He folded into a seat in front of her desk, placed one foot over his knee, and bridged his fingers in front of his chest. “So, Miss De Rosa,” he said flirtatiously.

“Don’t speak,” she snapped.

“You like them silent. That’s fine with me.”

She glared at him, openly glared, like she thought he was a maggot.

“Look, that playboy charm might work on other women of lesser caliber than me,” she said confidently, “but it will not work on me. This is a strictly professional working relationship. Clear?”

“Sure,” he agreed easily.

“Good.” She was still fiery and looked pissed that he was here. “I hate that I even have to do this, but I was told that you were supposed to shadow me for the next couple of weeks.”

There it was.

“What?” he demanded. “Shadow you?”

She shrugged. “If you’re the best attorney in the city, you probably don’t need that, do you?” she asked, spitting his words back at him.

“Of course I don’t need that,” he growled low.

“Fabulous. I’ll let Mr. Cooper know that you’re set to take on your own cases without my help.” She jotted something down on a piece of paper and then looked back up at him. “Unfortunately, I do have to work with you for the rest of the day. I’d just prefer if we pretended like this was our first interaction.”

“Sure thing,” he said easily.

“And interact as infrequently as possible after today,” she added.

“So, you’ll forget that you flirted with me, and I’ll forget that I punched Small Dick in the face.”

Gigi sputtered. “What did you just say?”

“The lecherous boyfriend,” he reminded her.

She snapped her eyes closed and pressed her hand to her forehead. He thought she’d smiled for a second, but it was gone when she looked at him again.

“It’d be in your best interest not to mention that nickname for my boyfriend or my boyfriend’s name at all. Now, can we get to work?”

She was definitely way hotter when she was ordering him around. He liked that. Even though she acted like she hated him, at least this was an easy flirtation. He didn’t have to think about the consequences of his actions and worry about anything like he did with Andrea at home. Like why her silence frustrated him, why the thought of her with Bad Suit infuriated him, and why he couldn’t seem to stop thinking about her—

“Well?” Gigi said.

He pulled himself out of his thoughts and came back to the present. “Let’s get to work.”

A few hours later, Clay was tired and hungry. He’d had a nice break from his clerking duties. They were extremely taxing, mentally and physically, and it turned out that, even with the fat paycheck, this wasn’t going to be any different. In fact, he was going to have to work just as hard to prove that he was worth the paycheck they were giving him.

He was hunched over Gigi’s desk, working through a long legal document, when the door opened behind him. Gigi’s head popped up from where she was buried under a pile of books.

“Hey, Gi.”

“Marcus,” she said. Her voice had a hint of panic.

Ah. Small Dick.

She glanced down at the large-faced watch on her wrist. “Is it…is it lunch already?”

“Yeah. I was thinking we could try that Indian place again,” Marcus said.

Clay could feel him coming nearer to the desk. He looked up at Gigi, and she shook her head ever so slightly. So, the boyfriend didn’t know that he was here. That wouldn’t be a good thing for him to find out now, as it would end up blowing up in the middle of her office. Awesome.

“Is this your new intern, Gi?” Marcus asked.

“He’s, uh…”

“Not an intern,” Clay said.

He straightened from where he’d been hunched over and turned to face Marcus. He registered Clay’s face immediately, and he went from shock to anger in a split second.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” he cried. “Gigi, how the fuck did you think it would be okay to see him again?”

“He’s a new lawyer here, Marcus. I had no choice. Cooper left him with me,” she said in a rush.

“Likely fucking story. Had you been seeing each other before he broke my fucking nose?” Marcus demanded.

“No! We’d never met before that night. This is just a coincidence.” She came around the desk with her palms out, as if to calm him down.

“I don’t believe in coincidences.” His eyes shot between Gigi and Clay. “That’s it. I’ve had enough. I can’t do this anymore.”

“What?” she cried.

“I’m breaking up with you. I should have done it two years ago when you slept with that stranger, but I didn’t.”

“Marcus, that was forever ago, and we weren’t even officially dating yet. Plus, you’ve slept with someone else since then!” she snapped.

Suddenly, it was like Clay was intruding on two years of pent-up anger. He leaned back against the desk, crossed his arms, and wished he had popcorn for the show.

“Don’t bring that shit up like you know what you’re talking about, Gi,” Marcus said.

“I know exactly what I’m talking about, and I’m tired of it. You can’t come in here and yell at me for having someone in my office when I had no control over the situation, and then go around, accusing me of doing something you have been doing for most of our relationship!”

“Fine, I’m done.” Marcus turned on his heel and strode out of the room.

Gigi glared at Clay. “Look what you fucking did.”

Then, she ran out of the room after the guy, leaving Clay all alone in her office, still starving.

He grumbled and then sank back into a chair. He figured it’d be better to wait for her. And it was.

She came back about ten minutes later. No tears marred her cheeks. She just looked sad and frustrated.

“So…that didn’t go so well?”

She didn’t even glance at him. “No.”

“Long time coming?”

She shrugged. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Cool. How about a double shot of Grey Goose at lunch?”

Her eyes finally found him. “You’re an ass.”