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of taking my mind off my cock, where it had no business being in the first place.
    “Just until morning. I need to stay until then, see how things are developing out there while I lie low,” I said.
    Why was I giving her answers? Why was she asking?
    “What are you asking? You don’t trust me?”
    Her eyes widened, and then she lowered them. I could see her as she struggled to consider her answer. It was smart, her attempting to be wise, but it made me more than a little uncomfortable. Not that she was out of line to be worried, but for some reason, her opinion of me mattered, though there was no way it could be good.
    “Believe it or not, this is not a situation I wanted to put either of us in,” I said.
    “You could end it,” she replied.
    She seemed to come back to herself and quickly snapped her mouth closed, her full lips thinning as she pressed them tight together.
    “And I will. As soon as I can,” I said.
    “So how did you end up in this? Wait, don’t answer that,” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t want to know. I’m just going to keep my mouth closed and sit here. I’ll stay out of your hair. You don’t have to worry about me.”
    “Milan, I’m not worried. You’ve been doing wonderfully so far. Just do as you have been, and you’ll be okay. And you can do that,” I said.
    “I can do that,” she said.
    Then we again settled and I watched.
    Patience had been drilled into me from my earliest day, so I had no trouble waiting, letting the seconds go by as I considered my plan of action.
    While I stared at Milan.
    I did my best to shield my staring from her, and if she noticed, or was bothered by me looking at her, she didn’t give it away. Even as she sank lower into her chair, her posture relaxing, her face eventually softening in sleep, I still watched.
    I couldn’t quite name the feeling that rushed through me, the thoughts when I looked at her, but I felt them, thought them.
    Not that I had any basis to think anything, feel anything, and I knew that in any other situation I probably would not have given Milan a second thought.
    But I was now, and I couldn’t, in fact, tear my eyes away from her. I felt oddly protective of her, and I also desired her. I wanted the sun to delay its arrival, giving me more time to watch her as she slept peacefully, her face so sweet and innocent in repose.
    I’d never felt this way about anyone, never wanted to protect anyone, but I did her.
    Now wasn’t the time to try to puzzle out why. Probably never would be.
    Once I handled this crisis, I’d slip back into my role, shepherding things along until the next crisis sprung up.
    There’d be no opportunity for lustful gazes at a regular woman.
    When was the last time I had seen someone like Milan? Talked to someone like her?
    I racked my brain as I watched her sleep, trying to come up with an answer.
    It occurred to me I probably never had. My entire life, as long as I could remember, had been in service of the business. The school I had gone to had been more of a training ground, the people I had dealt with before and now all somehow connected.
    But she wasn’t. Not in the least.
    And a part of me craved her for it.
    I tried to fight those thoughts and then decided to stop.
    Nothing would come of it, so I allowed myself to enjoy the view, feel whatever craziness I was feeling, and when the sun came up, I would be gone.
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    M ilan
    A hand on my shoulder, warm, gentle, pulled me from sleep. I started to stretch, blinked, and then blinked again, the early morning sun coming through the curtains. And then I looked up and my eyes clashed with brown ones.
    I smiled, blinked.
    Such beautiful eyes. Eyes I could lose myself in. I started to do just that before something pulled me up short.
    Those eyes, that face.
    It was him.
    From last night.
    A warmth filled me as I remembered him next to me in my car, but it faded some—not nearly as much as it should have, though—when I remembered everything else