratched his wrinkly cheeks. "I know what I'm doing," I added, though I wasn't sure if I was trying to convince Catman, Kora, or myself.

"Do you, though?" Kora asked, reaching for the popcorn satchel. I surrendered it reluctantly. "Because Cole texted me today asking if you were okay. Apparently, you've been dodging his calls."

I flopped back against the couch cushions. "Ugh. I know. But every time I see his name on my phone, I just..." I made a gagging sound. "There’s so much going on every day. I've even been bonding with Orion's sister, Remmy, too. She invited me to dinner tomorrow night, and she's going to teach me to paint!"

"Uh-huh," Kora said. "And how's working with the devil himself? Still making him crazy?"

"Orion? Oh, he's... fine. I mean, he's still ridiculously uptight. Last week, he got out a ruler to check my skirt for dress code like I was back at boarding school or something.”

Kora smirked. “You went to boarding school? How am I just learning this?”

“Yeah, well… Some might say I’m a handful, and my parents had enough after middle school. So, yeah. I spent my high school years at Primington’s Academy for Troubled Youth in upstate New York.”

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