It was sometime past midnight when Sari made the worst decision of her week.
The slip of paper with Matthew Elizalde’s number sat beside her phone, the edges damp with condensation. She’d told herself she’d wait until morning, sober, calm, strategic. But reason had long since drowned in liquor.
Before she could talk herself out of it, she snatched her phone and dialed. The tone rang twice.
Then a smooth, impossibly amused voice came through the line.
“Dr. Howard.”
Her stomach plummeted. “You recognized me that fast?”
He laughed softly, a low, intimate sound. “I didn’t need the number. You could whisper from across a crowded room and I’d still know that voice, Czarina.”
She exhaled hard through her nose, fighting the heat that rose in her cheeks. “How flattering. I didn’t realize I w
