Free Working Stiff: Casimir (Runaway Billionaires #1) by Blair Babylon

possibilities.
    He might pull her toward him.
    The cats would tumble off her lap and end up in a cat fight.
    He might brush his lips across her knuckles, starting with her hand, then her wrist.
    She might shove the cats off and jump on him, finally tasting his golden skin and lush mouth.
    Her lips felt too big, and her bra was too tight where she was struggling to breathe.
    Good God, this was why women fell into bed with him. She didn’t believe in fairies or spirits or such, but Cash Amsberg had some kind of hot sex magic and had sent it thrumming through her body.
    His thumb skimmed across her knuckles, a caress that zinged through her chest.
    Damn it. She shouldn’t have stayed with him, in his house. He would break her heart, and then he would run away.
    But she didn’t let go of his hand.
    Cash said, “He should tell you that you’re beautiful.”
    “It’s just a thing. I don’t care.” Her voice was too high like she was just about to have a panic attack. She shouldn’t have come to his house. She should have slept in her car just one more night. She had to let go of his hand, but she couldn’t. Every second holding his fingers wound her up more.
    He turned his wrist a little. That colorful tattoo on the underside of his forearm flashed into view: three abutting shields, a white lion that looked like it was on fire on the orange shield, and two other shields with three crowns and a red and white harlequin pattern.
    Cash said, “But you know you are beautiful, right?”
    Rox glanced down at her wedding set on her other hand, her suit of diamond armor. The cheap gold and fake stones glowed against Midnight’s black fur. “Where are you going with this?”
    Cash leaned his head on the back of the couch. His hand receded, and he stared at the ceiling. “Nowhere. Can’t a friend state to a friend the obvious fact that she is blindingly beautiful?”
    Rox retracted her hand and crossed her legs away from him, still trying to breathe normally. “Now I know that you are messing with me. That was over the top, Cash.”
    He smiled a little. “It’s not. It’s a good thing you’re married, or I would have made a play for you a long time ago.”
    He shouldn’t say things like this to her, to his business associate and a supposedly married woman. “And then you would have lost the best damn paralegal in the office when you ghosted on me.”
    He raised an eyebrow, still staring up. “Ghosted?”
    “When you blow someone off by not returning their emails or texts, like turning into a ghost.”
    “How metaphorical.”
    “You know that you do it to all the women you date.” She was pushing at him, she knew. She was pushing him away so that these vibrations would leave her. She needed to have no chance with him.
    He shrugged. “They don’t care. I’m nothing to them.”
    “It’s like you think they don’t really like you or something.”
    He shrugged.
    Rox looked over at him, watching the nonchalance in his shoulders and body. “At least some of them do. There are too many broken hearts lying around the office for all of them to be pulling the drama llama.”
    “So why do you have three ugly cats?” he asked.
    Ah, so he was redirecting the witness. Typical arrogant lawyer move. Yet, she had to defend her cats. “They’re not ugly!”
    “Sure they are. It’s what’s inside that counts, right? So why did you adopt three such abominable creatures?”
    “Well,” she looked at her hands, still fidgeting with the rings, “because they were at the shelter for a long time.”
    “And why was that?” His sideways glance was sly.
    “Because no one adopted them.”
    “Any why did no one adopt them?” he pressed.
    “Fine,” she said.“Because they’re hideous. But they’re the best cats, and I love them.”
    Cash closed his eyes but kept scratching Pirate along his shoulders. Pirate was a limp heap of drooling love. “Because no one else would look beyond their ugliness. You’re a special