Free One Night for Love by Maggie Marr

greeted her.
    “And?”
    “And sleeping with him a second time did not diminish the attraction. Okay? It made the entire thing worse. I mean, I want him in this weird all-consuming way.”
    “It doesn’t help that you haven’t dated anyone in eighteen months.”
    “My point exactly. I don’t do relationships. This overwhelming attraction to Tristan is chemical because of my very long dry spell.” She smiled at Dori, the brunette who took Prim’s or Prim’s assistant, Alyssa’s, coffee order nearly every day.
    “So the solution is three months of constant sex?”
    “Not constant,” Prim said. She mouthed “the usual” to Dori. “If we take away the restriction, the taboo of it all, then that will reduce some of the heat.” Prim ducked her head and lowered her voice. “The pheromones will play out and the passion will be spent. Plus, after eleven weeks with Tristan Rhodes? Surely I’ll annoy the hell out of him and he’ll annoy the hell out of me and we can go our separate ways.”
    “Uh-huh,” Meg said. “Seems logical.”
    “Completely sound.”
    “Businesslike.”
    “Right.” Prim handed Dori a ten and took the change.
    “Makes sense.”
    “Definitely.” Prim walked toward the end of the counter and waited for the coffee.
    “It will never work.”
    Prim stopped. “What?”
    “I’m telling you it won’t work.”
    “Meg!” Prim said. “Stop it. You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
    “Okay,” Meg said.
    “Seriously, this is simply an attraction based on a long dry spell and chemicals and taboos and pheromones and two high-functioning individuals who want what they can’t have.”
    “Right,” Meg said.
    “This is the perfect solution. I stop being obsessed with Tristan and instead I spend my time proving to him that he must keep Metro Media a whole company.”
    “All while sleeping in his bed?”
    Prim’s stomach sickened. When Meg said it like that, Prim didn’t like the sound of the agreement she’d made.
    “The agreement is meant to be finite, discreet, and private.”
    “Sounds like a great deal for him.”
    “He offered to release me from my contract and pay out my full bonus.”
    “And you said no?”
    Prim took the coffee cup and slid a sleeve around it. “I can’t protect Metro if I’m not there. I’m not going to abandon everyone I’ve worked with, everyone who has depended on me, simply because I can’t keep my own sexual urges in check.” Prim sipped her coffee. “There was a problem. I found a solution.”
    “Fuck-buddies is a solution?”
    Prim cringed. “No. We made an agreement like adults, and we’ll behave appropriately at work.”
    “Mmm-hmm,” Meg said. “I know all about appropriate behavior at work, or have you forgotten where I fell in love with my husband?”
    “That took three years.”
    “No,” Meg said. “The attraction was immediate; it took three years for me to get out of my own way.”
    “I’m not in love, nor do I intend to be.”
    “Intentions don’t always make it where love is concerned,” Meg said. “But okay, if you think you two can make this agreement work.”
    Prim threw her hand up in the air. “I hate it when you’re like this.”
    “I’m agreeing with you.”
    “No,” Prim said. “You’re doing that patronizing agreeing-with-me thing. You use it on Cole, you use it on me, I’m certain you use it on your staff. It’s that thing where you believe that you’re right but you won’t argue with the person you’re disagreeing with, you simply wait until they figure out that you were right all along.”
    “Aren’t I always right?”
    Prim sighed. “As far as I’ve ever known.”
    “Where are you?”
    “The Coffee Bean in the lobby of your building.”
    “I’ll be right down,” Meg said. “You have a situation that we need to discuss.”
     
    *
     
    “Mr. Rhodes, Miss Baxter has returned.” Philippe stood just inside Tristan’s office door.
    Tristan looked away from one of the four