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Chapter 22: You're a perfect specimen of a human being

Author: Amira Lights
last update publish date: 2026-10-07 22:41:24

Senior management additionally requests that you eat beforehand.

Ariana read the last line twice.

Then she laughed.

It came out of her short and cracked, a sound with no humor in it at all, and it bounced off the bare hallway walls and died. She clapped a hand over her mouth.

Eat something. He had said it in the garage with his hand on the elevator door, in that cool, clinical voice, and sometime in the two hours since, he had gone and put it in writing. Dictated it to a department. Had somebod
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  • The Pleasure Protocol   Chapter 48: I Want To See It Before I Go

    "And the timeline?"She looked at him for a long moment."If you're asking how long he has," she said, "I would be misleading you if I gave you an answer. It could be months. It could be considerably less. He may have good days and bad days. He may have clear days, and I would urge you to treat those as they are.""As what?""As time," said Dr. Halloran. "Not as a given. Don't postpone anything that matters."The plastic lilies sat in their vase. Somewhere down the corridor a machine began to beep, and somebody hurried toward it."Who is the contact on his file?" Dominic asked.The doctor's expression shifted. Only slightly."I'm sorry?""The healthcare proxy. The designated contact. Someone in this hospital called my cousin before they called me. Who's on that form?""Mr. Ashford....""Who?""I'm afraid that information is confidential.""It's my grandfather.""I understand. But I'm bound by his wishes." Her eyes flicked, briefly, toward Adrian. Then away. "I can tell you that he upd

  • The Pleasure Protocol   Chapter 47: Your grandfather has had a major ischemic stroke

    "They haven't said anything yet.""Then why are you standing here?""Because I'm waiting.""You never wait for anything." Her eyes moved over him, cool and assessing, and for a second something flickered across them that was almost not coldness. "You look dreadful.""I'm fine.""Your father used to say that." A pause. "Also in hospital corridors."Dominic turned his head.She didn't look at him. She stared straight ahead at the wall with her hands folded and her chin lifted, and for one fragile moment the perfect line of her mouth wavered.Then she pressed her lips together, and the moment ended."Sit down," she said. "You're making the staff nervous."He didn't sit.Adrian returned with a paper cup of coffee in each hand. He gave one to Victoria, who accepted it without thanks. He was still in his pajama trousers under the coat. He kept shifting his weight and checking his phone, and when Dominic looked at him, his eyes slid sideways.***Seline arrived at 5:40.She came in quietly,

  • The Pleasure Protocol   Chapter 46: Your Grandfather Has Collapsed

    The phone rang at 4:07, and Dominic knew before he answered.Nobody called at four in the morning with good news.He was already awake. He had been awake since two, standing at the floor-to-ceiling window of the penthouse with a glass of water he hadn't touched, looking down at a city that never fully slept either. The fireplace behind him sat cold and clean and unused, the way it always had.He picked up on the second ring."Ashford.""Mr. Dominic." It was Margaret, the estate's housekeeper, who had known him since he was twelve and had never once called him anything but his full first name. Her voice was thin and tight. "It's your grandfather. He didn't come down for his tea. I went up to check, and he was on the floor of the library."The glass in his hand went very still."Is he breathing?""Yes. Yes, he's breathing. The ambulance is already here. They're taking him to Saint Aldric's." A small, wet sound. "He wasn't talking, Mr. Dominic. He looked at me, and he couldn't say anythi

  • The Pleasure Protocol   Chapter 45: Are you going to cancel everything?

    "Look at me."She did."Three."Her hips rolled. She was soaked now, slick against his fingers, and the sound she made was not a whimper. It was lower than that. It was a sound that belonged to someone who was starting to forget she'd ever apologized for wanting anything.Control, he thought. Hold it. Hold it."Four."He pulled his hand away. Her eyes flew open."Not yet," he said."Dominic."His name. Again. That voice, hoarse and wrecked and furious. He felt it through his ribs."Say it again.""Dominic, please."His hand tightened on the walnut.For a single heartbeat the mask slipped. He knew it did. He felt the muscles of his face go slack, felt something raw and unguarded surge up into his throat.And she saw it.Her lips parted. Her eyes widened. For one suspended second, they simply looked at each other."There you are," she whispered."Don't.""There you are.""Ariana.""I knew you were in there."He wanted to say something cold. He had a hundred cold things ready.He couldn'

  • The Pleasure Protocol   Chapter 44: So count for me. Out loud

    Dominic Ashford had never once been late.He had never once been unsure, either.Until her.Two o'clock. Level 3. Gray walls, warm lamp, the long padded desk he had tested himself.She was seventeen minutes early. Of course she was.She stood just inside the door with her bag clamped against her ribs and her chin lifted, like she had rehearsed it in the elevator.Something was wrong.He saw it in the first second. In the way her fingers kept tightening on the strap. In the way she wasn't looking at the desk.She always looked at the desk."You're pale," he said."I'm fine.""That isn't what I asked.""You didn't ask anything." There it was, that dry little edge. "You made an observation.""Then I'll ask. What happened?""Nothing."Liar.Three sessions. Three sessions of learning every tell she owned, and she thought she could lie to him with her hand shaking?He set the file down and took one step toward her.Just one."Ariana."Her name came out lower than he intended.And she looked

  • The Pleasure Protocol   Chapter 43: Whoever sent this wants me away from Dominic

    So Ariana had handed over the phone instead.Simone read the text. Her eyebrows rose, and then, slowly, they came down again."Seventy-five," she said."Thousand.""I can count, babe." Simone set the phone down on the table with great care, as though it might go off. For nearly a full minute she said nothing at all, which in all the years Ariana had known her had happened perhaps four times."Okay," Simone said at last. "Here is what I am going to do. If you take it, I will drive you to the bank myself. I'll wait in the car. I won't say one single word, and I will tell anyone who asks that you were a genius.""Simone.""If you don't take it, I will say that you are a better person than I am, and I will still say nothing, because it is not my life and it's not my sister." She lifted her coffee and pointed it at Ariana like a pen. "But I need you to tell me which one it is. Because the not-knowing is the part that is going to kill me.""I don't know yet.""That's fair." Simone drank. "T

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