CHAPTER 35DENISE
CHAPTER 35
DENISE
It was easy to focus on work and not on the fact that I’d just confirmed that Hugh and I were together to the entire office. I couldn’t even blame it on the constant buzz of desire that had been stoked all day, it was more than that. It felt good. Being with him felt right. Being in his home felt natural. There was a nagging voice in the back of my brain that was talking about timing and things being too quick, but I was ignoring it.
Every moment of our relationship had brought me joy and excitement. Yes, things were happening quickly, but our pace was our pace. I’d known him for a long time. We’d spent so many long nights and lunches together… This was just the next step in our evolution.
I’d drafted emails to the three firms that we’d chosen and had just shot them over to legal for review when my phone buzzed and I flipped it over. Cleo’s text was short and sweet.
You free?
I gave the message a thumbs up and not even ten seconds later there was a knock before she barged right in and sat across from me, her hands on her knees.
She hadn’t been here long but had already grown comfortable strolling the halls with her signature monochrome look. I’d given up a long time ago trying to get the girl to embrace any fraction of color in her wardrobe.
When I just stared, she took that as an invitation and started to talk.
“You’re coming speed-dating with me tonight,” she proclaimed.
I turned away from my desk to give her my full attention. I, especially, needed her to see the full what-the-actual-fuck stare I knew was clear on my face.
“Speed. Dating?” I repeated, needing her to fill in the gaps.
“You owe me.” Her tone was aggressive. Too aggressive. I raised my eyebrows and she raised hers back. Okay. I had to think about how to approach this. She was normally an oversharer, but all this shit with Lucian was locked in a vault, and that only made me much more curious. I knew if she didn’t want to talk, she wouldn’t. But, if she got a little booze in her system, she’d sing like a drunk canary…
“Okay,” I said, trying to think of how the fuck to explain this to Hugh.
Breaking the rules was delicious. Painfully delicious. But this? Yeah, sure, he’s handled me acting bratty well, but going on a bunch of dates? I didn’t think that was bratty territory, and it fell more into getting a not-so-happy punishment.
“Good. We’ll head to the Hyatt in thirty,” Cleo stood and left before I could even come up with a reply or ask her to text Hugh for me.
Fuck. I pulled up his calendar and saw he was in a meeting with Lucian and wouldn’t be out before we left. I pulled open my phone. It took five minutes to write and rewrite the text that I sent over.
Cleo needs me. We’re going speed-dating tonight at the Hyatt at 4:30… It’s not serious...
Telling the truth made my ass twinge, but lying would have been worse. I sat for a few moments, shutting my eyes and waiting for the vibrator torture to start up all over again. I wasn’t sure how he was going to reply. Hell, I was half expecting him to storm right out of Lucian’s office and through my door. Instead, his reply was short and confusing as fuck.
Okay.
Umm, what the hell? Was that an ‘okay, sure’? Or was it a ‘yeah, okay, go ahead, I dare you’? Or was it a ‘do what you want, I don’t care, okay’?
Fucking Cleo.
I leaned in my seat grumbling and more than a little pissed that Cleo couldn’t just get drunk in the bar with me like usual. Who goes speed-dating, anyway? I thought our generation favored swiping and hooking up in bars. Grabbing my bag, I touched up my lipstick and tried to mentally prepare for whatever the night held, hopefully, I wasn’t assing myself out of the orgasm I’d been teetering on all day.