He ran his finger across her lips, unable to resist touching her, and smiled as her full lips parted and her eyes threatened to slip closed again. “I’m the one who got you into this state, remember? It’s part of my job to make sure you’re all right.”
Her smile stretched wider. “I do remember. Every delicious lash of pain and pleasure. Thank you.” She swallowed hard. “But it’s not your job to spoil me like this. Although I have to admit, I’m enjoying it more than I should.”
Dex was enjoying it much more than he should, too. And he could admit, at least to himself, that while he considered it his duty as her Dom to check on her and make sure she was all right and taking care of herself, this was going above and beyond. He was sure not a lot of Doms went to these lengths for their subs.
He tried to tell himself it was all for the case, but he knew better than to buy the outright lie. Kate was already important to him, even beyond the investigation. And he couldn’t bring himself to regret it.
“Finish that sandwich. I’ll get the coffee.”
By the time he returned with a fresh cup, she had polished off the rest of the sandwich and was frowning at her iPhone. “What’s wrong?”
She sighed. “I don’t think I’m caffeinated enough yet to read these yet.” She shook her head. “They will just have to wait. Maybe another cup of coffee and then a shower.”
Dex handed her the cup and smiled as she blew on it and then slowly sipped the hot brew.
He wasn’t surprised she was ravenous, after yesterday. “Are you still hungry? I have another sandwich and some bagels and cream cheese.”
She shook her head, looking more steady. “No, I’m good. Thank you.”
He sat next to her again, resisting the temptation to touch her, no matter how much it pulled at him. “Do you want me to help you read those emails? That way you could make sure there’s nothing urgent.”
She nibbled her bottom lip, as if considering his request. Finally, she nodded. “Thanks. That would put my mind at ease.”
She pulled up her email program and then handed him her phone.
Dex scanned the emails until he found one from Merestone Resorts. He was impatient to get to that one, but started at the top of the list.
Most of them were asking for small changes like adding another option in a drop-down menu, fixing a web link, or asking for a color update. As Dex read them to her, Kate just nodded, her expression relaxing with each one as she slowly sipped her coffee.
When he read the name of Merestone Resorts, she sighed and shook her head. “What busywork do they want today?”
Dex laughed, even though he was carefully watching her every reaction. “That bad, huh? Hopefully they pay well.”
She smiled at him over her coffee cup. “They do. They take up more time than most of my other clients combined, but they do make it worth it. That’s why I put up with most of their requests, and their sometimes very tight deadlines.” She shrugged. “Dealing with them allows me to take on some other clients pro bono who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford me, like the NKLA Adoption Center here in L.A. It’s a no-kill animal shelter. And PATH, which provides services for the homeless in several cities.”
Dex looked at the beautiful woman in front of him. The fact that she dealt with Merestone in order to donate time to worthy causes gave him more hope that she had no idea what Merestone was doing behind the scenes.
He knew he couldn’t count on that, but he very much wanted to.
“All right. Tell me what my high-maintenance client wants today.” She ended her sentence on what sounded like a resigned laugh.
He scanned the email. “They want you to add three large diamonds into the logo on the L.A. site page. They specify that they want them well hidden and blended into the logo, but still visible. And they want it completed by two p.m. today.”
She rolled her eyes toward the ceiling and blew out a long breath. “Ugh.”
Dex inwardly stiffened. Ralston had mentioned that Stanton was being blackmailed for three million dollars. The three diamonds might not have anything to do with that, but it followed the pattern his team had seen, and his gut told him they were related.
“What do the diamonds denote?”
She shrugged again. “Most likely that their marketing team drinks during their meetings. They’ve asked me for various things over the last year since I took them on as a client. The worst was adding fifty mosquitos to a logo in Arizona, and masking them enough so if you didn’t know they were there, you wouldn’t see them. But for someone looking for them, they could be found and differentiated.” She sighed and drank the last swallow of her coffee, setting the cup aside. “I nearly quit after that assignment. They talked me into staying with more money, and a marketing promotion to raise money for underprivileged kids to go to college.”
Dex smiled.
“What?” she demanded with a self-deprecating smile.