Page 281 of Sins & Secrets

Then you should sleep, my little minx.

I watch the phone with anticipation, knowing she’s typing something, but then deletes it. A moment passes and she starts again. My phone buzzes, with the messenger open:I like being your little minx, I think.

I like it too.

The moment I send my response, it doesn’t feel good enough. It doesn’t carry the weight of just how much I enjoy her simply being there. I follow up with:

When you sleep, I want you to dream of me.

Yes, sir.

SUZETTE

Adrian fills my mind every hour that I’m awake, and most of the ones where I’m sleeping. His text messages make my pulse quicken with excitement.

I can hear how he would speak the words when I read them. It feels like falling. In only a week’s time, I feel like I’m falling for him.

No one else at the office is fawning over him.

I’m often worked up and overheated, carefully avoiding him and the topic of him because everyone calls him the devil.

They complain about not knowing what’s going to happen and how they think every task is in preparation for someone else to take over. Then there’s me. I can’t stop thinking of how he put that ice between my legs, and the soft groans that he makes when he fucks me on his desk. Purposefully avoiding the obvious and doing everything I can not to worry. Because he told me not to, even though all signs point to the company being sold off.

It’s all ridiculous and overwhelming. If I wasn’t fucking him, I might have quit already … well, not if I couldn’t take the clients with me. Maybe. I don’t know. Like I said, it’s all too overwhelming, so I choose to believe him. I’m doing everything I can to listen and not worry.

With my fingers tapping aimlessly on the keys, I have to snap myself out of it. Not that it matters; we’re on a freeze with clients this week. I could lose my shit and it wouldn’t make a difference in productivity. The only work that’s getting done is paperwork and severance packages. I could be a nervous wreck like the rest of the office, or I can fantasize about the clock turning six.

Every day, I rock back and forth between the two of them.

A light knock at my door takes me out of my thoughts. A young brunette in joggers and a flowy tank stands in my doorway.

“Maddie,” I say, greeting my friend for lunch. “I was wondering when you were going to get here.” My chair rolls to the left as I push my keyboard to the side to make room for takeout.

Passing me a brown paper bag she sighs and says, “Sorry. Traffic was hell.”

She’s gorgeous, as she always is, but there’s a sad curve to her mouth. “You okay?”

She takes the seat across the desk from me and opens her bag in her lap, waving me off with the other hand. “I think I need a man or a really good vibrator.”

“I vote vibrator,” I joke with a short laugh, unrolling the top of the bag without taking my eyes off Maddie. She’s young, naive, and a romantic. A.k.a. the prime suspect for assholes. She barely cracks a smile. “Is that dipshit Daniel still on your mind?”

Maddie groans. “He’s always on my mind, and I can’t get him off of it. It’s not fair. Why did such a shitty person have to get so far into my head?”

“That’s how it always seems to be. The worse the person is for you, the more you think about them.”

“Let’s go out and go man shopping tonight. There’s a new club down on Madison Avenue. It’s like my grandmom alwayssaid, get over one by getting under another.” She takes a bite out of her turkey club and guilt washes over me.

I haven’t told Maddie about Adrian yet, and it seems like a betrayal of our friendship, almost. Suddenly I have no appetite. The chicken caesar wrap stays at the bottom of the bag.

I’m not sure what I would tell her. Being discreet means not blabbing your business to anyone who’d listen. I wince at the thought. Maddie’s not just a random person. She’s my friend, one of very few, and she’s been my friend for far longer than I’ve known Adrian.

“I’ve looked up Lucifer,” I joke. “He’s hot as hell.”

“Why don’t you cuddle up to him?” Maddie half teases although her tone is dull. Her large doe eyes twinkle as she grins, pausing between bites to say, “Get a little action. Save the day. You’d be the office hero.”

“The office needs a hero,” I comment, keeping my tone light. “Everyone’s nervous about their jobs now that entire divisions have been laid off.”

My department has kept the same workload, but four people have been taken for interviews. Not by Adrian himself, but by some team he hired.

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