Emily wasn’t so sure. “I never thought I’d say this, but I guarantee there’s nothing more to it than sex.” The reality of the assurance sank in her gut like a stone. It was obvious Justin adored Antonio as much as Antonio did him. She was a prop. Not that she minded the fun. Now was a good time to cement in her head that was all it was.
“It’s my ghost date.” Paul’s chipper tone cut through the quiet mood. He strolled into the kitchen and draped an arm around Emily’s shoulders.
The gesture crawled over her skin like a million pinpricks. She swallowed the response. No reason to overreact. She gave him a quick squeeze, then ducked from under his arm. “Any coffee left?”
“Help yourself.” Cynthia nodded at the pot. “Paul can tell you his amazing news.”
“Okay?” Emily poured herself a drink, added cream and sugar, and stayed on the opposite end of the kitchen.
He grinned. “I got a job. I’m being brought on as a retainer at the same investment firm as you.”
“Which means the asshole will only be underfoot for a few more weeks, until he gets his first check.” Cynthia’s tone was light and playful.
“That’s awesome.” A strange uneasiness climbed through Emily, but she couldn’t name its cause. She shoved it aside and focused on her happiness. “It’s a great place to be. Congratulations.”
He beamed brightly. “Thank you. Do I get a congratulatory hug?”
The request struck her as odd. “Sure.” She set her mug down and held her arms open as he embraced her. He held on a little longer than he needed to. Or she was imagining it. Maybe she was letting this thing with Justin and Antonio become more personal than she wanted to admit. Time to get over that.
Still, acid churned in her gut when she squeezed Paul back, then had to nudge him to back away.
Chapter Sixteen
JUSTIN DIDN’T EXPECTto get into the evening as much as he had. The first night he was with Emily, when they shared the fantasy of Antonio joining them, Justin told himself a big part of the turn on was hearing her talk dirty and glimpsing that flash of her kink not obvious on the surface.
Last night he told himself it was about Emily. She wanted to play and seized the chance when she saw it. As he was drawn deeper into the scene, watching her with Antonio and being a part of the moment, her comment about the intimacy clicked. It was Monday morning now, and feathers of being with both of them lingered in his mind.
Everything else aside, he was grateful things weren’t awkward with Antonio. A heat-of-the-moment fling wasn’t worth losing his best friend over. Then again, if they didn’t meet this deadline, Justin would lose him anyway, when Antonio went back to Italy to take over the family business.
Which meant he needed to pull his head out of the clouds and get back to work. Starting with ensuring their contractor wasn’t freaked out or intimidated by the weekend. He could place a phone call to either Antonio or Emily, but he needed to look her in the eye and make sure she was okay with everything too.
Antonio wasn’t in his office when Justin approached, but the murmur of voices drifted toward him. He rounded the corner to Emily’s cubicle and paused, curious. She sat in front of her computer. Antonio stood behind her, hand on the back of her chair, side of his palm against her back and head bent low so they could talk without their voices carrying. Neither of them looked up at Justin’s arrival, but he was close enough to hear the conversation.
“Call the tracking API from your ETL using the CLR. They’re labeled according to function.” Antonio pointed at her screen.
Emily shook her head. “It won’t compile on my local server. I don’t think it’s my configuration; I’ve mirrored the sandbox.”