Bad Boss by Stella Rhys

19

SARA

“Thank Godit’s finally perfect out.” Lia slid her shades on as she tipped her head back, basking under the sun of the breezy mid-seventies weather.

Last week’s heat wave was officially over with, making the twentieth-floor terrace lounge at Hoult Tower the new spot to have lunch. It was a gorgeous space with black rattan benches, white pillows and bright, leafy green plants serving as partitions for privacy. Thank God for that, because there was no guessing what might come out of Lia’s mouth.

“Maybe your sex life with Julian controls the weather.”

And there it was. I adjusted Julian’s Persols on my face as I turned my head slowly to her.

“I hesitate to ask, but what in the fresh hell are you talking about?”

“How do you not see it?” she sassed. “The heat wave came when you guys were being cold and mean to each other. Now it’s gone because you’ve been having nonstop sweaty office sex. And it’s particularly cool out today because you guys… really went for it this morning, I mean damn.”

She wasn’t wrong about that, and I knew I’d regret telling her, but this morning’s romp was way too good to be kept a secret.

“I think he learned that move from Lukas.”

“Lia!” I jolted upright. “Ew!”

“What? I’m talking about the location, not the actual positions! But fine, fine, Lukas did not invent fucking in the bathroom,” Lia conceded as I buried my face in my hands.

We’d had sex in the restroom of a ritzy steakhouse this morning, and I was getting wet just thinking about it now. I hadn’t taken my eyes off of Julian once in that mirror. I’d had the pleasure of watching every second of him – the way his perfect jaw dropped when he first entered me to the way his gorgeous features pulled so tight as he burst to a finish inside me. It was our usual rushed, hot sex, but it also felt different because he’d kissed me deeply for a good two or three minutes after, ignoring the knocks on the door from all the poor people who had to use the bathroom.

“I need to get my fill before I go,” he’d explained, grinning.

Thanks to our Biarritz trip on Monday, he was packed with meetings out of the office from eleven till six, so I didn’t protest. I needed to get my fill too.

“I take it all the people in the office know by now?” Lia asked, shaking me out of my memory. “That you’re sleeping with Julian?”

“I think if you say it any louder, Lia, they’ll definitely know.”

“I’m pretty sure it’s not my volume that’s giving you guys away,” Lia sassed. “Did you not tell me you guys had a moaning contest in the conference room on Wednesday?”

“I’m almost certain I didn’t phrase it that way.”

“You’re starting to talk like him,” Lia gasped.

“I take that as a compliment,” I replied.

“Oh God, you guys are gross. Your level of admiration for each other is almost self-congratulatory, because you’re basically the same person.”

I burst out laughing as I chucked a balled-up napkin at her.

“It’s true!” Lia giggled. “But I secretly love that about you two. You both are very similar in great ways, and that’s exactly why I called it in the first place that you’d make an awesome couple. Me. Lia. I said it,” Lia jabbed her thumb at herself. “I actually made a bet about it, which reminds me that Lukas owes me twenty dollars.”

“Lukas bet against me?” I feigned a gasp. “How rude.”

“In all fairness, he bet against Julian’s ability to feel things,” Lia snorted. “That guy. I swear he never has girlfriends. He never even talks about flings or one-night stands, so we’re not even fully sure that he has them. He’s just so crazy about work.”

“Yeah, well… we’ll see if this thing between us lasts past work.”

“What are you talking about?” Lia frowned.

I groaned as I sat up straight.

“I don’t know, Lia, nor do I really want to get into it right now,” I muttered, shaking the ice left in my coffee. “My contract lasts three months or however long the Roth negotiations take. After that, I have trouble imagining that Julian is going to think much about me if I’m not at his office and in front of his face every day.”

“You don’t know that.”

“No, I don’t know anything for sure, but I do know what the most realistic turnout would be,” I said, keeping my voice casual to disguise how much my heart was twisting under my chest.

“And what would that be?” Lia asked, tipping her shades up.

I drew in a deep breath. “That even if Julian Hoult did feel some tiny fraction of a thing for me, he would probably be really good at forcing himself to forget it if he had to. I mean look at who he is, where he’s gotten himself. I’m a workaholic, but he’s a machine, and a month-long whirlwind isn’t going to affect a machine. It’s just going to bounce off of him because he’s made of steel. That’s what it takes to run an empire like his. Right?”

I looked over to find Lia quiet and hugging her knees to her chest, as if I’d just hurt her feelings.

“Jesus, girl,” she said. “That’s not the attitude.”

I heaved a sigh and shrugged. “Sorry. I just want to be a big girl about it now, so it doesn’t hurt me later.”

“I get it,” she said in a small voice. “You know I totally get that. I just…” She sucked in a deep breath and let it out. “I wouldn’t have snagged Lukas without you pushing me and being the little troublemaker you were,” she smirked. “Sometimes I think about what might have slipped through my fingers if you didn’t force me to woman up and just go for it with him. He’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and after all the shit you’ve been through, I just want the best thing to happen to you.”

“Daw. Lia.” I wiggled my lips to hide the fact that she’d just made me emotional. “I appreciate that,” I said as she flashed me a pout that said “sorry,” because she knew I didn’t like getting mushy or weepy. I smiled. “But hey, have you ever considered that maybe you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me?”

“Oh, I agree wholeheartedly I am,” she said to make me laugh. “But I’m the best thing in a different category. There’s a few. Social life, love life and career.”

“Jesus, you have it all,” I realized. “You dirty whore.”

“Ha! Is this a bad time to say that Lukas is texting and wants us to leave now for the Hamptons?”

“No, it’s not a bad time, because I’m thoroughly done talking to you,” I joked, ruffling her hair as we got up from the benches. “Go furnish that beautiful beach house of yours, you domestic little thing.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to come with? I can tell Lukas to wait till five.”

“Absolutely not. You’d hit rush hour. Also, I’d puke out the window within the first two minutes of watching you two googly eye each other.”

“We do get pretty gross sometimes,” Lia admitted with a snort. “Alright, woman. Then enjoy your Friday and the rest of your weekend without being a Negative Nancy, alright?” she said firmly, narrowing her eyes at me. “No overanalyzing things while I’m not here to talk it out with you. Just…” She held her hands out in some zen meditation pose. “Enjoy the now.”

“I’ll enjoy the now even more if you get out of here already.”

“Rude. Hug me goodbye!” Lia demanded, which I of course did, throwing in a bunch of kisses on the cheek before sending her off.

* * *

After a long dayof conference calls with Colin and the people from the Biarritz resort, I was exhausted. It felt like the realest day of work I’d had thus far, and it didn’t help that Julian was out at meetings since the morning. I didn’t realize how much slower time passed without him around to occasionally glance at.

Or, of course, sneak office quickies with.

“Wow. Weather’s gonna be nice this weekend,” Colin said, looking at the forecast on his phone as we headed for the elevator. “Any plans?” he asked.

“Actually, no,” I realized with a wince of disappointment.

“Aw man. Why not?”

I laughed. “Probably because I’m still not used to having weekends. I worked at least six days a week at my last job, and if I had Sundays off, it was strictly for decompressing,” I said, silently marveling at how incredibly long ago that felt. “Also, now that I actually have some free time, my best friend is the one who’s always busy. She and her boyfriend just bought a house out in the Hamptons, so they’re always out there.”

“Wow! Very nice,” Colin remarked as we stepped in the elevator. “On the bright side, we get to go to sunny Biarritz, France on Monday.”

“Yes! God, it came up so fast. I really can’t wait. I haven’t been out of the country in ages.”

“Well, you’ll love it there. And Julian’s pretty cool about giving employees time to explore when they’re on business trips.”

“Yeah?” I smiled. “That’s nice of him.”

“Yeah, he’s a great boss. Can’t really beat working for him.”

I nodded and went quiet.

It was an innocuous remark, but it was yet another reminder that at some point, I would no longer be working for Julian. And as ridiculous as it was to miss something before it was even gone, I was very much starting to do that.

“Alright, Sara, enjoy your weekend!” Colin waved goodbye when the elevator finally opened to the lobby.

“You too!” I called after him as he rushed out of the building, presumably to meet his roommates he mentioned having plans with.

Walking through the lobby, I listened to the thunderous clacking of what sounded like a thousand pairs of shoes on marble. It was the usual Friday dash, when tower employees controlled their urge to just race for the doors and start the weekend already. It made me naturally antsy to walk faster myself, despite the fact that I had gorgeous eighty-degree weather and absolutely nowhere to go.

Balls. I made a face to myself, realizing how bummed I actually was about this.

But when I emerged from the tower, my eyes were immediately drawn toward a gleaming black sedan parked directly in front of its doors.

For reasons I couldn’t understand yet, a smile twitched onto my lips.

I had never in my life felt as if a car was watching me, but for some reason, I felt that now as I squinted at the tinted backseat windows. I didn’t even realize my feet had gravitated across the sidewalk to the car till I was standing at its passenger door and watching the window roll down.

“Hi there,” Julian greeted me from the far end of the backseat.

“Hi,” I returned, unable to restrain my smile. He looked so sexy just sitting there with his jacket on but his tie off, and those blue eyes glinting at me with a hint of mischief. My heart skipped because I knew right away that he’d been waiting for me. I read his intentions from the first second I saw him. But for perhaps the sake of amusement, we went through the formality of small talk.

“How was your day?” Julian asked.

“Good,” I said, the cool breeze blowing hair out of my face. “And how was yours, Mr. Hoult?”

“Good as well,” Julian replied with a smirk.

“Glad to hear it,” I nodded.

The same knowing grin curved our lips as I simply stood on the sidewalk, the two of us eyeing each other for another beat of silence before Julian laughed and said, “Do you have plans tonight?”

A smile burst onto my lips.

“Not at all,” I replied as I heard the sound of him unlocking the doors.

“Good. Then get in.”