The Romance Plan - Lila Monroe Page 0,53

then change my mind at the last minute, opting for a cute dress and a pair of lacy panties that normally I’d never wear to the office. Flirting with danger? Maybe. But I can just imagine the look on Liam’s face if I happen to send him a text about my wardrobe choices…

I’m just buckling up the lucky polka dot heels that I was wearing the first night Liam and I met when my cell phone rings on my dresser. “There you are!” Maddie says when I answer. “I thought maybe you’d gotten eaten by one of those alligators they say live in the sewer system.”

“Do they still say that?” I ask with a laugh.

“Some people definitely still say that,” she assures me. “Anyway, hello, good morning. Tell me everything about everything.”

I put her on speaker and set the phone on the edge of the bathroom sink while I finish getting ready, slicking on lipstick and mascara and filling her in on everything that’s been happening with Liam. “Aw, yeah!” she crows delightedly, when I get to the part about going back to his apartment last night. I can practically hear her fist-pumping. “My god, if anyone deserves a hot night of desperate lovemaking in a luxuriously appointed penthouse, it’s you.”

“Why, because I’ve been wandering through a sex desert for forty years?” I ask with a laugh.

“What? No!” Maddie protests, and then seems to think about it for a moment. “Well, yes, actually. But I was going to say because you’re so committed to bringing romance into everyone else’s lives. You ought to have a healthy dose of it in your own.”

I grin at myself in the mirror, flushed and goofy. “It is pretty romantic,” I admit. “And not the penthouse part. It would still be amazing even if he’d taken me back to a stinky shared apartment that smelled like a frat house.”

“Wow,” Maddie says, sounding impressed. “You do like him. So, what happens next?” she asks eagerly. “Is he staying in town once he wraps things up at Sterling, or…?”

“Weren’t you the one telling me not to try and control the narrative?” I ask her.

“Hm, might have been,” Maddie admits with a laugh. “That sounds like something I would say.”

“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” I confess, sitting down on the edge of the bathtub and touching my neck without entirely meaning to, feeling the ghost of Liam’s mouth moving over my skin. “But I hope he sticks around. It’s a long way to California.”

“You’ll figure something out,” Maddie reassures me. “I’m so happy for you.”

“You know what?” I grin. “I’m happy for me too!”

I get into the office just in time for our weekly staff meeting. “You look different,” Rachel says, as I take a seat in the conference room. She tilts her head to the side and looks at me curiously. “Did you change your hair?”

“Nope. Maybe it’s the lipstick,” I say, hiding a blush behind my notebook. “I’m trying a new shade.”

Liam, for his part, is all business, striding into the conference room in a perfectly tailored suit, not a hair out of place. “Good morning, all,” he says pleasantly, then launches into his weekly agenda without missing a beat. You’d never know that barely an hour ago he was down on his knees in front of me on his kitchen floor, his tongue working expertly between my legs. The memory has me fanning myself with my file folder, glancing around to see if maybe the A/C in the conference room has suddenly died.

Nope? Just me then.

The meeting is uneventful, as ever: reports from sales and marketing, votes on new acquisitions… But I can’t help feeling like my X-rated thoughts are written on my face for everyone to read. I imagine Liam and I taking advantage of the massive rain shower in his apartment. I imagine Liam and I sprawled sweaty and naked in my bed. I imagine Liam and I in that pool on top of his building, his nimble fingers peeling my damp bathing suit down my—

“—And Eliza,” Liam says from the font of the room, barely looking up from his notes to me a glance. “Come by my office after the meeting for an update on the Verity Lange project.”

I snap to attention, cheeks flushed and the tiniest bit dizzy. “Sure thing,” I chirp. Then, unable to help myself, I add: “Boss.”

Liam’s smirk is unmistakable—to me, anyways, and when I turn up in his office a few minutes later, his smile