Entry-Level Mistress - By Sabrina Darby Page 0,38
summer have imagined as being a position of power. I watched the woman hang up the phone as she looked up at me.
“He’s in a meeting.”
“I need to speak with him. I’ll wait.”
Janine looked as if she wanted to say something and then shrugged. We’d never become “friendly” but today she looked almost sympathetic toward me. I took a seat on one of the cream leather chairs, all too aware of that something that the woman hadn’t said.
But I was going to quit. I was going to quit him and this whole mess too. I knew plenty about Daniel Hartmann, CEO of Hartmann Enterprises. Enough to do at least some damage to his plans if I were wily enough. But as I also knew about the man, I was never going to do anything with any of this information; I was lying to myself if I pretended otherwise. In the meantime, I was letting my real life pass me by. Perhaps even irrevocably.
The glass doors opened, on a cloud of genial laughter, the sound of a meeting ending. Two men in suits walked out and behind them Daniel stood, holding the door, smiling. So handsome it made my chest ache. So familiar now. Mine to touch but not mine. A stranger still.
He glanced my way. The smile flickered. Then his attention was back on the men and he was wishing them a good day, holding up his right hand for one last salutation before they boarded the elevator.
I stood, smoothed my skirt down.
“A nice surprise,” he said, gesturing for me to enter. I slid by him. When he followed me, I felt the caress of his hand on my hip as a yearning desire. Nostalgia, already, for something passed.
“Is it a surprise, really?” I managed over the choking sadness. How, in four weeks, had I gotten so involved in this? With him? His hand on my lower back, he directed me to the sofa. That touch grew in my mind until it was all I could think about. I savored the feeling and when I sat, his hand was gone. He sat down next to me.
“No, I suppose not. I met with Lance this morning.” His expression turned serious. “I am sorry, Emily, but he’s right. We’ll pay a month’s severance.” His hand was on my knee now. “Listen, I’ll call some friends. You tell me where you want to work. Marketing again? Maybe something a bit more artistic?”
“I don’t need you to find me work. It’s fine. I understand. In reality, I should never have taken this job in the first place. I’m an artist not a corporate hack. No offense.”
He laughed, looking a little relieved, but also confused. This was the moment he should ask me why I had taken the job in the first place. Instead he said, “I’ll make it up to you, though. Even better. Come with me this weekend. I have a business meeting out in the Hamptons.”
He wanted to spend the weekend with me. In the Hamptons. I could almost smell the salt air and feel the sand under my toes.
He stood, walked back to his desk, as if I were ready to make plans, everything was settled, taken care of.
I could let it be. Or I could take a deep breath and—
“I think we should stop seeing each other.”
There, I’d done it. Been brave, said the right thing.
Silence. I averted my gaze, terrified that he’d refuse, terrified that he’d agree and let me go that easily.
“You’d rather keep working here,” he said flatly. “I was under the impression that … ”
“No, I mean, I can’t keep working here, clearly. No one respects me.” He looked startled at that. “Oh, c’mon. Don’t act so surprised. But beyond that, really, it’s not what I should be doing. It would be … a different life. Safer than I want. No, I think when I leave, I should really leave.”
“Because you’ve satisfied your curiosity?” he asked quietly, but there was something dangerous about the intensity of his voice.
I looked at him helplessly. Honesty now.
“Daniel, I don’t know what I’m doing here, with you of all people.”
He walked back to me, took me in his arms and it was sick how his touch made me melt, made me long for things I shouldn’t want. He knew it too.
“You said you don’t want safe. Well, you and me, we aren’t safe at all.”
I was still thinking about his words when his lips touched my neck, when he stole