Atlas could only admit the problem to himself once he was back in his penthouse fresh after a shower, and that only because he was still riding the haze of a post-coital high. It was easier to face his problems when he was comforted by the fresh memory of Jia's soft body melting against him, her stammering cries and the way she couldn't ever seem to look him in the eyes as he made her come.He didn't know what that said about him. Maybe that he was a better person for having been inside her? And that if he wanted to stay that way, he was going to have to ask for her help a lot more often?But dry humor aside, they had skirted a topic tonight that he had long avoided. Not just with Jia but with everyone in his life, including those who had deserved better...but Daniel had never wanted to hear anything of it anyway. That chapter was closed for the both of them - except Atlas had decided to leave it behind while Daniel kept it chained to his ankle. A friendship that had s

Dolly had a point about one thing and one thing exactly: Jia needed to learn to make friends. It was true that the closest thing she had to a friend was Dolly herself, the alcoholic VIP guest who had dropped by for a few days before going AWOL. Oh, and Lydia, but she wasn't quite sure if Lydia liked her or not anymore or was simply tolerating her for politeness's sake.Everything else had been wrong, though, or so she hoped. It was depressing to think that men could be so shallow and disgusting that they would trade women purely for more sexual gratification. Sure, there might be some women who pursued that too, but it couldn't be that every man was that way. What kind of standards were those?"Thank you," she said as she picked up her coffee from the counter. She'd developed a taste for it in the past couple of weeks, yet another way that her job had changed her, but she was still sticking to the black coffee instead of the fancy luxe options on the menu. She

"So? Did you do it yet? What'd he say? Come on -"She shouldn't have answered the FaceTime call, thought Jia. Why? Why had she done this, knowing exactly what Dolly was going to ask about the instant she started talking?...Or maybe that was exactly why she had answered in the first place. She had a plan today. A big one, though not necessarily well thought out, and it was the most daring thing Jia would ever do to date. She needed something to rattle her nerves and amp her up, make her brave. And only Dolly could make her feel so reckless -"He's not here yet," she said, and she placed the tablet on a stand so that she could pick up the napkins she had brought up to the office with her and continue dabbing at the damp spot on the collar of her metallic blue silk blouse. "His flight touches down a bit before noon.""What! You should have said that instead of just telling he was going to be back today. And you're wiping at your shirt, I thought for sure you were maybe cleaning off some

Atlas straightened again, easing his weight off of Jia's back - just in time to deliver another sharp slap of his palm to her buttock. Once again, he groped it with a flex of his fingers, admiring the warmth that was starting to rise from her skin there, and he leaned back to look down and inspect it while she panted on the desk and let out a small, trailing moan at his rough handling.Her hands were still bound behind her back with his tie, and he couldn't remember ever seeing anything so tempting, so divine. Her blouse was almost all the way off, hanging around her arms and bunched around her elbows and forearms. Her bra was somewhere in there, too, no doubt tangled in all the silk. If only he could flip her over and look at her from the front, see his come smeared over her chest and marking her as his, that alone might be enough to send him over the edge a second time.He looked down when his cock twitched in renewed interest, and he was reminded that he was still o

 Jia blinked and stared, not entirely certain that she had heard Atlas correctly. She couldn't have. It was only because she had been thinking hard about how to approach the topic of Ava tonight that she thought she'd just heard him say the name, that was all. She tried to step around Atlas and move closer to Erica to give her a proper greet since they hadn't seen each other since this morning for a cup of coffee (and water), but when she peeked around his shoulder, she found the woman staring straight at Atlas's face instead.It hadn't occurred to her how tall Erica was until now, as she watched them square off in an apparent staring contest. Or was it because she was standing up straight and squaring her shoulders, revealing her true height instead of carrying a moderate slouch when last they had met?In fact, everything about Erica was different now. Her appearance was the same, but her eyes were sharper and colder, and the way she tilted her head slightly at A