“Guys, look.Ifsomething happened between me and someone at work, it would be pretty reckless of me to go talking about it. Especially at work, right?”
The two of them shared another look.
“But if I was going to tell anybody anything, it’d be you, Elizabeth. And maybe you, Farhad.”
“The fuck?” He muttered to nobody in particular.
Elizabeth ignored him and leaned in, hugging me. She put her mouth to my ear and whispered. “Blink if you hooked up with Mr. Lockwood.” She pulled back, gripping both shoulders and staring intently into my eyes.
Like a normal human being, I blinked. She fist pumped victoriously, winked at me, and yanked Farhad away from my desk by the arm.
“Maybe you?” He said quietly as he left, shaking his head.
I was smiling to myself until I remembered I still had twenty pages to review and a vanishingly small time to do it. My smile completely faded when I remembered the last words Dominic had said on that roof. He’d said it didn’t mean anything. Of course, I’d been stupidly hearing wedding bells while I was sucking his cock because I was delusional and way too quick to get attached when I got physical with people.
I mean, wasn’t putting someone’s penis in your mouth a pretty big step? Personally, if I had to draw a roadmap from dating to marriage, there would be at least one dick in a mouth along the way. Maybe toss a romantic foot rub in there for good measure andboom.It was a clear-cut path to marriage and happily ever after. So what the hell did he mean with what he said to Marcus? A dumb mistake? I didn’t know about him, but I’d never ended up with a penis in my mouth by mistake.
I wanted to march right to his office and demand he explain exactly what I was to him. But I couldn’t ask without making things more weird than they already were. If he’d really meant what he said, I’d be making it obvious that I was hoping he didn’t mean any of that. I had to play it cool, which wasn’t exactly my specialty. I was about as cool as the bag of shrimp I got last week with my groceries and forgot about on the counter with the bread for two days until my whole apartment smelled like death.
All I could do was look inside and ask myself how I felt about this. Did IwantDominic to think what we did was just fooling around? Just a little lipstick on the boss’ dipstick?
If there really were no feelings involved, that was kind of good, right? Because that brief experience on the roof had easily been a peak life experience, and he’d barely even got his hands on me. I knew with every fiber of my being that I wantedmore.I didn’t even know if it mattered how I got it, but I was not going to die happy and satisfied if I didn’t at least get that orgasm he owed me.
The part I didn’t understand was whether I wanted it to be a no strings sort of deal. If there were no strings, then there was nothing to get tangled up in. We could have our fun and go on with our lives mostly as usual. But what if I wanted a string or two? Strings were kinda fun, weren’t they? At least cats seem to think so.
I rubbed my eyes and tried to remind myself to stop getting distracted. I needed to finish this editing pass because I didn’t want to send Dominic something with even a single typo. I wanted to prove to him that I could do more than just the average piece. Maybe then he’d reconsider blowing off my pitch, because no matter what he said, I was absolutely not giving up on that one. I knew it would be good for the magazine, even if his stubborn ass wanted to pretend otherwise.
I stole a glance in the direction of his office. His blinds were open, as usual. Tristan and Marcus were in there and the three of them were all standing and gesturing like they were having some kind of argument. Dominic looked especially pissed.
I chewed the end of a pencil, watching and wondering what the hell that was about. My chest went cold when I considered the possibility that it could be about what Marcus had seen on the roof. But Dominic said we could trust him to keep quiet, didn’t he?
If it wasn’t about us, what had them all so upset?
21
DOMINIC
Darcy crossed a new line last night. I’d been avoiding her ever since our encounter on the roof at Ally’s party, but last night she sent a text. It was just two emojis and a question mark. The first was what I assumed was a raindrop and the second was a check followed by a question mark.
Rain check?
Just looking at the text had made me instantly hard. I knew exactly what she wanted and I doubted she knew just how badly I wanted to give it to her. But things had changed, and I couldn’t afford to let things between us go any further than they already had.
I laced up my shoes a little too tight and rolled my neck, working out the morning stiffness. It was Saturday and I planned to work for most of the day, but I needed a run to clear my head. I left my apartment and walked to the park, cycling songs on my phone until I found a playlist that felt right.
It was a misty, cold morning. The air felt wet and clingy and I could barely see the sky between the towering buildings all around. New York always felt like home to me because nobody here was ever satisfied. There was a sense of it in the air. Everybody moved with a kind of frenetic urgency, as if the thing they were chasing was always just out of reach, but they were going to try anyway.
I could relate to that feeling, except I usually felt like that thing I wanted so badly was to finally separate myself from my father in every way possible. I wanted my own business, my own success, and I didn’t want to feel like my father could slip his bony fingers into my life at any moment. But lately, I spent far more of my time thinking about Darcy–about how I wished I could simply take her and have her like I wanted. I wanted to wave my hands and erase all the fog of uncertainty around the two of us–for the correct move to be reaching out and taking what should’ve been mine.
I started my jog early, weaving around the foot traffic. My feet pounded the pavement and each step helped focus my mind like drum beats.
I was well into the process of turning my brain off when I crossed the street into the park and headed down my usual trail. I passed a few dog walkers and a large group of seniors speed walking. Then I saw a small woman from the corner of my eye coming toward me at slow speeds with high effort. Her arms were pumping and her short legs churned, but it seemed like she was moving in slow motion despite her efforts.
My pace faltered and I turned my head to look.
What. The. Fuck.
Darcy McClain came jogging up beside me in workout clothes. She had on pastel blue leggings and a pink top that bared her shoulders and a distracting amount of cleavage. Her short hair was pulled up in a tiny knot on top. She pulled out an earbud and looked up at me. We were still running. If I moved any slower, I would’ve had to break into a walk, but Darcy looked like she was at her top speed.