AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She nodded and bolted for the door. “Thank you, Mr. McGinty.”
Her first stop was the ladies’ room, where she gripped the sink and stared at herself in the mirror. She looked a little wild-eyed and a lot disheveled.
No wonder. She’d gotten a raise, retroactive at that. If Kitty ever got back to her with her edits, she’d even be able to pay for them without raiding her savings.
She pulled out her phone from her pants pocket to check her email, just in case Kitty had gotten back to her. Hey, maybe she’d even decided to run a sale, to complete Elena’s good week.
A girl could dream.
In fact, Kitty had emailed, apologizing that she hadn’t gotten to the edits yet. She’d had an unexpected meeting disrupt her week and she was running behind.
Unexpected meeting, huh? More romance afoot?
With trembling fingers, Elena ripped open the envelope Mr. McGinty had given her. No way. She read the numbers again, did a quick calculation. Fifteen percent. She hadn’t gotten a fifteen percent raise ever. Ten percent had been a freaking miracle, and that had been years ago.
Was this her lucky week or something? Payback for all the weeks where something good happening was having enough money to buy milkandbread?
She blinked at her reflection. Her cheeks glowed, her eyes sparkled. And her lips upturned into an honest-to-God no-holds-barred grin.
Maybe things were changing. She’d had wild, impulsive sex in her office, something she never would have expected of herself. Yeah, she’d bungled everything afterward, but she was out of practice. Now she had a check in her hand, and Mr. McGinty had thanked her for all her hard work.
She wiggled her hips and spun around, suddenly not seeing the boring brown, somewhat dingy bathroom she’d cursed every time she’d entered it for the past six years. She didn’t wrinkle her nose at the off-putting smell of too much cleanser and not enough fresh air. All she could think about was the new sexy outfit she’d buy to slay Enzo with.
This was a sign. It had to be. She’d let loose a little—okay, very little, but it was a start—and now the universe was greenlighting her efforts.
Go forth, fledgling seductress and blossom.
She fluffed her hair and emerged into the hallway, her grin still firmly in place. Today would be a very good day. She turned and stopped dead, her fingers clamping around the envelope in her palm.
Enzo and Candace were at the other end of the hall, engaged in conversation. She leaned against him, her chest thrust so far forward her nipples practically pointed at his face. He didn’t seem to be overly interested, however, and kept scanning the hallway as if he were looking for someone. Then he noticed Elena and stopped talking, the arm he’d braced on the wall falling stiffly at his side.
She wanted to run. Fleeing, especially while in the midst of some physically embarrassing attack as had happened in Mr. McGinty’s office, was what she did best. But she couldn’t,wouldn’tlet herself down again.
No more wall-hugging.
She sucked in air and strutted toward them, her soft-soled shoes whispering over the scuffed floor. “Hello, Candace.” She didn’t have heels to click, but she did have hair to toss. “Enzo.”
Candace seemed vaguely shocked, probably because Elena rarely spoke unless spoken to first. Enzo just stared at her,allof her, his gaze gliding from her face to the pointed toes of her clearance special slip-ons. “Bella,” he said after a moment. “You look different.”
I am different. I got a raise. I had wild, impulsive sex that doesn’t have to mean anything more than I let it.But she didn’t say any of that. She just smiled and edged past them, continuing down the hallway to her office. But she glanced back just in time to hear Candace exclaim, “Who the fuck is Bella? Her name is Elena.”
Smiling, she shut her door behind her. Yes, a very good day indeed. And it was just getting started.
Six
Enzo thoughtabout her all morning while he updated the department computers. He’d lied the night before. He’d barely begun running the diagnostics and applying the software patches to each machine before he’d come into her office, and he certainly hadn’t planned to touch her PC before he started touching her.
But he’d needed an excuse, and that had worked well enough. He still needed to get back to her computer, but he’d save that for later. Much later, when everyone else had gone home.
If she stayed to play tonight, that is. If she didn’t, he’d get the message loud and clear.
This morning he’d gotten a different kind of message altogether. She’d gazed right into his eyes. Directly. But even so, she’d been…coy. His cock had bumped his zipper the moment she'd marched out of the bathroom, but when she’d turned her beautiful smile his way, he’d been a goner. The woman beside him could have melted into the paneling for all he cared. All he cared about was Bella. All he could think about was when he’d get his hands on her again.
Not Bella, Elena. Such a feminine name. He wanted to have her on a bed this time, with soft sheets and sexy music and nothing between them but skin.
A fantasy, for now. But he'd never minded working toward a seemingly impossible goal.
His day was filled with her. Through lunch with Uncle Mike, through his two afternoon classes. In a few months he’d have his Master’s degree, then he could start teaching. Where was the question. He’d always assumed he’d go back to Tuscany after his brief sojourn, but America was proving more than worthy of holding his attention. He had family here, too, after all. His uncle and his family, a few cousins.
