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CHAPTER ONE

EAVESDROPPERS NEVER HEARD anything good about theritted his teeth at that inconvenient reminder as he stood frozen in theconference roo per se Both roo disappoint his perceptions

So with unwelcome frequency lately—

‘I think we can safely assume it’s reached DEFCON One around here’

‘I was thinkingthe lines of nuclear fallout, until I saw his face, then I kneere already way past that Apparently, it’s been three years since he lost a case I wasn’t here then, but I know heads rolled on that particular case’

The sentence was delivered with deep apprehension

Gary Willis, one of his associates, had every right to be feeling the sauts That was the reason he’d sidetracked to the conference roo to his office a few dozen floors above

Most lawyers, no ree of failure in the course of their profession Most divorce lawyers took on certain cases with the expectation of having to compromise

Not him

Christos never took on a case unless he’d calculated how to achieve his endgah to vow never to take his eye off the ball again His second had been because his client was a pathological liar who couldn’t speak the truth even to salvage his own divorce proceedings

Today’s loss had beenout of his control He’d debated every scenario, investigated every piece of information and triple-checked the opposition’s weak points Everything should have gone his way Yet soh his veins, with the dire rely head Today’s lesson had been aimed at his client and friend, Kyrios, but it was Christos as feeling the full after-effects of losing his third case in five years

‘Are you sure it’s just this case troubling our esteeo He’s been channelling Vlad the Impaler for the better part of two months now!’

Christos’s guts turned to stone, even as his mouth twisted in acid amusement

Vlad the Impaler was an apt description He’d been that way ever since the incident And his grandfather’s increasingly pressured de that resided beneath his skin, s weren’t settled in his world Or as settled as they should be

He detested excuses fro them for himself was even more of an anathema Which hy his inability to have this situation sorted successfully grated so badly

‘Did so happen?’ Ben Smith, another associate, asked

‘No idea,’ came Willis’s reply

Yes, so happened A moment of weakness with his executive assistant, which should’ve been easily dised in Christos’s e

A late-night dinner with his EA in the company of an unusually friendly h road to an amicable divorce Drinks afterwards at his private club

Nothing seely out of the norm

And yet by the end of the night, a fundamental rule had been broken He’d stepped over his own strict, personal line A line they’d both agreed they’d never cross

Rich, silky hair sliding between his fingers

Full, eager lips beneath his own

His greedy hands exploring the mounds and valleys of her supple, curvy body

Breathless, lust-stoking moans he continued to hear in his dreams

Christos’s blood ihter, tried harder to banish the focus-shredding thoughts froods weren’t on his side today, because right then the subject of his thoughts entered the conversation