Free Cunning (Infidelity #2) by Aleatha Romig

as he retrieved his finger.
    “You’re not?”
    “No. I think it’s fantastic that you’ve been accepted to Columbia Law. I just want to know how someone as intelligent as you obviously are, is stupid enough to work for Infidelity.”
    I clenched my teeth to halt my reply. Our gazes locked. Nox was only inches away—our noses nearly touched as he awaited my response.
    The muscles in his neck strained. “Answer me.”
    I was probably poking the proverbial beehive, but I couldn’t stop myself. “You’re a hypocrite. You’re awfully high and mighty for a client .”
    “What?” he asked, pulling up as if to see me more clearly.
    “You act like Infidelity is bad.”
    “It is.”
    “Then why are you one of its clients?”
    Nox shook his head and ran a hand over his stubble. “What I do is none of your business. What you do is mine.”
    “That’s not fair.”
    “Sorry, princess. Life’s not fair.”
    Reaching under my shoulders, Nox lay back and rolled us both until I was lying on top of him, skin to skin, nothing separating us. Unexpectedly, he swatted my behind.
    “Ouch!” I squealed, though the sting was more of shock than pain.
    Nox raised his brow. “I told you, I don’t repeat myself. I’ll spank you harder if you don’t answer my damn questions the first time.”
    Not wanting to look into his pale eyes as I told him my story, I lowered my cheek to his chest and began, “I graduated from Stanford last spring. I’d always wanted to be an attorney. I wanted to do something good. When I was young, I believed in fairytales—until I didn’t.
    “Even when I knew they weren’t real and couldn’t happen to me, I still liked them. In them, the good people always won. Even though I learned that wasn’t true in real life, I wanted to make it true.
    “That’s why I want to practice law. I want to help defenseless people—people who can’t help themselves…” Something I couldn’t accomplish when I was the one who was defenseless. “…and I want to stop the bad people. I imagined that one day my career would be my own fairytale.”
    When Nox didn’t respond, I took a deep breath and continued, “I worked hard at Stanford.” Remembering our last conversation, I added, “I was honest when I told you I didn’t sleep around. I mostly studied. Chelsea gave me a hard time, but I think my dedication helped her, too.”
    “Your sister?” His chest vibrated with his words.
    I looked back to his eyes and braced myself for another swat to my ass. “No.”
    The spank didn’t come, although a question did. “No?”
    I shook my head. “No. Chelsea is my best friend. We call each other sister, but it’s not biological. We met our freshman year at Stanford.”
    “Interesting,” Nox said. “We’ll talk more about that another time. Now back to Columbia and Infidelity.”
    I settled against his chest again and sighed. “I graduated with honors and was accepted to two of the top law schools in the country, Columbia and Yale. When I was young, my grandparents created a trust fund for me. It was supposed to pay for my education. I thought it would last through law school, beyond even.”
    “But it didn’t? What happened?”
    I wasn’t ready to get that personal, not yet. I shrugged. “Bad investments, I don’t know the details. I was just informed that my first semester was paid, but that was all. No living expenses, nothing.”
    “All right, that would be shocking, but surely you had other options. Student loans?”
    I fought the onslaught of emotion that this subject evoked. Everything was still too raw; my mother’s actions still hurt. I couldn’t deal with that and Nox’s accusing tone. He had no way of knowing that I’d only learned of the loss less than a week ago or that the money wasn’t really gone, only being held hostage by my family. “I-I…” I took a ragged breath as I desperately tried to suppress the tears I’d allowed to flow after his punishment yesterday.