“I was actually thinking it’s his ego he’s trying to find space for.”
“Did you see the guys who showed up this morning to meet with him?” Elizabeth asked. “I think you might’ve been in the bathroom, but they’re in his office now. These two gorgeous guys just strolled right through the office and headed in there. Do you think they’re his brothers? And how is it that all the mega hot guys seem to travel in packs? Do they meet up at a convention and figure out a convenient schedule then pair off? Is it a ploy by clothing companies to make us ruin our panties so we have to buy more?”
Farhad gave Elizabeth the dry look to end all dry looks. As usual, she ignored him.
“He doesn’t have brothers,” I said.
“Wait,” Farhad said. “How do you know that?”
I sighed. “I actually had a run-in with this guy a while back, but you can’t tell a soul, okay? I don’t want him to remember me. He already hates me enough after our little chat in his office yesterday. The last thing he needs is more fuel.”
Last night, I met both Farhad and Elizabeth for drinks. I’d told them just about everything that happened after Dominic dragged me out of the meeting. They’d been rapt with attention. Elizabeth suggested I should’ve tried to suck his cock at least a dozen times. I definitely had too many drinks, though, and I was still feeling the dull thump of my hangover between my eyes.
“Okay,” Elizabeth said. “But if you’re going to swear me to juicy secrecy, I need more details. How do you know this guy? Did you two hook up or something? How big was it? It was big, right?”
“Keep it in your pants, Elizabeth,” I said, laughing. “And no. I wrote something for my school newspaper at Columbia.”
“You went to Columbia? What the hell are you doing here?” Farhad asked.
“I didn’t finish,” I said with a sour note. “The piece wasn’t flattering towards our dear leader or his father. His daddy decided to throw his weight around until the academic review board agreed to make a false claim that I’d plagiarized portions of the piece. No amount of indignation orfactsmattered. I ended up expelled and the internship I was supposed to get atThe Union Coastwas canceled. So, yeah. Not only did this fucker screw my life up once, it looks like he’s going to haunt me like some stupid, sexy ghost and keep doing it.”
“Damn,” Elizabeth said. “Maybe you should sleep with him. That would teach him.”
“What would that teach him?” Farhad asked. “And since when are you so obnoxiously horny?”
“I’m always like this.” Elizabeth managed to sound indignant.
“Well, at least I have a date to look forward to tonight,” I said.
“What?” Elizabeth punched my arm hard enough that I had to rub the spot.
I glared at her. “Punches are not punctuation marks, Elizabeth. I don’t know how many times we need to have this conversation. But, yeah, I went on a dating app last night and set something up. I felt like I deserved a little distraction after yesterday.”
“You were drunk as hell when we left. Were you really in the right state of mind to set up a date?”
“Of course I was.”
We all went dead silent when Dominic and his two shadows emerged from the office. They were all tall pictures of perfection. Dominic was the one who looked like he’d poison you and smile if you crossed him. The man to his left had wild, dirty blonde hair and stubble to match. He was a little bigger and had more of theI’ll toss you out a window if you piss me offlook.I decided he was the brute. The other man was black haired with sleek features and had a kind of graceful air to him. My first impression was he was the one who would simply laugh it off if you crossed him.
The three of them were quite a sight, and my insides went rigid when I realized they were done talking to the contractor and headed straight toward us.
“Should we run?” I asked, trying not to move my lips too much.
“What? No. Maybe we should lift our shirts. Offer our breasts to them and they may take us back to their cave.”
“Jesus Christ. You weirdos are on your own.” Farhad snatched his coffee and stormed off, leaving us to fend for ourselves.
I realized I had my phone in my hand to show Elizabeth the guy I’d matched with. When Dominic was close enough, his eyes went straight to it. “Playing on dating apps at work?” he asked. “Did you already give up convincing me you’re too perfect to fire?”
“Who is this?” The blonde brute asked.
Dominic sighed, as if introductions were beneath him. “Tristan, this is Darcy McClain. Little c, big C. And this is…uh,” he gestured vaguely towards Elizabeth.
She crouched a little, knees knocking together as she brought her hand by her cheek and waved. A very weird, breathy noise escaped her. “Hi, Mr. Lockwood. I’m your Elizabeth.”
Did she just say “your” Elizabeth?
He paid her no attention, turning to point at the blonde one. “This is Tristan. He’ll be working on our expansion efforts. And this is Marcus,” he pointed to the one with black hair. “Marcus deals with client relations.”