There was the slightest easing of tension across stiff shoulders at her words. He set the papers back down on the desk to more fully regard her. Evaluate … her. This, whatever this strange ‘courtship’ of blackmail and coinciding existential threats could be called.

He listened to her plight, pulling the words apart in his mind. Searching for answers – his answer, and path forward.

“That is the word,” he confirmed.

His gaze shifted to her when she again urged him against his current course, though did not interject yet.

Ah. There it was. She was used to being wanted for her looks, and blackmailing a man who was unlikely to be swayed by them was a blow to her ego. But, she was rich. Powerful. He would treat her accordingly.

“You are a smart woman, Sonia,” he said, reaching for her shoulder.

He drew back, as though hesitant to offend her, and clasped his hands before himself in a show of self-restraint. He circled back to the other side of the desk, but pulled the chair to sit next to her instead.

“Here you are, seeking a better life for yourself. You are pregnant,” he acknowledged, then polished his nails with a boyish look. “But you would be pregnant one way or another, no? Just because I might have inquired about my options does not mean I am unswayed by the beauty of women.”

It just … mildly implicated the possibility.

“Your husband, though foul, remains mostly in the theoretical realm to me.”

He avoided him. He was almost as creepy as Chris, and Chris had gotten there first.

“Perhaps you need someone who can see the children for who they are, beyond whom they came from. Who can see that they blossomed from someone beautiful, and never had to meet the ugliness that came before them.”

Honestly, he would probably be imagining Magnus in bed.