“Hey,” she said. “This is my treat.” And then her eyes widened at the total. “Okay, well, maybe I’m going to let you get this. But I owe you.”
“You don’t owe me anything. Be a good intern. That’s all you need to do for me.”
“I’m going to have to tell the guys in my panties to stand down,” she said. “It’s disappointing for them. They’ve never been so . . . animated.”
I chuckled. “Animated. Right.”
“But,” she said, and I could almost see the cogs in her brain whirring, “I’m not technically your intern right at this moment, am I?” She slid off her bar stool and stood, her body slipping between my thighs. “A kiss wouldn’t hurt, would it?”
Hollie was an adorable drunk. Adorable and gorgeous, particularly when she pouted, drawing my attention to her pillow-like lips. “I think a kiss would be acceptable,” I replied, standing and turning so I had her pinned against the bar.
Her hands slid up the lapels of my jacket, and I breathed in the clean scent of sunshine and summer flowers as she looked up at me with those green-blue eyes that I wanted to dive into.
She pushed her fingers into my hair, and I bent, pressing my lips into hers, sinking into her softness, relishing the warmth of her. Instinctively, I groaned at the sensation of relief and satisfaction I got from feeling her, from tasting her, from being this close to her.
She sighed against me as if the feeling was entirely mutual and I pushed into her with my tongue, wanting more, needing to be closer.
When had kissing ever been like this before? It felt so perfect, so intimate, so completely necessary.
A loud cough brought us back into the room and we jumped apart like guilty teenagers.
My heart juddered in my chest and my blood ran thick in my veins as I tried to compose myself.
What would I be missing if I couldn’t have more of Hollie Lumen?
She looked up at me, her cheeks flushed, an expression of longing on her face. I had to stop myself from tossing her over my shoulder and sprinting home with her.
I cleared my throat, trying to get a grip of myself before I did something I’d regret. “We’ll be friends,” I said. But I wanted more.
“Absolutely,” she replied. “You’re my best friend in London.”
Although I knew it was hardly a compliment—she knew almost no one in the city—a warmth gathered in my chest at the thought of being someone important to her. Even if it was temporarily.
Twelve
Hollie
I chewed on my nail as I huddled under the awnings of an office building two doors up from Daniels & Co. I was trying to stay dry and the rain was as relentless here as it was back home.
“You think I should go in?” I asked Autumn for the fiftieth time. I was calling her from my Daniels & Co phone that Dexter had had couriered to me so he could message me.
“I can’t believe you would consider not going in.”
“But there’s no such thing as a free lunch,” I said.
“Tell that to Mom and Dad. They seem to take your money left and right without ever worrying.”
“Taking favors can wind up messy.” I had learned that lesson the hard way.
“You only ever took a favor from anyone once. And it wasn’t your fault that your friend’s boyfriend had aspirations to be a loan shark.”
Even now my stomach churned as I remembered borrowing the deposit for our trailer. My friend offered to lend me the money. I was dumb and naive and didn’t see the catch until I went to repay it and her boyfriend asked for an additional twenty percent. It took me six months to pay it off because he kept making up reasons why I owed him more. To this day, the sting of all that interest paid was a reminder of how easy it would be to follow in my parents’ footsteps—careering from one disaster to another. I had to take control and rely on no one but myself.
“And anyway,” Autumn continued, “this is not a favor. He’s not just handing out money. You’re working for it. You have a job description. And he said he needed more staff.”
“He was lying,” I said. If Dexter had needed more staff, he wouldn’t have waited for me to get fired. There were a million people who would have loved to be interning at Daniels & Co.
“Even if he was, you’re not going to be filing your nails all day. You’re going to work. You’re going to learn. If you don’t take this opportunity, I’ll be furious with you.”
Autumn and I were as close as two sisters could be. We were furious with each other rarely. And when we were, it was usually caused by one of the good-for-nothing guys she was dating. “I’m just trying to protect myself,” I said.