“Do what?”
I didn’t respond and continued to smooth my fingers down the stem of my glass. Sofia was clever. She could figure out what I was saying if she shut up long enough to think about it. She had a combination of cognitive, social, and emotional intellect that I didn’t come across often. Most really clever people couldn’t hold a conversation at a party. Those who could read people often couldn’t focus on technical details. Sofia had the rare ability to do it all. She just needed to refine her skills, and she’d be unstoppable. The priority was surely learning to control that mouth.
An image of her on her knees in front of me, my cock in her mouth, slipped into my mind. I glanced over at her and she met my gaze; it was as if she knew exactly what I was thinking.
“Can we go upstairs?” she asked. Her tone had shifted. Like someone had popped her bad mood like a balloon. “I need to . . . blow off some steam.”
I’d always been so good at separating my business from my personal life. I made my mistakes big and early and I learned from them, and was determined not to repeat them. But Sofia had put a spanner in the works. I probably should have left when she came into Noble Rot that first evening. I was just . . . amused by her irritation at me. It was entertaining to learn what it was my assistants hated so much about working for me.
I should have left her to it, but something kept me there until the very last moment that I had to leave for a drink with Gabriel. When it came time to pay, I didn’t know what it was that made me want to reveal myself to her—to let her know I’d been listening all along. It was only fair. And I wanted her to know that she didn’t need to worry. Maybe I was unreasonable. Maybe I was an arsehole in the office. Maybe I was just focused and I expected the same from everyone else. Whatever it was, when I turned to her and she’d heard the barman call me James, it was like she wasn’t the employee who worked right outside my office door every day. In that moment, she was a beautiful woman who’d had a bad day. A woman who wore her passion on her sleeve—and I couldn’t resist the urge to learn just how deep that passion ran. At least I’d had the good sense to leave her fully clothed. That first time, anyway.
And then when she was there the following night . . . Game over. It had left me with no choice. I had to see her eyes grow hooded as she approached orgasm. I wanted to feel her shudder underneath me as I fucked her. I wanted to smooth my hands over her soft, warm skin and feel her fingers in my hair.
I should have resisted.
I should have walked right past the bar instead of going inside to see if she’d been as tempted to see how this played out between us as I’d been.
Too late. What was done was done. And here I was—here we were—three thousand miles from home and all the rules that kept our relationship in balance. She wanted me again, just like I wanted her. We were still in limbo between my personal and professional lives, but the doors to each world were ajar. It felt like they were about to come off their hinges.
“I’m not sure that’s such a great idea.” The words curdled in my mouth as I spoke.
Out of the corner of my eye, Sofia took a sip of her cocktail. “Because you’re my boss?”
In my head, I could hear doors slamming and car tires screeching to a halt as James and Andrew morphed together in some kind of Terminator-type amalgamation.
“And you like to keep things separate. Hence you freaking out like a bunny in a fox pen when you got a social invitation at work.”
“Foxes don’t live in pens. The bunny would be in the—”
“You get what I’m trying to say.” She swiveled on her stool so she was facing me. “We both know your name’s not James. And technically you’re my boss but—”
I couldn’t keep my chuckle silent. “Technically?”
“Yeah. You’re my boss as much as Mr. Romano at Emilio’s Cucina was, the summer after freshman year. He thought he was in charge of me, but I was only there for the summer. How much authority did he really have?”
“This isn’t about authority.” I didn’t want to abuse my power. I didn’t want any part of Sofia to think she had to sleep with me because I was her boss or because she thought she might be fired if she said no or if things went wrong. “I’m not Mr. Romano. Everyone has different boundaries.”