He was in his forties now, but was a silver fox, complete and utter charmer. To cancel on him would be deeply offensive, but we couldn’t just reassign him to someone new because his people required extensive background checks and vetting. It felt like a sign from the gods that I should pull out of the contract with Alex Chase.

“I’ll take him,” Victoria said definitively. She looked back down at her computer as though the issue was closed.

“You’ll what?” Ophelia’s jaw was hanging open.

“He was mine before I retired. I can make this one exception. I’m already cleared, so we don’t even need to notify his people.”

She hadn’t made a single exception in the years she’d been retired despite the begging, bribing, demanding, and, in one case, attempted blackmailing of some of the most powerful men and women in the world. Why would she make an exception for this one? She certainly wasn’t doing it as a favor to me.

I studied her for a moment. If I didn’t know better, I would have said that underneath Victoria’s icy composure, she was flustered. How fascinating.

“You don’t need me to let them know there’ll be a change?” I asked carefully.

“No. That won’t be necessary.”

Ophelia and I exchanged a holy shit glance, but went back to what we were doing. There was a story there, but Victoria would never tell.

Someone knocked on the door, and I pitied them because Victoria had made it clear we weren’t to be disturbed. Someone was going to be cleaning implements for the foreseeable future.

Victoria barked, “Enter.” It was technically an invitation, but she made it sound like a death sentence.

It was my turn to pull my jaw off the floor when the door opened and Rami was standing on the other side. He seemed completely unfazed by Victoria’s wrath, but paused when he saw Ophelia.

She admittedly looked different from when he’d seen her last, eschewing her business attire for a black spandex catsuit and thigh-high red boots.

“My apologies for disturbing you, ladies.” He managed to pull his eyes from Ophelia. “My client was quite insistent that this be delivered to Lady Elena. He asked that I convey the gift with his apologies.” He hesitated again, seeming unsure whether to continue. “May I include my own apology? We appreciate your partnership and are looking forward to working as a team.”

He handed me a wrapped box and excused himself from the room.

The other two were staring as I unwrapped it carefully, half expecting a cobra to be inside. No, not a cobra. Something truly heinous like a glitter bomb. He was juvenile enough for it.

Within the larger box were two smaller ones wrapped separately. I opened the first and gasped. The certificate on top indicated that it was a first edition set of Pride and Prejudice.

“What the fuck?” I breathed, trying to imagine how much that would’ve cost.

I very gently opened the first volume, and gasped again, this time in abject horror. “He didn’t! He wrote on it,” I babbled. “The arrogant motherfucker wrote a note in a fucking first edition of Pride and Fucking Prejudice. I’m going to kill him.”