Page 20 of My Office Rival

“I don’t know, vegetables?”

“Ugh, Jason. You’re boring. Protein bars and vegetables. Live a little.” She rolled her eyes.

“Let me guess, you live off gin martinis and snacks.” I crossed my arms and her eyes flicked to them and back up.

“Don’t forget the free dinner we get at the firm,” she said tartly.

“So pizza, liquor, and snacks,” I summed up.

Frustration was apparent on her face, and I smothered a laugh. Needling her made my day. And it was certainly more comfortable than being reminded of how much I still wanted her.

“So,roomie.Are we making decisions together for the house? Is that what this is? I buy the milk, you buy the kale and protein bars?” She looked annoyed.

“If you want to,” I said evenly.

“You’re going to have to lighten up a little if this is going to work.” She raised a brow expectantly, like she thought I couldn’t lighten up. “And I don’t mean showering at nine a.m., instead of seven. I mean, I like to eat ice cream on the couch, drink too much wine, and change into my pajamas as soon as I get home. My cleaning style could best be described aslaissez-faire. In fact, I have no domestic skills.”

“Is that it?” I asked mildly. She tipped her chin up defiantly, and I crowded her back against the shelves. I couldn’t help it. The fire under my skin could only be assuaged by her presence. Her eyes went wide, and I drank in her shock. “You think you’re going to chaseme out of this house, don’t you?” I asked quietly. “You think you’ll be so wild that I’ll give up and run back to New York? You’d love that, wouldn’t you?” Her expression said that was exactly her plan. I placed a hand against the shelf next to her, the heat of her body licking against my skin. “You forgot just one thing.” The words were low, rough, for her ears alone. “I have the upper hand. Because I know you still want me. And I’m not afraid to use that against you.”

“I don’t want you.” Her tone was defiant.

Frustration rose. She was a nut I couldn’t crack. The one opposing counsel who’d ever given as good as I had. Heat burned low in my belly, a potent cocktail of competition and need. It made me stupid, drove me to do anything to win.

“Oh, you don’t?” I cocked my head. “So if I were to walk around shirtless, that would be fine?”

“Annoying, but it wouldn’t tempt me,” she said.

“We’ll see about that.”Game on.

12

CYNTHIA

Ilay on my back in the giant bed and texted Margo.

Cynthia

The Closer is my new roommate and it’s already horrible.

I waited for her to respond and stared out the window at the dusk falling over the fields. The birds were out in force again. The symphony they created was a welcome distraction from the silence of the country, or worse, listening to Jason move around the house. I was hiding from him and hoping not to run into him until morning.

I would stay in this room, tiptoe out to pee, and enjoy a nice glass of the Cabernet Sauvignon I had snagged from the kitchen when he was upstairs. The room was plenty large and comfortable. The walls were a dusty blue and there was a cozy armchair in the corner by the oak desk, along with this deliciously comfortable king-size bed.

Margo called me not three minutes after the message.

“He’s your roommate?!” she immediately screeched into the phone. I started laughing and held the phone away from my ear. “Tell me everything. Start at the beginning. Does he walk around naked?”

“Settle down, horndog,” I whispered, so Jason couldn’t hear me through the impossibly thin walls. “All the sex with Andrew is driving you to insanity.”

“It’s true.” She sighed.

“Ugh. You guys are adorable and it’s frankly disgusting.”

“So what’s the house like?”

“There are two bedrooms, thankfully. But the walls are incredibly thin. I can hear everything. Honestly, if he wasn’t so damn frustrating, this would be much more palatable.”

“And by palatable, you mean you would be having sex with him, right? Please. For the rest of us.” Her voice was eager, and I snorted a laugh.

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