AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Ruben.” I played with my hair. “I shouldn’t hang out with Augustus because… oh, God, please don’t hate me. Because I love you to pieces, but—”
“Are you attracted to him?”
Eyes wide, I nodded slowly.
With a heavy sigh, Ruben rose from his chair and disappeared off camera.
“Ruben?” I didn’t mean to blubber, but I did. “Ruben, where are you?”
He paced in the background, lines of tension crossing his face as he sank back into his chair. “I’m here, Sienna. I needed a moment, that’s all.”
I gripped the phone as if I could grab hold of Ruben’s shirt through the screen as though I needed to anchor myself to him. “I’m sorry. Please don’t think I’m attracted to him because I don’t want you or I don’t love you. It has nothing to do with us. Except maybe I’m missing you so badly.”
Ruben squeezed his hands together in front of him. “I understand we can’t always control the power of attraction.”
“I won’t be seeing him around anymore, Ruben. The shoots are over, so he won’t be in the office, and I’ll be busy organizing the charity gala.”
Ruben squeezed his eyes closed. “Sienna, no. Please don’t do this to yourself. I can’t stand seeing you miserable. If you need company, please don’t hesitate to spend time with him.” After a moment, he added, “Perhaps I could get to know him too.”
I was surprised by this comment. “What?”
“He seemed like a cool guy. I know it would only be via video link, but maybe I could be involved in this too.” He tried to downplay his suggestion with a careless shrug, but I caught the naughty glint in his eye.
I leaned forward, careful to speak in a lower tone. “Involved in what, exactly?”
“In whatever transpires.” Ruben’s tone was gruff and husky. It was the tone his voice took on whenever we had sex.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Ruben, what exactly do you mean bywhatever transpires?
Ruben cleared his throat. “This isn’t a conversation we should be having in public. Let’s talk later, yeah?”
“Wait, you can’t leave me hanging like this,” I hissed.
“Oh, look at the time. I should be, you know, going and all. To be continued.” His cheeky smile was accompanied by a wink, then the bastard hung up on me.
“Damnyou,Ruben Ainsley.”My not-so-little outburst had everyone in the café staring at me. With a forced smile, I started eating my lunch.
I was going to pay Ruben backbig time.
CHAPTERSEVEN
The first order of business on Monday morning was a meeting. I’d suffered through the entire weekend, wondering what was going on in Ruben’s mind. He was conveniently busy when I tried contacting him again, making me desperate to know what he meant with his parting comment.
“Damn tease,” I grumbled as I opened my notebook.
“Are you talking about Augustus again?” Linda strolled into the room like she was dancing on air.
“Nope. It turns out I have two teasers in my life. But that’s my life and doesn’t belong here in the workplace.” I straightened my shoulders. “How did you and Kai do with images for the fall campaign?” I shook my head. “Sorry, autumn.”
Linda placed her things on her desk. “It took most of the weekend and a lot of back-and-forth with Sonja, but we finally managed to select the best images yesterday, and now they’re with the design department.”
My breath seemed to have disappeared. Had Sonja, herself, theownerof Estate Styles,looked at my photographs with Augustus? Did she like them? Had anything of me made it into the autumn campaign?
Linda flashed me a knowing smile. “Relax. She liked you.”
My eyes grew wide. Linda was clearly a mind reader.
Linda laughed. “Maybe you have a modeling career ahead of you if all goes well.”
