Chapter Four
S YLVIE COULDN ’ T HELP IT . She spent the entire day watching the clock.
She watched, and she waited. She met with the board.
They told her that they were in the process of selling to RedMedia.
She had smiled, in many ways grateful that she’d had the heads-up.
Yes, it was only Christos gloating, but at least this wasn’t her being blindsided.
At least. It was perhaps the only consolation.
“I oppose this,” she said.
“It doesn’t matter if you oppose it or not,” said Daniela, one of the directors when she caught Sylvie in the hall after the meeting.
“This is the decision that we’ve made. It’s the best thing for the company.
It might be the only way we can ensure our survival beyond the past five years.
Unless you’re going to personally go online holding one of our books and doing a choreographed dance in hopes of going viral. ”
“I would,” Sylvie responded. “Except I don’t think we need to do that. I think what we need to do is to continue to focus on our editorial.”
“That’s naive, Sylvie,” Daniela said. “You must realize that. If you love books, you should work in an industry other than publishing. This isn’t about stories. It’s about profit margins. And we’re fighting for our lives here. We are too small to compete. If we have RedMedia behind us—”
“He isn’t going to do anything to push this company specifically. He is simply going to strip it for parts.”
“Even then, at least they’ll be valuable parts, and we’ll have a hope of getting out of this with some money in our pockets.”
She wanted to scream. She wanted to rage.
If all she wanted was money in her pockets she could have gone and worked at a Jamba Juice.
Then at least she wouldn’t be working sixteen-hour days and dealing with constant acid reflux and nightmares that disrupted her sleep.
Constant feelings of failure and inadequacy.
No. She would probably still have those.
They were certainly linked with the publisher, but they weren’t only about the publisher.
“I’m going to vote against this.”
“You’re welcome to,” Daniela said. “But it won’t make a difference. This is a largely unanimous decision. But Christos said that he was going to give you an opportunity to review the contract—”
“Christos?” Sylvie asked, crossing her arms and regarding the other woman closely. “First-name basis. Wow. Are you sure you’re not just agreeing to this deal because the man in question is a handsome devil? Because the key word here is devil , Daniela. He is quite literally Satan.”
And with that, she turned and went back to her office.
She stewed, and then she turned her focus to tonight.
The problem was there was nothing she could do about the Christos Onassis situation at the moment.
All she could do was see to the day-to-day operations of the company while the dark storm cloud that was Lucifer hung over her as the world’s most depressing threat.
She could do nothing about it. She had to stop ruminating about it. She had to stop letting it eat her from the inside out like a feral animal. A small, wretched animal with sharp snapping teeth and oily claws.
She leaned back in her chair and looked up at the ceiling. Then she looked at the time. She had half expected him to text her, though he didn’t tend to during the workday.
But they were meeting tonight . They were meeting tonight.
She should ruminate on that because she could do something about it.
She had downloaded a particularly erotic romance novel and felt a lashing of guilt for buying something from an evil online conglomerate rather than her own company, but she needed a specific thing. An erotic romance about anonymous sex, and she had paid particular attention to the details.
She knew about sex.
She knew the mechanics. But she had always found it easier to learn something by doing it, and therefore it wasn’t like she felt entirely as if she knew what she was doing.
As soon as work was over, she left. She was prone to staying late, but she wasn’t doing that today.
Yes, she needed to see to the day-to-day operations of the company, but if she was destined to lose this job, then she was going to go home and spend that time preparing herself.
She went back to her apartment, and she turned on some music, before taking her clothes off and slipping into the shower. She sadly wished that her apartment was big enough to have a bathtub. She supposed she should just be grateful that she had her own bathroom and not a shared one in the hallway.
She smoothed lightly scented lotion all over her skin. She wanted to be soft. If all he could do was touch her, then she wanted to…
Just thinking about it made her shiver.
She carefully selected a pair of underwear that was sexy, even though he wouldn’t see it. He would feel that it was lace and thin. He would know that it was for him.
She bit her lip, arousal coursing through her. It was twenty-five minutes until they were supposed to meet.
Her phone lit up.
Baby: 807
It was the room number. That was all.
She checked her appearance in the mirror, which was silly, because he wasn’t going to see her. But she wanted to feel beautiful.
Her hair was wild, and her makeup was as inexpertly done as it ever was. She couldn’t say that she felt beautiful. She felt like herself.
But he seemed to want her.
So that had to mean something. She needed it to.
She stepped outside and decided to get in the cab that was passing, rather than fussing around with a rideshare app.
“The Luxe.”
She sat back, tension spreading across her shoulders, up the back of her neck.
Her heart was pounding hard, anxiety ripping through her body, creating a sharp feeling at the center of her breastbone, making her stomach feel sick.
She was very used to anxiety.
Excitement?
Yes. Maybe it was just excitement. Something she was far less familiar with. Something she wanted more of. God. She wanted more of it. She wanted ecstasy. She wanted… She wanted to feel special. She wanted to feel wanted. She was so lonely.
She hadn’t really let herself focus on how lonely she was until just this moment.
She craved another person’s hands on her. It did matter that they were meeting. It was okay that it was anonymous. She just wanted him to touch her.
She wanted him so much.
She nearly tumbled out of the cab after she paid when it pulled up to the curb, and she all but raced inside the hotel. She paused at the front desk. “I’m meant to be in room 807.”
She also had no idea how that was going to work, because he must’ve given the hotel his name, but not hers, because he didn’t have it.
The employee did not seem put off by this. “Of course. Here you are.”
He handed her a key.
So he had arranged this. Perfectly.
He must be a man with money. That surprised her. She hadn’t thought of him being…
She made a decent salary, but she had sacrificed quite a bit of it in the interest of trying to reinvigorate the company. It was why she lived so modestly.
Granted, she lived in New York, so modest was on a sliding scale, but she would have to think twice before throwing money down for a room like this. And after thinking twice would have to come to the conclusion that she couldn’t afford it.
But the service that she had gotten, the way she hadn’t been questioned…
He had left a specific set of instructions, and they had been followed.
She got into the elevator and touched her key to the panel inside. It began to take her up to the top floor.
She swallowed hard, unsure of what she would find when she got there. Except him.
You want this. You want this.
She said that to herself as she made her way out of the elevator and down the hallway. There were very few rooms on this floor.
She touched her key to the door and pushed it open. Her mouth was dry, her heart thundering. She let the door close behind her.
“Hello?”
She walked deeper into the space, holding her hands out, trying not to fall.
“I’m here.”
And suddenly, a hand reached from somewhere in the darkness and took hold of her arm. Pulled her close. “I’ve been waiting.”
A thrill shot down her spine. His voice was deep. He was speaking in a near whisper and softening it, but she could still tell that it was a low rumble.
There was something that itched at the back of her brain, but anything that had been in her brain suddenly evaporated, because he was, very suddenly, claiming her mouth. It was real. This was real, and so was he.
He was kissing her with a heat and fire that she had never experienced before. The fumbles that she’d engaged in in college had been tepid enough that she had not been tempted to pursue anything more, but this—it was a whole inferno. And she was desperate. For everything.
It was entirely dark, and she had no idea how he navigated them through the space. Perhaps it was the magic of him having been here longer than her. His eyes were maybe accustomed to the dimness, but certainly not enough to be able to see details.
Once they were in the bedroom area, he began to kiss her again.
She wanted to talk. She wanted to say Finally. She wanted to do this like they would if they were on the phone. Ask about his day while he asked about hers.
But she didn’t.
Instead, she let herself get consumed by the kiss. Instead, she let herself begin to drown in it. In him.
It was magical. Beyond anything that she had ever experienced.
His large hands moved to span her waist, to grip her hips, to pull her hard against him so that she could feel the evidence of his arousal pushing against her stomach.
He did want her. She was here in the flesh, and he wanted her.
It was simply astonishing.
As was he.
He was so much taller than she had imagined. She had thought he might be three inches taller than her, not what felt like half a foot. She could feel how large he was, broad and muscular. He was solid, a great mountain of a man.