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He stared at me, and I slipped my hands in my pockets, waiting. Eventually, he let out a huge smile, and I knew that he had been humbled.
“I like you more than I ever thought I would,” he rose to his feet and held out a hand. “When we meet again under bettercircumstances, I'll be sure to host you for dinner. Polina, will you see them out?”
I didn't bother acknowledging or rejecting this. Instead, I turned around calmly and exited the room. I was truly exhausted, but sleep was what I needed. Due to everything happening concurrently, it was not sleep but a release. For a second, as Polina escorted both me and Sophie over to the elevators, I considered her. It was my policy never to mix business with pleasure, but with the googly eyes and coquettish smile she was throwing my way every chance she got, I couldn't help but once again revisit all the charm and disadvantages of this.
When my attention, however, returned to the woman going ahead of me, not the elevator, in a gorgeous ivory suit that hugged her curves yet hung so elegantly off her body, I was instantly aware that Polina was absolutely not the one that piqued my interest.
Going along with the flow might guarantee future positive business relations, but if I set that precedence of attention for her at the beginning, then it would continue, and nothing was worth that. So, I refused her further desire to escort me to the ground floor, and afterwards, I got in the vehicle with Sophie.
Chapter 13
Scarlett
Ihad been really quiet recently. More quiet than I ever thought was possible for me, but embarrassing moments had a way of humbling you like nothing could. All the politics and nepotism in the office had been annoying, but in the face of him seeing my phone screen and search earlier on in the car, nothing mattered.
I couldn’t help but watch him a little bit more closely than usual and seeing how he had handled the overbearing Charles Nioly and his daughter couldn't help but make me like him even more. And yes, I had decided that I liked him. His somewhat dismissive nature had put me off from the start, but thus far, I had come to realize that he had to be one of the smartest men I had ever come across.
The way he handled people and ignored situations that he should was incredibly impressive and I couldn’t help but admire him quite immensely for this. And so, I felt a little more calm in his presence than usual and more than willing to be led by him. Soon we got into the car and were quietly on our way back to the hotel. He didn't talk much and I didn't much care for conversation earlier, but he was beginning to grow on meor maybe it was all my cumulative shame. I did, however, have something that I wanted to say.
"Um..." I began and couldn't believe the words that had just come out of my mouth. I had long made it a point to remove filler words like 'um' and 'like' from my vocabulary, but yet here I was starting a statement to him with 'um.'
He didn't turn, didn't even acknowledge I was trying to strike up a conversation, but I wasn't offended. So I tried again.
"I wanted to thank you for helping me earlier," I said. "I didn't realize just how deep that end was. Actually, I did, but I guess I had way too much faith in my skills than made sense."
He turned to look at me then, but this time around, and for the first time, he looked at me with interest. His eyes moved all over my face, and I truly wondered what he saw. I mean... darn, I was forgetting once again that I was Sophie and what he saw was his assistant and nothing more.
And so I sighed and leaned back against the chair.
"What do you want to eat?" He asked. "Let's have dinner."
I wasn't surprised; however, it wasn't strange for a boss and his assistant to have dinner together, especially when on international trips.
I nodded immediately, eager to spend some alone time with him, but that was until I remembered my date with my friend for later on. I really didn't want to cancel, yet I couldn't pass up the chance to be with Lucien in a much more casual setting.
Me: I'll be having dinner with my boss. Drinks later?
I sent the message as soon as we arrived at the restaurant. Before I could put the phone away I received a response letting me know her daughter was sick and she wanted to take a nap before leaving so it was all working out.
I slid my phone away just as we were shown to our seats.
The restaurant was so gorgeous; however, it was so romantically lit that I wasn't quite sure what to feel. This wasfor sure not a date, especially given how I was dressed, but he was looking delicious. All I could think about was him earlier, packing dangerous in those swim shorts.
Shaking my head, I pleaded with myself to wipe the image out of my head so that I wouldn't get Sophie fired, but he was just simply becoming impossible to resist.
"Order whatever you want," he said. "We've been hard at work at this for a long time, and though the way it panned out is unsatisfactory, the result is impressive."
"Yeah," I nodded and pulled my menu open.
However, I could feel him staring at me.
It took a while to build up the courage to check, but eventually, I did and indeed caught his eyes on me. Once again, his gaze was boldly roving down my body, and I couldn’t help but wonder if this was the way he looked at Sophie as well.
"Was my outfit inappropriate?" I asked, and he returned his gaze to mine.
"There's a change to you," he said. "I've been trying to place my finger on it without much success."
I was immediately nervous, and my eyes lowered from his. The thing was that he always seemed as though he knew more than he was letting on, and so I didn’t even realize currently if he was baiting me to reveal the truth since he had already discovered it or that he had no clue and was genuinely curious.
