Five Ways to Fall by K. A. Tucker Page A

gave me tickets to see U2?”
    Mason’s eyes ignite with a spark of anger. “I didn’t give you those tickets. You stole my credit card number and ordered them!”
    I make a point of holding my hands up to my chest in mock insult. “I was merely ensuring you got me a memorable gift for my twenty-first birthday.”
    “I thought you were twenty-nine,” Ben pipes in with a wry smirk.
    “And I thought I’d never see you again,” I snap.
    Understanding seems to hit Mason then and, when he shifts his focus to Ben, I see something that looks an awful lot like revulsion pass over his face. “Please tell me Reese isn’t the purple-haired girl Kent was talking about?”
    “Reese?” I hear Ben’s voice somewhere in the background, but my brain is too busy processing key words.
    Purple-haired girl. Kent. Talking about. Mexico.
    For the second time in under five minutes, I feel the blood drain from my face as I’m hit with my own level of understanding. And horror. Ben isn’t just a new employee. “Oh my God. You’re friends with my stepbrother ?”
    Ben’s eyes cut to me, his brows shooting high up his forehead. “Your stepbrother ?”
    “Oh, fuck!” Mason starts shaking his head. “Seriously, Ben?”
    I steal a glance at Mason, who never swears, before settling daggers on Ben’s face. “Yeah, Ben. Seriously? ” I hiss through gritted teeth. “What would Kent have said about the purple-haired girl, Ben ?” I haven’t admitted to that night to anyone except Nicki and Lina, and that’s only because I came back to the hotel limping. If Ben told his friends . . . and Mason knows . . . I’m going to die. Mason will totally use that against me one day. He’ll tell everyone at the firm and they’ll talk about it behind my back. I’ll walk into meetings to the abrupt end of giggles. And then I’ll be forced to kill everyone.
    With wide eyes panning back and forth between Mason and me, Ben looks torn between exploding with laughter and bolting out of my office.
    And that’s the perfect time for Natasha to poke her head in. “This must be Ben,” she chirps in that high-pitched voice that has grated on my nerves since day one, offering him a bright smile and a hand. “I’m Natasha. You and I will be working closely together.”
    “Looking forward to it, Natasha,” Ben offers casually, scanning the female attorney’s body in front of everyone and grinning while doing it. He’s not doing it in a leery pervert way, but I still find it exceptionally annoying. If there’s an ounce of luck left for me in this world, Ben will get himself fired for sexual harassment.
    Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like Natasha will be sounding any alarms. Flipping her long apricot-colored hair over her shoulder, she giggles like a complete airhead—which she’s not; she’s actually quite sharp, though I’d never boost her ego by telling her that—and says, “Great. Well, we should get started. I’m buried with cases right now. Fortunately I’ve had Reese here to help me with a lot of the legwork.” She flashes her brilliant white teeth my way. “Speaking of which, did you have a chance to get through that file?”
    I knew I’d be supporting the lawyers in this job. What I didn’t know is that I’d basically be doing all the work so they could sign off and collect their hundred thousand–plus a year. I swear, I wouldn’t be surprised if one of them asks me to wipe their ass soon.
    “You mean the forty-two-page contract I was working on until two a.m. last night? Or the sixty-page deposition I just found sitting on my desk?” I match her giant smile, only mine is so fake and rabid that a blind dog would know to shy away. Her olive-green eyes flicker to my full cup of coffee. “Ben, how about we go to my office and let Reese get settled?”
    Brilliant idea .
    She and Mason waste no time exiting my personal space.
    “Extra-large for that shirt . . . Reese ,” Ben whispers as he passes by.
    I hold my