We’d had sex in the restroom of a ritzy steakhouse this morning, and I was getting wet just thinking about it now. I hadn’t taken my eyes off of Julian once in that mirror. I’d had the pleasure of watching every second of him – the way his perfect jaw dropped when he first entered me to the way his gorgeous features pulled so tight as he burst to a finish inside me. It was our usual rushed, hot sex, but it also felt different because he’d kissed me deeply for a good two or three minutes after, ignoring the knocks on the door from all the poor people who had to use the bathroom.
“I need to get my fill before I go,” he’d explained, grinning.
Thanks to our Biarritz trip on Monday, he was packed with meetings out of the office from eleven till six, so I didn’t protest. I needed to get my fill too.
“I take it all the p
eople in the office know by now?” Lia asked, shaking me out of my memory. “That you’re sleeping with Julian?”
“I think if you say it any louder, Lia, they’ll definitely know.”
“I’m pretty sure it’s not my volume that’s giving you guys away,” Lia sassed. “Did you not tell me you guys had a moaning contest in the conference room on Wednesday?”
“I’m almost certain I didn’t phrase it that way.”
“You’re starting to talk like him,” Lia gasped.
“I take that as a compliment,” I replied.
“Oh God, you guys are gross. Your level of admiration for each other is almost self-congratulatory, because you’re basically the same person.”
I burst out laughing as I chucked a balled-up napkin at her.
“It’s true!” Lia giggled. “But I secretly love that about you two. You both are very similar in great ways, and that’s exactly why I called it in the first place that you’d make an awesome couple. Me. Lia. I said it,” Lia jabbed her thumb at herself. “I actually made a bet about it, which reminds me that Lukas owes me twenty dollars.”
“Lukas bet against me?” I feigned a gasp. “How rude.”
“In all fairness, he bet against Julian’s ability to feel things,” Lia snorted. “That guy. I swear he never has girlfriends. He never even talks about flings or one-night stands, so we’re not even fully sure that he has them. He’s just so crazy about work.”
“Yeah, well… we’ll see if this thing between us lasts past work.”
“What are you talking about?” Lia frowned.
I groaned as I sat up straight.
“I don’t know, Lia, nor do I really want to get into it right now,” I muttered, shaking the ice left in my coffee. “My contract lasts three months or however long the Roth negotiations take. After that, I have trouble imagining that Julian is going to think much about me if I’m not at his office and in front of his face every day.”
“You don’t know that.”
“No, I don’t know anything for sure, but I do know what the most realistic turnout would be,” I said, keeping my voice casual to disguise how much my heart was twisting under my chest.
“And what would that be?” Lia asked, tipping her shades up.
I drew in a deep breath. “That even if Julian Hoult did feel some tiny fraction of a thing for me, he would probably be really good at forcing himself to forget it if he had to. I mean look at who he is, where he’s gotten himself. I’m a workaholic, but he’s a machine, and a month-long whirlwind isn’t going to affect a machine. It’s just going to bounce off of him because he’s made of steel. That’s what it takes to run an empire like his. Right?”
I looked over to find Lia quiet and hugging her knees to her chest, as if I’d just hurt her feelings.
“Jesus, girl,” she said. “That’s not the attitude.”
I heaved a sigh and shrugged. “Sorry. I just want to be a big girl about it now, so it doesn’t hurt me later.”
“I get it,” she said in a small voice. “You know I totally get that. I just…” She sucked in a deep breath and let it out. “I wouldn’t have snagged Lukas without you pushing me and being the little troublemaker you were,” she smirked. “Sometimes I think about what might have slipped through my fingers if you didn’t force me to woman up and just go for it with him. He’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and after all the shit you’ve been through, I just want the best thing to happen to you.”
“Daw. Lia.” I wiggled my lips to hide the fact that she’d just made me emotional. “I appreciate that,” I said as she flashed me a pout that said “sorry,” because she knew I didn’t like getting mushy or weepy. I smiled. “But hey, have you ever considered that maybe you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me?”
“Oh, I agree wholeheartedly I am,” she said to make me laugh. “But I’m the best thing in a different category. There’s a few. Social life, love life and career.”
“Jesus, you have it all,” I realized. “You dirty whore.”