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felt his presence before she actually saw him, glancing up from her computer monitor in alarm as he shut her office door firmly behind him.
    Angela fixed what she hoped was a ferocious scowl on her face as she glimpsed the somber expression on his own features. “What are you doing here?” she asked ungraciously. “Both at this firm and in my office. You have to know you’re the very last person I want to see.”
    Nick ignored her question and asked one of his own. “What the fuck happened to you, Angela? You look like the walking dead.”
    She gave a caustic little laugh. “Gee, thanks. You never were one to dole out compliments very often, but I can’t remember hearing direct insults either.”
    He shook his head. “I’m not trying to insult you. But for Christ’s sakes, Angie, I barely recognized you earlier. You look – Jesus, exactly how much weight have you lost anyway?”
    She shrugged, willing herself to remain calm and detached. “Don’t you know it’s not polite to ask a woman how much she weighs?”
    Nick looked at her scornfully. “I think you and I are way past the point where we have to worry about being polite to each other. Christ – when I saw you earlier today – I can’t remember the last time I had a shock like that.”
    Angela leaned back in her desk chair, regarding him coolly. “I don’t believe you didn’t know I worked here. For you to have made a move like this – to give up everything you’d built at Jessup Prior – you would have done a hell of a lot of research. You had to have known I worked here.”
    “I wasn’t shocked to see you working here,” he clarified. “Just at your appearance. You’re – have you been ill? Is that why you’re skin and bones and look like you’ve got one foot in the grave?”
    She rolled her eyes. “And the compliments keep on coming, don’t they? You, on the other hand, look as hale and hearty as ever, Nick. But then I wouldn’t have expected anything less. After all, you always did devote a lot of time to putting yourself first.”
    Nick pointed a finger at her. “ I’m not the one we need to be discussing right now.”
    “Well, we certainly don’t need to discuss me, either. In fact, I can’t really think of anything we have to talk about, Nick. So let’s just agree to keep as much distance from each other as possible, shall we? You ought to be able to manage that just fine – in fact, I’d say you’re the expert at cutting off contact with people.”
    He winced visibly at her very pointed barb. “I know I acted like a total bastard towards you. Both during and after our relationship. But you knew exactly what you were getting into, Angela. I was very, very clear about my conditions. As for cutting you off – you know exactly why I had to do that. You were – you got too close, let yourself care too much.”
    She clenched her fists tightly, sorely tempted to punch him in the jaw with one, even if it meant breaking every bone in her hand. “Well, rest assured that I don’t feel a damned thing for you anymore, Nick. You made sure of that, didn’t you? So if you’re worried that I’m going to start stalking you or something, forget it. I’d have to actually care about you in order to do that, wouldn’t I?”
    Nick smiled slowly, the sort of sexy, seductive smile that had never once failed to gain her capitulation. “You tempt me to put all that newfound bravado of yours to the test. But I’m not here to lure you back into my bed, as intriguing as that sounds. I’m just worried about you. Paul McReynolds told me that not only are you the biggest workaholic he’s ever known but that you shut yourself off from everyone else in the office, never socialize, never smile. And while he may not know any different, may never have seen you act any other way, I have, and I know damned well that this skeletal, pale and emotionless shell you’ve become isn’t the Angel I knew.”
    Angela surged to her feet then, the color