Chapter Eleven
Groaning, Soph pulled the doona over her head to block out the morning sunlight that poured through the bedroom window. Who had forgotten to close the blinds?
She felt utterly wretched as she rolled over to try to get more comfortable; she regretted the champagne that made her head throb and her stomach roil.
“Morning.”
She stilled, then threw back the covers to find Eli leaning on the doorframe in only his briefs. He smiled at her, crossing his arms over his bare chest.
“You’re still here!” She blurted, and his eyebrow rose.
“You seem surprised. Do you normally bring home the walk of shame types?” She glowered at him, but he wasn’t done. “I don’t blame them, to be honest. I’m trying to make you breakfast and all you have are three eggs and two slices of bread of a questionable age. Plenty of alcohol, though. Do you live on a liquid diet?”
“I normally get take out,” she retorted, though she couldn’t deny his efforts were sweet. Her usual hookups were definitely not the type to hang around.
“Hmm.” He pushed off the doorframe and came into the room. “It’s probably for the best that we don’t go out in public today.” He crawled up the bed and for a moment she thought he was proposing that they fuck again, but he merely lay beside her.
“Why, what happened?” Dread settled like acid in the pit of her stomach.
“You better check the entertainment news.”
She grabbed her phone from the bedside table and opened her browser, ignoring the five missed calls she had from Luie.
“At last night’s Sincere unveiling, CEO of SinCorp and this year’s most eligible bachelor, Eli Damiani was spotted with an unknown mystery woman,” Soph read from Goss Spot. “His standards appear to have fallen from his usual choice of actresses and models…” she trailed off in dismay, looking at the accompanying photos of her getting out of Eli’s car and being shielded by his bouncers. They really knew how to make a girl feel great.
“Here, read this one instead.” Eli passed her his phone. Soph read aloud from EntertainMe.
“Is this year’s most eligible bachelor not so eligible? Eli Damiani was sighted at the Sincere opening last night with a new brunette bombshell. The leggy delight had commentators suggesting that Damiani was punching above his weight. Her name is still unknown…” she skipped down to the pictures of herself, standing beside Eli in front of the sponsor’s wall. In this photo, she looked great. “That one’s a bit nicer,” she said, then she groaned. “What are we going to do? This is madness! My face is all over the internet!”
“We’ll say it was a work thing,” Eli suggested easily. He took his phone back and tossed it on the bedside table. Soph eyed him dubiously.
“Do you take all your work things home and fuck them?”
He rolled towards her, propping himself up so he could look down at her. “I believe you were the one who took me home, Witchling.”
His tone had heat skittering beneath her skin. She still pinned him with a frank look, which he returned with a smirk. This close, she could see marks on his shoulder that looked like crescent shaped bruises - a result of their second go around the night before. “Anyone would think you’re the vampire,” he said, following her gaze. “You are feisty when you’re getting your rocks off.”
“Oh my god,” she groaned. “I was drunk!”
He shifted and straddled her, sliding his hands up her sides and pushing her arms above her head. He leaned down so that his lips almost touched hers. “I bet you scream just as loud when you’re sober,” he whispered.
“I can smell something burning,” she whispered back. Eli sat up, then in a flash his weight was gone and the room was empty. She heard him curse from the kitchen. She sighed and picked up her phone again. This time, she read her text messages. There were four from Luie.
- OMFG Soph! Eli Damiani? Why didn’t you tell me?
- Will you pick up your fucking phone? We need to discuss!
- I swear to God, Soph, if you don’t tell me every little detail, I’ll hate you forever!
- Please Soph, pick up your phone!
Soph bit her lip, then wrote a reply.
- Chill. Was just a work thing. Nothing going on between us x
Luie texted back almost immediately.
- Both disappointed and relieved. Felt bad for Marco for a sec, but Eli is so damned hot!
Soph tossed her phone aside and pushed back the covers as guilt punched her in the stomach. She hadn’t thought of Marco once the night before, even though her evening had started as a double date with him. He’d almost kissed her. And then you took a vampire home and fucked him. Eli returned to the bedroom door.
“Dreadful news,” he told her. “The breakfast is burnt.”
“There’s a place down the street that does amazing breakfast burritos. I’ll get some delivered and Harvey will bring them up.”
Eli raised an eyebrow. “Your doorman? Can you trust him?”
“He’s very discreet,” Soph informed him and once again picked up her phone to make the order. Eli came back to the bed, once more crawling over it to straddle her.
“So you really do bring a lot of guys back here.”
Soph crossed her arms before Eli could pin them above her head again. “Not as many as you claimed to have been with in your bachelor article,” she replied tartly.
He smirked, but didn’t disagree with her. He kissed her, though.
She melted under his touch, her arms falling away from her chest. This was all so wrong, and yet she didn’t want to stop. His touch was magic.
“Wait,” she said, putting a hand on his chest to still him. “Just so we’re clear, this is just for fun, right? It’s not going to happen again?”
“Just a work thing,” he agreed. “Nothing more.”
“Good.” She looped her arm around his neck and pulled his lips back to hers.
* * *
“I can confirm that Sophia was not a date and was, in fact, a work acquaintance. Her design team at Paxus was the driving force behind the exceptional branding of SinCorp’s newest club, Sincere,” Eli said, his hands clasped behind his back.
“But why wait so long to make an announcement?” The reporter asked.
“Because I saw it as a non-issue. A work matter to be addressed in work hours, not on my day off.”
“So for the hopefully ladies out there, you can confirm that you’re still an eligible bachelor?”
Eli looked directly at the camera and smiled. “Very much so.”
Soph stopped the video and pulled her headphones out. After an absolute media frenzy on Sunday - during which her identity was revealed by none other than Rhonda - Eli had finally addressed the press that morning. Things weren’t quite in the clear yet, though. She still had to face her colleagues, and their potential reactions had her fiddling anxiously with her amulet. There was nothing for it, though. She had to pretend that her Saturday night had been a non-issue for her as well.
“Soph,” Bradley said before she even reached her desk. “My office, now, please.”
“Sure,” she dropped her bag by her desk and ignored the smug look on Rhonda’s face as she followed her boss. Bradley closed the door behind them. A bad sign. “Look Bradley,” she said before he could start on her. “I’m sorry I didn’t clear it with you first. It was a very last minute invitation by Eli, who I’ve previously had an acquaintance with and I so badly wanted to see Sincere up in lights.”
Bradley pursed his lips, then shook his head. “It would have been nice to be prepared for the media, Soph, plus you should have declared your potential conflict of interest with Mr Damiani.”
“I’m sorry,” she said again. “It really is just an acquaintance, and I thought since all our proposals were being submitted without attributes, that it wouldn’t matter.”
“And in the greater scheme of things, it doesn’t.” Bradley suddenly grinned. “The moment your name got out there, I started getting calls. Calls from big players. They want to work with us, Soph. They want to work with you!”
“Really?” Her mind reeled. Through the entire whirlwind of the weekend - the pleasure, the guilt, the fear of retribution - she hadn’t once considered that being connected with Eli might open up new networks for her company.
“I’ve already sent a note over to SinCorp to suggest that perhaps we have a team on hand for the openings of Sinners and Sinister to anticipate this sort of response. Perhaps you can attend those openings too? Of course, we’ve lost the element of surprise by you already accompanying Mr Damiani. But the press liked you. I don’t think it would be unrealistic for you to attend the functions alone. I know a PR guy who can help you with your messaging.”
Soph nodded, swallowing against the sudden lump forming in her throat. She had banked on getting back to work and being able to hide behind her superiors when it came to dealing with SinCorp. If she attended the openings of the next two clubs, she’d have to see Eli again. She couldn’t decide if the churning of her stomach was due to anticipation or dismay.
Bradley told her about the new clients looking to sign on with them and about his plans to expand the team. When she finally got back to her desk, she checked her phone and found that she had a text message.
“Did you get fired?” Rhonda asked gleefully.
“No, Rhonda,” Soph replied dryly. She opened the text. It was from Marco. “I didn’t get fired.”
- Dinner at El Pasco on Friday night?
Soph set the phone on the desk in front of her as the guilty churn of her stomach returned. Had Marco seen any of the news? Would he know that she’d bounced from her night with him straight into Eli’s arms? If he had and it bothered him, he wouldn’t text her though, right? And it’s not like they were officially dating or anything. She hesitated a second longer, then picked the phone back up to reply.
- I love tapas. Sign me up x