“Sure,” I muttered, and, to my shock, his hand came up, and his fingers gently grasped my jaw to lift my face towards his. He was close now. I could smell a heady combination of rainwater and Felix, and I could make out the golden flecks in his dark brown eyes. My breath caught in my throat, and then I stopped breathing altogether.
“You come to me, understand?” His voice was low and commanding. I told myself that I hated him bossing me around like a child, but there was something about that voice that went right through me, causing my stomach to hollow out with such fierce need that I couldn’t help swaying towards him just slightly. At my movement, a muscle ticked in his jaw and his pupils dilated. When I licked my lips, his gaze moved to my mouth. Two flags of colour appeared high on his cheeks.
“Felix,” I whispered. He blinked once, and the spell was broken. His hand fell away before he stepped back. I noticed his hands clenching into fists again at his sides again before he lifted one to point at me.
“Don’t go out in the rain again,” he said, his voice now hoarse. All I could do was nod as he turned to leave like the hounds of hell were chasing him. Once he was out of sight, I slumped against the wall, trying to control my breathing. The buzzer on the intercom from Will’s officemade me jump.
“Lucy, if it’s not too much trouble, could you actuallymakeus some fucking coffee? Or am I going to get shat on by the boss for asking you to do even that?”
I rolled my eyes and pushed away from the wall. Yeah, there was no way in hell I was tattling to Felix about any of this. It only made things worse.
Chapter 12
Pathetic heroine in a romance novel
Lucy
“Emily, I can’t speak for long,” I said into the phone with difficulty as my teeth were still chattering.
“You sound freezing,” Emily snapped. “Does that shit, Felix, know about your cold intolerance? If the tight git has got his office at Baltic temperatures, I’m telling your brother. It sounds like a hellhole there anyway.”
I rolled my eyes at her drama. I had not described Felix’s company as a “hellhole”. I might have mentioned the lack of natural light and comfy furniture, along with the fact that everyone seemed to be a corporate robot apart from me. Emily didn’t understand why I didn’t tell them where to stuff their job.
“It’s not worth it just to ogle your childhood crush all day long, Luce,” she said, and I hastily put down the mug I was holding to take her off speaker.
“Ems,” I hissed. “I am actually in the officenow,you know. Can we not talk about my pathetic crush on thecompletely unobtainable, out-of-my-league human ever, ever again? I’m not working here because of that.”
“Right,” Emily drew out the word, and I gritted my still-chattering teeth.
“I wish that twelve-year-old me had known better not to tell twelve-year-old you my deepest, darkest secrets.”
Emily snorted. “Twenty-seven-year-old youstilltells me everything, so there was never much chance of that.”
“I don’t tell you everything,” I snapped, immediately wishing I could take back the lie.
“You dirty bitch,” Emily cried, sounding way too excited and way, way too loud. I glanced around the empty kitchen space nervously. “Are you getting yourself some and not telling me?”
I sighed and then heard a commotion on the other end of the line. It sounded like furniture falling followed by some kids shouting.
“Marcus put the baby down!” Emily screamed so loud I had to take the phone away from my ear or risk permanent hearing damage. “Oh bloody hell, Luce. I’ll have to call you back. But I’m so fucking excited that I could – no, I did not say the f-word Marcus, I’m talking to your Auntie Lucy about ducks… yeah, there’sloadsof ducks in London. Oh shit! Don’t you dare?—”
The line went dead, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Saved by Emily’s feral child. I shivered again, and a wave of homesickness swept over me. Emily’s kids were a lot, but I loved them to pieces. I could just imagine the chaos at Emily’s house right now. If I was at home, I’d go over there to help out, then if we were lucky Emily’s mum would babysit and we’d all go the pub as it was Friday night. Maybe play some darts. Definitely drink some warmish cider – The Badger’s Sett had never quite figured out how to chill drinks appropriately.
“Miss Mayweather?” I startled, dropping the mug again at Frank’s voice. Frank was Felix’s driver, a nice chap in his sixties who’d driven me a couple of time before.
“Oh, hi, Frank,” I said, clearing my throat as I flicked on the kettle to start to make shitty coffee for Will and his minions.
“Mr Moretti wants you to go home now, miss,” Frank said. “He said you need to get changed and warm up.”
I gritted my teeth to stop them chattering and gave Frank a smile. “That’s okay, Frank. I’m fine.”
Frank sighed. “He was quite specific, love,” he said. “I’m to take you straight home.”
I was still shivering, so making coffee was proving trickier than normal, and I was no expert at the best of times – yet another thing I regularly fucked up as the worst assistant ever.
“Well, I’ve just got to?—”
“I’vebeen sent to do that,” Tabitha snapped, grabbing the kettle away from me. “Apparently you’re too fragile after being out in the rain. Kind of like a really pathetic heroine in a romance novel.” Tabitha looked me up and down, and her lip curled. “I’ll be assisting Mr Brent for the rest of the day. You can go and swoon elsewhere.”
