“How about that noodle place in Chinatown, the place you took me to before?” she suggested. “I feel like Chinese.”
“Whatever you want. If you feel like French, there’s a great little place in the Rue Cler.”
She pushed herself up to look into his face. “I have an appointment with the therapist in the morning.”
The therapist. His anger rose as he wondered how long she would have to be in therapy to work out the trauma. He should have killed Jake when he’d had the chance. Now she still had to see the bastard in court.
“And Ms. Clarkson wants to talk with me again,” Kimani added as she idly circled her finger over his nipple. “Thanks to the Scarlet Auction documents you gave her, she feels she has a strong case. They’ve subpoenaed a lot of people now, not just Claire. And Claire’s not going to defend anyone this time.”
“They better not cut Jake too good a deal,” Ben said grimly.
Jake had offered to spill the goods on the Scarlet Auction, with whom he had coordinated to intimidate Kimani. It was someone from the Scarlet Auction who had broken into her home and taken her computer.
“Ms. Clarkson seems like a hard-ass,” Kimani replied.
Ben imagined a lot of people considered Ms. Clarkson a bitch, and he hadn’t been taken with her at the beginning, but now he was glad Ms. Clarkson was on the case. Maybe the world could use more hard-charging women.
“Hey, it’s gonna be okay,” Kimani said.
He looked at her in surprise. After all that she had been through, she was trying to comfort him? He pulled her in closer.
“We should get you to bed early,” he said. “You’ve also got work tomorrow.”
“I finished most of the details for Gordon’s campaign rally
yesterday.”
“I meant you have a job to go to.”
She tilted her head. “I don’t have a job because some overbearing billionaire shut down the paper I worked at.”
“Yeah, well, I changed my mind.”
She stared at him with eyes agog. He smiled to himself. He was going to see that look again when he told her he had tickets to the Warriors’ opening night.
“Oh my God, I love you,” she squeaked—then backpedaled as she seemed to decide it was too good to be true.
Still, the words rang in his ears and caused his breath to stop.
“But,” she said, “you’re just going to lose more money keeping the paper open.”
“Maybe I can take a page from Bezos’ playbook,” he said, referring to the acquisition of the The Washington Post.
“You’re gonna do that and build a childcare center?”
He had to admit the childcare center was not going to be easy.
“Maybe the childcare center was a bit much to ask for, just for an ass-fucking,” she said, her brow furrowed.
He cradled the side of her head. “Hey, I’ll make it happen. Your ass is well worth it.”
“So am I going to owe you my ass a gazillion times now?”
“Only if you want to, love.”
She smiled. “I do.”
With a growl, he rolled her beneath him. Her noodles would have to wait.