Black Thorns (Thorns Duet #2) by Rina Kent

“Not intentionally, you aren’t.”

“Fine. I’ll smile more and be good to them.”

“Not at all of them. I don’t need starstruck trainees walking around here, giving you heart eyes and not getting things done.”

“I can never win with you.”

“At least you recognize that.” She motions down the hall. “Go and see what he wants. Seemed urgent.”

“First thing in the morning?”

She lifts a shoulder and answers the phone, “Weaver & Shaw, Sebastian Weaver’s office…”

I wave at her with two fingers, drop my briefcase in my office, then head down the hall to Nate’s lair, as Dan likes to call it.

If this is another one of his boring strategic meetings, I’m out. Uncle is the only person I consider family anymore, but he’s too strict and stoic for his own good.

Though everyone else would argue I’m no different.

No one would’ve accused me of that seven years ago, but at some point, I got tired of pretending and stopped putting on a façade unless it’s absolutely necessary.

So I dropped one of my masks—or a few.

I knock on Nate’s office door, ready to tell him that I have work to do and cases to review.

But most of all, I have some plotting to take care of.

It’s been two days since the charity event where Naomi waltzed back into my life, following her husband around.

I expected said fucking husband to get in touch, but he hasn’t. He hasn’t even called Daniel or Knox. I know because I’ve been pestering them like a needy cat lady, as Dan called me, and nearly confiscated their phones.

If Akira isn’t going to make the first move, I’ll have no choice but to do it myself. But I can’t look desperate or he’ll be suspicious of my reasons.

“Come in,” Uncle’s voice floats from the inside.

I step inside, making a show of my exasperated sigh.

Nate’s office is the biggest in the firm and he’s even having construction done on the upper floors. Weaver & Shaw is expanding, and the numbers over the years indicate increasing profits.

It’s all thanks to Nate. Not his senator father or his influential mother. Just him.

And part of it is because he doesn’t let just anyone join. In the law circuit, his interviewing process for associates is infamous as being absolutely ruthless and scrutinizing. He’s the type who knows your deepest, darkest secrets before even you do.

In a way, my uncle inherited the Weaver quality of only wanting the best.

Nate sits behind his glass desk in an erect position. He’s older now, close to hitting forty, and could be mistaken for a fucking vampire due to how little he’s aged.

“What is it?” I ask, stepping into the office.

I pause when my eyes land on the woman across from him.

The same woman I pictured underneath me with my hand around her throat as I jacked off against the shower wall last night.

The same woman I had a dream about and woke up with my hand around my hard dick.

She looks different than she did at the party, less put together but more guarded.

Her black hair is loose, falling to her shoulders. It’s longer than it was when we were in college, making her look more like her mom. She’s wearing a smart blue suit and black high heels, and the combination of the three give her a mature edge.

Her lips are painted a bright red and the urge to smear it across her fucking face with my fingers, then with my dick is all I can think about.

Maybe I should make all of her skin red.

Her expression is closed off, strained, even, like some of the businessmen who have a take-no-nonsense personality.

For some reason, this is closer to how I imagined she would evolve. A beautiful woman with a no-bullshit attitude. Not a fucking side piece on an influential man’s arm.

I hide my surprise. Seeing her in Nate’s office is the last thing I expected.

Yes, I’d planned to meet with her again, but on my terms and definitely not where I work.

“What is this?” I say in the cold, professional tone everyone but Candice is used to from me.

“Sit, Sebastian.” Nate motions at the seat across from her. “Naomi came here with a request.”

I unbutton my jacket and lower myself into the chair. The small coffee table is the only thing separating us, and another urge grips me.

This time, I want to grab her by the nape and jam her against the table, maybe punish her. Maybe toy with her.

Maybe hurt her.

At any rate, I’d fucking have her.

“He’s here. You can talk,” Nate speaks in his unaffected tone, ignoring the fact that a ghost from our past just jumped back into our lives.

He didn’t even see her that night at the charity event since she left before he made his brief appearance.

Though I’m sure the two fuckers, Daniel and Knox, tattled after all the jokes they made at my expense.

Naomi lifts the cup of coffee that’s on the table and takes a sip, slowly savoring it before her eyes meet mine.

I keep the contact, even when she slides her attention to Nate. “My husband will make an offer to Sebastian to become his acting attorney for the new branch he’s opening in New York and I’d like for you to deny that offer.”

Well, well.

Akira does want us to work together, after all, and Naomi hates the idea.