Annika padded back into her apartment in her socked feet, turning out the lights she always left blazing, a facsimile of warmth. After she got ready for bed, she snuggled under her covers and closed her eyes. Tomorrow was a new day. Tomorrow, she’d—

Her eyes flew open. A Hudson memory popped into her head without her permission—his warm hands encircling her waist, his fingers pressing into her bare back.

She turned the other way, pushing him out of her head. She must be way more tired than she’d realized if she was thinking of Hudson Craft in bed.

Think about … a nice, peaceful stream. Trees waving in a gentle breeze.

The way he’d whispered her name in her ear, sending goose bumps rushing down her arms. How he’d nipped at her earlobe, her neck, her shoulder … how he’d pushed her against the wall and pinned her arms above her head …

Her forehead was damp with sweat now, and her mouth had gone dry. She squirmed in her bed, her clothes suddenly too constricting, too abrasive. She wanted to feel the warm air on her bare skin, to feel his hands on her again—

Stop it.

Annika lay there, panting in the dark. Her hand slipped to the waistband of her shorts.

Fuck. This was a problem.

The next day, Annika arrived at work at seven in the morning to prepare for Colin’s arrival. The building was still quiet and almost completely empty; the security guard barely glanced up from his cup of coffee as Annika zipped her card through the turnstile reader. Once she let herself into the office, she kicked off her pumps and paced the carpeted floor in bare feet, watching the tops of the buildings turn pink as the sun seeped into the sky.

Tracing her fingers along the MAKE UP: HAPPILY EVER AFTER, REDUX sign, the metal cool against her skin, she smiled and walked to her desk to review the questions she needed to ask Colin.

June came in at eight, right after Annika finished her morning meditation. “I see we’re going for yin and yang again today,” Annika said, gesturing to June’s metallic, zebra-print dress and hot pink pumps.

“I like the all-black look,” June replied, putting her purse in the closet and running her eyes over Annika’s silky shirt and pants. “Especially with that turquoise statement necklace.”

Annika smoothed her hands over her thighs. “Thanks, Junebug.”

“So, I was thinking that after the appointment I could review the last learning layer we added to OLLI. The aggression detection algorithm is still a little off.”

Annika perched on the edge of her desk, phone in hand. “You know, I was doing some reading and I think the problem might actually be in a higher-order layer. I have some ideas about that. I’ll post them on the bug tracker today.”