liked what they heard so agreed that they would offer Josselin the job.
“I’ll get in touch with her this afternoon,” Alia said. “I’ll try to set up a creative call between me, Josselin, Cory from Steel, and Julie Erikson, who I want to use as stylist, as soon as I can. I’ll arrange for her advance so she can book the location and cover her upfront expenses.”
“Excellent.”
A productive morning. Then it was off to lunch with the marketing head of Chalmers Outdoor Advertising, with whom they placed a lot of billboard ads, and his assistant. Lang was about her age, an attractive man she enjoyed talking with. After a lovely lunch and some good discussion about pricing and turnaround times, his assistant excused herself to go to the ladies’ room.
Lang smiled at her. “I always enjoy having lunch with you, Sloane.”
The tiny hairs on the back of her neck prickled. Something about his tone of voice had changed. She smiled back at him. “Likewise.”
“I’d love to continue our discussion some other time. Maybe over dinner?”
She gave a light laugh. “I thought we just covered everything we wanted to discuss.”
“Actually, I was thinking our dinner would be less business and more…personal.”
She met his eyes. His mouth tipped up into a hopeful smile.
“As in, a date,” he prompted when she said nothing.
Shit.
She’d fended off unwanted invitations from clients in the past, although most clients knew it wasn’t a good idea for them to have a personal relationship. But she’d occasionally accepted date invitations from other business partners, like Lang. Not much ever came of them, as most men seemed to lose interest in her pretty quickly, but she’d dated.
But Levi had told her—she wasn’t dating anyone but him.
Amusement that she was actually taking that seriously curled inside her. Who did he think he was, telling her what to do like that? He wasn’t in charge of her life.
Truthfully…she had no desire to date Lang. Or anyone really. As that sank in, she realized how truly fucked she was. Not only was she having feelings for Levi that she shouldn’t, he’d made her lose interest in anyone else.
For that reason alone, she almost accepted Lang’s invitation. But that wasn’t fair to him. She wasn’t interested in him. That would just be using him to…to…well, she wasn’t sure what she’d be doing. Showing Levi who the boss was? Ha. Trying to convince herself that her feelings for Levi weren’t really all that intense? Right.
“I’m sorry,” she said finally, her voice soft. “I’m kind of…seeing someone.”
“Ah.” He made a face, an adorable face of brave disappointment. “I didn’t know that.”
“It’s fairly recent.”
He smiled. “Lucky guy.”
She shook her head, smiling, and dropped her eyes as Lang’s assistant returned. Lang bought lunch, which was very nice, and they shook hands on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant.
Dark clouds had amassed in the sky. She cast glances toward them as she hurried back to the office, hoping the rain would hold off until she was there, as she didn’t have an umbrella. No such luck. A few drops hit her just as she rounded the corner but before she could reach the door of the Lachman Building the clouds burst. Rain pelted down. Shit!
People started sprinting, some whipping out umbrellas. In her spiky heels, she started to run.
“Sloane!”
She paused at her name called behind her, looking over her shoulder. Levi jogged up, a big black umbrella in his hand. Her steps slowed and then he was there, protecting her from the rain.
“Hey, sexy girl,” he murmured, smiling. “You’re getting all…wet.”
They stood on the sidewalk, the huge umbrella sheltering both of them as rain pounded down around them. She moved closer, bringing her Kate Spade purse under the umbrella too. Now close enough to see Levi’s glinting blue eyes and smell his warm, citrusy scent. His free arm went around her waist, pulling her up against him.
“I have to say I’m impressed by your ability to run in those shoes.”
She smiled. And then he kissed her, right on the street in front of the office.
His lips were warm and firm as they brushed over hers. They shouldn’t be doing this.
She looked up at him and as usual, melted inside.
“I just turned down a date,” she said.
His eyebrows snapped together above his nose. “What?”
“A date. I got invited on a date.”
The smell of the rain on the city pavement rose around them, warm and earthy. A car horn blared as someone darted across the street against the lights.