"Actually, I have a couple of questions. One. How long have we been friends?"

"A few years. Why?"

"Two, then why on earth have we never done a partnership before? Because this is an awesome idea."

She clapped, and smiled so broadly, he swore he'd never seen her that happy before. He always wanted to see her this happy.

"You really like it?"

He nodded several times. "I really do love it. I think it needs to be done well, like everything. We run a luxury hotel; you run a high-end premium sex toy company. There are natural alignments. The key is pulling it off in a way that is classy and sexy. But that's exactly what Joy Delivered is known for. You are the classy and sexy toy company."

"It can be great for both of us," she said, beaming.

"I have to agree. However," he said, taking his time on that last word. However. It was the kind of word that was known for derailing business ideas. It was the kind of word that set off alarms in the person you were negotiating with. He had chosen it purposefully. He wanted to throw her off, or perhaps just to surprise her. "I would personally feel better if I were able to vouch for this product. We're going to need to use it."

The look in her eyes was priceless. They blazed with sexuality and desire. He was willing to bet she was turned on something fierce. "Do you have one packed and ready to take to London on our flight tonight?"

She shook her head. "But can we swing by my office? I'll grab one there," she said, the most eager tone to her voice. He loved her willingness to go the extra mile for pleasure, and for business.

"Absolutely. By the way, how would you feel about babysitting again, because you seem to come up with really amazing sex ideas when you're surrounded by my wet T-shirt and two small children."

As she laughed, he heard the sound of a key in the lock. Kat and Bryan were home and they took in the scene-Nate and Casey lounging on the couch, a carton of ice cream between them, two babies fast asleep on their chests.

"Looks like you two had a good night," Bryan said, and he was spot on. They'd had a fantastic night. They always did.

On the way out, Kat hugged Casey. "We had a great time just getting out of the house to see a movie. I can't even tell you how much it means to me that you helped out," Kat said, placing her hand on her heart. "Two little babies are a handful."

"It was truly a pleasure. They are sweet as sweet can be and they love their uncle big time," Casey said.

Nate stood by the town car idling at the curb. He leaned against the gleaming black door, scrolling through his phone as he waited for her. No rushing, no pressure. Her suitcase was already in the car; she'd remembered to bring it along since they were taking off in a few hours.

"One more thing," Kat said in a low voice as she grasped Casey's arm, wrapping her fingers around it. "I always hoped it would be you."

Casey furrowed her brow.

Kat cast her eyes toward Nate, then whispered, "It's not as if I failed to pick up on the sparks between the two of you, or missed the reason why he kicked us out of the game last week."

Casey blushed, and lowered her face.

"Hey, this isn't a bad thing," Kat said, gently squeezing her arm. Casey raised her eyes. "I always thought you'd be the one to break the spell."

She laughed as if Kat were crazy. "What spell?"

"I truly believe he's been in this dark spell after what happened with Joanna. And that eventually somehow the spell would be broken," Kat said. She was clearly even more of a romantic than Casey.

Casey shot her a smile, but shook her head. "I don't know that he's under a spell. I think he's made a deliberate choice."

Kat shrugged happily. "I believe what I believe. And I've always believed it would take a very special woman to break that spell for my brother. Someone he trusts with his whole heart. Who else would that be but you?"

"Oh, Kat. Even if I believed in fairy tales like that," she began, and the funny thing was Casey did believe in fairy tales, and in the kind of love they promised, but as she glanced at the beautiful man leaning against the car, she knew that it couldn't ever be with him. Because he'd made his choice to live on the other side of the dream. "He so clearly doesn't."

Kat pulled her in for another hug. "Spells are made to be broken."

But Casey wasn't so sure. The practitioner of this one had a particularly strong hold on Nate, had molded him, put him in the kiln, and baked him into this kind of stone-impermeable to love. There was no give in this area of Nate's makeup. No room for change.

Besides, whatever dark magic Joanna had wrought was more like a curse, and it showed no signs of being reversible. She had to remember that. She had to remember what Nate was good for. He was amazingly good at two things-being her friend and sending her into a most frenzied state. She hoped to achieve many of the latter in London, and that's why he had the car swing by her office, where she ran upstairs and grabbed her very own LolaRing, clutching it tightly to her chest as she raced back down, an electric thrill charging through her from the knowledge that she was finally going to have what The Happiest Ladies in the World were having.

Next, the car made its way to the west side, stopping by the Nate's apartment.

"Be right back," he said as the car pulled up to the curb.

"I need to pee. I'm coming with you."

When they stepped out of the car, they both froze, their eyes landing on a tall, gorgeous, completely captivating black-haired beauty with green eyes that were bewitching. She was dressed all in black-black tank top, black jeans, black lace-up boots, and a thin black scarf, even though it was June. Casey had never met her, and hadn't even seen a photo, but there was no doubt in her mind this woman was the Dark Queen.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

New York, late night . . .

His gut twisted. He hadn't seen her in years, and perhaps if he had actually returned her calls he wouldn't be seeing her tonight. But he didn't want to return her calls, or respond to her emails, so he hadn't done either. She couldn't possibly have anything to say that he would need or want to hear.

He started walking into his building, like a man on a mission. Maybe he could even ignore her and march straight up to his apartment, grab his suitcase, change his shirt, and act as if he'd never seen her. Hell, maybe she was simply an apparition.

But judging from the tension on Casey's face, the way her lips were parted and her jaw dropped, Joanna was very much real, in the flesh, and waiting for him.

"Nate!" Joanna took a step towards him. He took a step away. She took another step. He closed his eyes briefly, wishing her away, then opened them. She was still here.

"Yes?" He could've said why are you here, what are you doing, what do you want, but he didn't want to give her the courtesy of that many words.

"You haven't returned my calls or responded to my messages," she said, sounding oddly apologetic. "So I had no choice but to come here in person."

"Actually, you did have a choice. You had a choice not to find me. You always have a choice. You just chose different things. Let's not confuse the issue, Joanna," he said, biting out the words. Perhaps he had more to say to her than he'd thought.

She nodded, seeming to admit that he was right. "In any case, I'm here because I wanted to see if you still have the sculpture of your hands."

The world slowed. Her strange request echoed in his ears, and he was sure he was hearing things. This is what she wanted from him? A work of art?

"That's why you're here?"

"Yes. There's a museum in Chicago that's putting together an exhibition of all my work, and that seems to be the one missing piece. I hope it's not too much to ask, but I really think it could round up the exhibition quite nicely. And, truth be told, I was always rather proud of it."

He scoffed, his derisive huff carrying into the breeze of the warm June night, trailing over the noise of the cars and buses on Columbus Avenue. "Well, in that case, since you're proud of it, let me just go take it off my dining room table where it's the centerpiece," he said staring hard at her. "I like to enjoy it every night. Have dinner with it. Gaze at its beauty. I'm rather proud of it too. But since you want it, I will of course give it to you."

She pursed her lips, lifting her chin up high. He wondered how he'd ever been in love with her. As he looked at her now, he had no clue how he'd intended to share his life with this person who only cared about taking-taking what she wanted, when she wanted it, at any time. But that was his big problem-he hadn't seen it coming. He'd had no clue that he couldn't trust her. He might possibly be the worst judge of character when it came to love, and he damn well needed to stay far away from the foolish emotion.

"Touche," she said calmly, then gestured to Casey and extended a hand. "Hi, I'm Joanna Simone. You must be?"

His ex-wife stood there waiting for an answer from Casey, and that made his blood boil. But Casey was classy, always classy, and she took her hand, saying, "Casey. I'm Nate's friend."

Joanna turned her focus back to Nate, tapping her toe. "I'm really sorry to bother you, but might you have it?"

Nate winced. He honestly didn't know, but he was pretty sure he'd packed it up and stuffed it into the back of a closet somewhere. "I'm not sure," he muttered.

"I'm happy to pay you for it. I certainly don't expect you to simply hand it over."

"Thank you. Thank you so much. That's really amazingly generous of you to offer to pay me back for a wedding present, but I don't need your money, and you know what? I don't want those stupid hands," he said, spitting out the insult, hoping it stung. But the presence of Casey, mere inches from him, was the only thing that made him smooth out the next few words so they weren't filled with the vitriol inside him. He didn't want her to know that he still harbored this kind of anger towards his ex-wife. "But I'll check, and I'll get back to you."

"Thank you," Joanna said on a nod. "I'm ever grateful. If you have it, I would really like to get it by next week. If that's doable."

Casey stepped in. "We'll get back to you. Thank you for stopping by. We have a plane to catch," she said, then she wrapped her hand protectively around his arm, and the way she touched him made all his anger dissipate. It was like a pin deflating a balloon, and all he felt now was some kind of calm, some kind of peace.

They walked into his building quietly. Once they stepped into the elevator, he pressed the button for the top floor, leaned his head against the wall and closed his eyes. Her warm body pressed against his. It wasn't sexual, and it wasn't the start of something. It was simply comforting, and he needed it, so he wrapped his arms around her, resting his chin on her head.

"I'm sorry you had to see her," she whispered.

"Me too," he said. "But I'm glad you were here."

"Do you want me to look for that sculpture? So you don't have to? I can be the one to return it to her."

He pulled back momentarily. "You'd do that for me?"

"Of course. Unless you want to drop it from a window and smash it on the sidewalk. I'm completely fine with that too."

He grinned briefly. Only Casey could do this for him. Take him in all these directions. Take him through lust and passion, through business and babies, and then from rage to laughter in mere seconds. He didn't deserve her, but oh, how he wanted to give her what she needed from a man.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

Over the Atlantic . . .

Maybe Kat was right, because the spell Joanna had worked on Nate still seemed to be going strong. He was quiet most of the flight, chatting only briefly with her and with a few of his employees who were sharing the plane. He also slept across most of the Atlantic, and so did she. But they were both awake now and he was more subdued than usual, bordering on sullen. She certainly didn't expect him to be a barrel of monkeys, or to be flirtatious with her in front of everyone, but she knew that he wasn't himself, and that he hadn't quite yet emerged from his Joanna funk. He'd been nose-down in his laptop for the last hour as the sun rose across the Atlantic.

His frown was like a cut in her skin. It burned, and she wanted the cure. She wanted to seal off the pain, and feel good again. That was wholly selfish, she knew, but there it was. More so, her heart lurched towards him, and she desperately wanted to ease his mind, to be the one to take him away from this sadness his ex-wife had draped over him. She could be that person, right? She knew this man, and she knew him even better now that they'd been spending these nights together. She could be his Sherpa and guide him up and over this mountain of gloom.

There was one surefire way.

She took out her iPad and opened her email. A note popped up. Crap. Ethan at Victoria Hotels had emailed her the other week and she'd meant to respond, but then was sidetracked, so she'd flagged the note as important. With it blaring in her face now, she skimmed the contents: Idea for partnership . . . would love to discuss . . . proposal attached. She banged out a quick reply simply so she wouldn't have to keep reminding herself: Promise to look at this in detail shortly! Thanks for thinking of us. More soon.

Then, she started a new email. Her fingers hovered over the keypad as she screwed up the corner of her lips, trying to figure out where to start. Something dirty. But something funny too. That was a hard combo for Nate to resist.

from: learnsnewtricksgirl@gmail.com to: commandonate@gmail.com date: June 20, 8:12 AM subject: Dirty Jokes Knock, knock . . .

Crossing her legs, she peered at him over the top of her iPad, waiting for the moment when he opened his email. He sat across from her, the oak table between them, his COO a few seats over, and a pair of his VPs still sound asleep in their chairs a couple rows near the back. In the meantime, she clicked open a browser window to look up the open hours for a popular London attraction. A minute later, he raised his eyes briefly at her. A new email landed in her inbox.

from: commandonate@gmail.com to: learnsnewtricksgirl@gmail.com date: June 20, 8:14 AM subject: I'll bite.

Who's there?

She reined in a grin as she tapped out a reply. Admittedly, knock-knock jokes were not the pinnacle of sophisticated humor. But Casey had an arsenal of them now, thanks to Nelle, so why not call on the low-hanging fruit of a knock-knock joke to entertain the man she cared so deeply for?

from: learnsnewtricksgirl@gmail.com to: commandonate@gmail.com date: June 20, 8:15 AM subject: I approve of your biting.

Gladiator.

from: commandonate@gmail.com to: learnsnewtricksgirl@gmail.com date: June 20, 8:16 AM subject: Show me the spot where I bit your collarbone yesterday afternoon.

Gladiator who?

A hint of heat bloomed across her cheeks from his subject line command. She shot him a look that was both flirty and dirty as she subtly tugged at the scoop neck of her soft purple shirt, revealing the spot where he'd bitten down hard during a quickie at her house that involved her in handcuffs, and him putting her under arrest. He raised an eyebrow approvingly, then she returned to her screen.

from: learnsnewtricksgirl@gmail.com to: commandonate@gmail.com date: June 20, 8:19 AM subject: You like marking me?

He's gladiator before they screwed.

Nate laughed softly, then looked up. Good one, he mouthed. There's more where that came from, she said, letting him read her lips too.

from: commandonate@gmail.com to: learnsnewtricksgirl@gmail.com date: June 20, 8:26 AM subject: Yes, I fucking love marking you.

And more of you coming. There will be more of that very soon.

from: learnsnewtricksgirl@gmail.com to: commandonate@gmail.com date: June 20, 8:29 AM subject: The other way around Or maybe more of you coming . . . very soon from: commandonate@gmail.com to: learnsnewtricksgirl@gmail.com date: June 20, 8:31 AM subject: Tell me more of your plans It's getting hard to concentrate in here . . .

from: learnsnewtricksgirl@gmail.com to: commandonate@gmail.com date: June 20, 8:33 AM subject: I will tell you and show you Want to know what I'm thinking of?

from: commandonate@gmail.com to: learnsnewtricksgirl@gmail.com date: June 20, 8:36 AM subject: Let me guess What I plan on doing to you tonight?

from: learnsnewtricksgirl@gmail.com to: commandonate@gmail.com date: June 20, 8:39 AM subject: Wrong guess Sooner than that. What I plan to do to you this morning.

from: commandonate@gmail.com to: learnsnewtricksgirl@gmail.com date: June 20, 8:42 AM subject: TELL ME NOW NEED TO KNOW.

from: learnsnewtricksgirl@gmail.com to: commandonate@gmail.com date: June 20, 8:49 AM subject: Picture this It involves my lips and your cock.