The request startles me but delights me too. He doesn’t coddle me, doesn’t want my intelligence to be invisible. To the contrary, he wants me to feed my brain, my soul, and enjoys that same journey with me.

“Did you know the word ‘coroner’ shares a Latin root with the word ‘crown?’ Because the coroner worked for the crown in most cases in Europe.”

“Fascinating.”

If anyone else told me that after sharing a useless trivia factoid, I’d assume they were being sarcastic or polite. Blake actually means it.

He is fascinated by me, and I’m fascinated by him.

“Tell me something too.”

Blake tilts his head and grins. “How about I tell you over pizza because I had a pretty interesting day myself?”

“Ooh, can’t wait to hear about the exciting happenings in the life insurance world,” I tease.

“Ha-ha,” Blake bites back. “I’ll have you know my informative day was spent at the dog park with Sebastian. And then . . .” He lowers his voice, looking over each shoulder even though we’re totally alone, not even a DB in here right now, “I followed him to Yvette’s. He called her his ‘Sugar Momma’.”

I freeze, sliding more and more puzzle pieces into place. They might not be pieces of paper, but they are parts of this mystery all the same.

And then Blake’s last words process.

“Sugar Momma?” I echo.

Blake’s eyes widen with unshed laughter, and I can feel mine do the same, and then we’re both laughing so hard I have tears streaming down my face.

“Those are his words! Along with cougar. And I had to play along with a straight face! You have no idea how hard that was!”

“Rawr,” I growl, putting up a clawed hand.

“Not that kind of cougar, Miss Walker,” Blake jokes with an awful game-show host wink that makes me laugh even harder. “Though I might put those nails to good use . . . after pizza. Let’s go.” My laughter dries up when he catches my hand to press a kiss to the back while giving me a dark look that promises dirty, sexy things that’ll make me forget all about the disappointment of today.

My laughter is the only thing dry, though.

The rest of me?

Hot and wet.

And I don’t mean the sheen of sweat on my forehead. Nope, lower than that, definitely way lower.

Chapter 20

Blake

“She did what?” I blurt, sitting up straight in my chair so fast that the leather creaks beneath me.

Frederick is on the other end of the line, sighing in exasperation. “Check your email. I just sent over the paperwork. I knew this claim would be a pain in my ass. Figured it’d come to this sooner or later. Though I didn’t expect it this soon.”