Page 9 of Blindside Sinner

“Tonya,” the woman beside me sighs, face still buried in the pillows. “If you need me to go…”

I wave her off. “Stay right where you are, babe. Round Two is on in about five minutes.”

Tonya twists her head and grins like human Viagra. “You already gave me Round Two last night. Three and Four as well, actually.”

I can’t help but grin back. “Math was never my strong suit. Sex, on the other hand…”

“Ew.”

I turn back to the firecracker, who just made a retching noise like a cat throwing up a hairball. “Don’t like it? Leave. I didn’t ask you to stand here and watch, so if you’re a prude, you’re definitely in the wrong place.”

The little hellcat cocks her hip to the side and glares at me. “I’m in the right place, and I don’t give a shit what you do with your body or your dick. I only care about doing my job. Now, are you planning to get up any time soon or do I need to stand here and critique your performance?”

“By all means.” She’s not the only one with an attitude. “If you want to watch, pull up a chair, sweetness. It’s about to get sticky.”

I watch for the blush but it never comes. Instead, she blinks and scowls. “Mr. Daniels?—”

“Beckett,” I correct with a shudder.

Just hearing “Mr. Daniels” makes something dark slither through me. I’m not a good man, but my father? He makes me look like an altar boy. He’s definitely not someone she’d want to know. Hell,Idon’t even want to know him, and fifty percent of my DNA is his.

“Fine. I understand this is a shock, Beckett, but I’m just here to do a job. With all due respect, you aren’t anything to me but a project.”

“Right. Well, I hate to do this—”That’s a lie.“—but you’re fired. See yourself out.”

Her grin is positively feral. I let myself fantasize for a moment about what else those lips can do before I shut it down.

“You can’t fire me.”

I shrug. “Pretty sure I just did.”

“Pretty sure you didn’t, since I don’t work for you.”

“Does anyone care to explain what’s happening?” Tonya yawns, climbing out of bed and searching the floor for her clothes. I have a vague memory of throwing her panties on the kitchen counter. I grimace at the thought of Karla finding them. She’s a mean cook, but she’s just plain mean when it comes to the germ-free sanctity of her space.

I may own the house, but if she says the kitchen is hers, it is. Fucking with the person who makes my food is a level of stupid I’ll never reach.

Note to self: buy Karla a new kitchen gadget and sanitize the countertops ASAP.

Mystery Woman smiles at Tonya. It’s kinder than she’s looked at me so far, although still withering enough to melt steel.

It pisses me off that she’s my new P.A.—allegedly—but she’s being nicer to my one-night stand than she is to her boss. Shouldn’t she be bending over backwards for me? Maybe even literally…?

“It means that I was hired by someone else to take care of the world’s biggest man baby,” she explains.

Hired by someone else?There’s a sinking feeling in my stomach as I ask the question I definitely don’t want the answer to. “Who hired you?”

Sure enough, she gives me the exact reply I was dreading. “Vivian St. James.”

Ah, fuck me sideways. If Vivian hired her, then I’ve got bigger problems than a new assistant. “Is that so?”

The maelstrom of feelings rushing through my chest gets stronger as the implications of Viv’s interference sink in. Underneath it all, my hangover keeps thumping along merrily.

Phone in hand, I stand from the bed and prowl toward my new assistant. In the half-gloom, I don’t think she quite realized that I was naked. But as the sun peeks through the sliver in the curtains, she realizes—and boy, does sherealize.

Her eyes bulge as she takes in every naked inch of me. To her credit, she keeps her gaze focused above my chin as I step into her space until we’re nearly chest to chest.

Both of us ignore the fact that my morning wood is trapped between us. Both of us choose not to say anything about it, atleast. I’m sure as hell aware of it, though, and the deepening flush on Hellcat’s cheeks suggests she’s aware of it, too.

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