My mind spun back to the other night with Sophia—the feel of sinking into her core, her legs curling around me, the wild edge to her as we moved together, and the way it felt as if I'd known her for far longer then I actually had.
I shook my thoughts away and turned quickly, calling my driver to take me to my place here in San Francisco. Unlike in New York, I lived in an actual house on the outskirts of the city here. I let myself into my home later. It felt quiet and alone, almost echoing with the absence of someone else. I’d never thought much about how much of my personal time I spent on my own. One night with Sophia made me think about what that might mean.
Chapter 11
Sophia
I glanced at the clock above the door in my office. The hands told me it was just past six-thirty. I heard footsteps and glanced up to see Suzanne stop in the doorway and lean against the frame. Her silver hair glinted in the light from the reception area between our offices. She was slender and kept her hair cropped short. With her bright blue eyes and penchant for rich colors, she elicited a smile every time I looked at her.
“How much later are you working?” she asked.
“Oh, probably another hour or so.”
“I was wondering if I could persuade you to grab dinner and drinks with me and Danny.”
I glanced down at my computer. I’d been working more than was necessary, but ever since my night with Lucas, I’d been restless and out of sorts. Work kept me focused and kept me from thinking too hard about him. I hadn't heard a thing from him since he’d left unexpectedly. He was due back tomorrow and scheduled for his next interview tomorrow evening.
Suzanne and Danny had explained they usually obtained questions ahead of time and sent them onward to him, yet they left the rest up to him. Up until they’d hired me, he’d reportedly had been resistant to any guidance or feedback around answers. As a PR consultant, it was my job to try—try being the operative word here—to guide and set the narrative for him. I’d sent a summary of suggested topics for each potential question to him.
That was yesterday. I'd heard nothing back from him yet, and I was beginning to get annoyed. Not because I'd expected anything from him. I hadn't, yet my own reaction to our night together was getting under my skin. I didn't like to feel as if I was waiting with bated breath for some sort of cue from him that he might be thinking about me. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't stop thinking about him. I had fevered dreams and silly wishful thoughts about the potential for us to have something other than one wild crazy night.
I didn't think that was a possibility, so I needed to say clear and rational. The distraction of dinner and drinks with them might nudge my mind off its treadmill of thoughts about Lucas.
“Give me just a minute. Let me save what I'm working on and then I’ll be ready,” I replied.
She grinned and turned away. “I’ll
grab my purse.”
I saved the projects I’d been working on, powered down my laptop and closed it. I walked with Susanna down the street to a café nearby. It was on the smaller side and not quite as trendy as some places, but I actually preferred places like this and was glad to see Suzanne did as well. We snagged a table in the corner, and within minutes, Danny had joined us. We ordered drinks and appetizers and settled in.
“Do you two do this often?” I asked, glancing between them.
Danny held his beer up for a toast. “At least once a week. Now you can come too.”
I laughingly clinked my wineglass against his beer. “Nice. How about anybody else from the office?”
As an independent contractor, I was often slightly set apart from the rest of the workings of any company where I was hired for PR.
Danny shrugged. “Not really. Here in New York, there's us and then the rest of the crew is engineers and tech people. They have their own clique. We’re the only two in the New York office that have much interaction with Lucas. I mean, he works with the engineering team on designs and whatever they're working on, but it's a different relationship. It's not the same as the day-to-day stuff we handle,” he explained.
“Ah, I see. I have to say this office seems to run pretty smoothly. Sometimes when I start at places, there are all kinds of undercurrents rumbling under the surface. It’s pretty drama free here.”
Suzanne grinned. “That's my doing. I have little patience for gossip and whatnot, so we try to run a tight ship. Our larger HR department is out in the main office at headquarters.”
“How much time does Lucas spend in this office?” I asked, unable to tamp down my curiosity about him.
Danny angled his head to the side thoughtfully. “It varies. Sometimes he's here more than he’s in headquarters, but he travels a lot no matter what. We have locations here, in California, a small office in London and another one in Amsterdam. By far, he spends the most time between here and Silicon Valley,” Danny explained.
“Do you mind me asking how long you’ve known Lucas?” I asked.
I had heard from Danny, as well as Lucas, that they’d been friends for years.
Danny grinned. “Not at all. We met each other in third grade.”
“Wow, that’s a long time. Did you guess he'd be a genius back then?”
Danny chuckled. “Actually, he was the smartest kid in class. He loves what he does, and I love working for him. He’s a great boss.”