The Proviso

33: Opportunity Loss

Sebastian and Knox were startled when Giselle came in the front door from work at one in the morning, hauling the bag of textbooks she'd bought that day. They watched her as she dumped them on the table across from Sebastian, then pulled her gun from her waistband and put it on the table. Knox sat at the foot of the enormous conference table with his files covering half the table. Banker's boxes full of papers sat in the two chairs that flanked him, his laptop was open, and his Glock was serving as a paperweight.

She went to the fridge. She was not happy and while Knox would mind his own business, it wouldn't be long before Sebastian started with the third deg—

"Uh, Giz, it's Tuesday. Shouldn't you be going to Kenard's every night and fucking his brains out? I thought you'd be practically moved out by now."

"I'm re-thinking," she said shortly. Knox raised an eyebrow.

Sebastian sat back in his chair. "Oh, don't get all squeamish now that you're out of bed and back to real life."

"I'm not. He's fixed."

Silence. Then, "Well, Giz, there are worse things in the world than not having kids. Like, oh, spending the rest of your life alone with your vibrator."

She snarled at him, then dropped into the chair across from him with a snack.

Knox sat back then and folded his arms over his chest. "So, uh, this weekend—?"

"Better than I ever dreamed possible. It's like the evening couldn't have turned out any other way. Went to dinner and talked for hours and hours and hours. Man's brilliant."

Sebastian snorted. "So he fucked your mind first."

"Oh, yes," she sighed.

"What did he have to say to get you in bed?"

She looked at the wall behind Sebastian, a smile twitching at the edges of her mouth. "'I want to fuck you, Giselle.'" Both of them stared at her, their mouths open, before they burst out laughing. Sebastian laughed until tears rolled down his cheeks. She went on. "I mean, what's any girl in her right mind gonna say to that? No? Hardly."

"Giz, that's not exactly a normal seduction technique. And coming from a man that big with that face? Trust me. I know from seduction."

"Oh, please. You don't seduce. You overwhelm. How's Ms Eilis Logan, by the way? Let me guess. Tall, blonde, rubenesque. You met her two weeks ago and you haven't railroaded her into bed yet? Or did you decide not to bother getting her to the Den of Iniquity?"

"Shut up."

"I told him I'd throw him in jail if he got her in bed before her receivership was over," Knox offered.

"Oh, nice job," Giselle said and bumped fists with Knox.

"We are not talking about me! We're talking about Giz."

Knox laughed. "I'm stuck on 'I want to fuck you, Giselle.'" He wiped his mouth. "This would never have happened when we were at college. Look at you," he said, pointing to her arms. "Those are just the bruises I can see. What's that on the back of your neck? He bit you?" Sebastian looked terribly smug. "Does he look any better?"

She popped a piece of pepperoni in her mouth. "No. And I have fingernails."

"Freak."

She sighed. "I honestly don't know how any woman could pass him up."

"You're the only woman in the world a man like that could've said 'I want to fuck you' to and expected it to work," Sebastian said. "And you think I'm a freight train. Remember Francisco's speech to Rearden."