Page 52 of Love's a Glitch
The pressure increased when I factored in that my decision would also impact Ellie and her job.
Leather creaked as I shifted in the cushy office chair. “Can Elli-oise and I have the room for a few minutes? There are a few of the items I’d like her to explain, but I’d rather not have an audience around to witness how much I don’t know about technology.”
Marge perked up. “You don’t have to worry about us judging. I’d be happy to—”
“I’m sure it’s an unconventional request, but humor me,” I firmly said, which had me recalling Ellie’s text advising me to be firm with the person who ended up being her, after complaining about the pain-in-the-ass client that happened to be me.
Just as I’d hoped, I’d taken away the woman’s ability to argue. Marge stood, and I glanced at Heather. “If you don’t mind, can you lead my assistant to a quiet corner where she can jot down her thoughts? Let’s meet back here in…” I rolled my wrist, the face of my watch catching the overhead florescent lights. “Fifteen minutes.”
Heather stood and followed Marge out of the room. They closed the door behind them, and then Ellie and I were finally alone. I patted the chair next to mine, and my heart rate picked up speed as she strode from the front of the room over to me. Instead of sitting, she gripped the seatback, her gaze flickering from me to the window that overlooked the office before returning to me. “I’m confused. Are you Charles L. Davis?”
“In the flesh,” I said.
“Unexpected to say the least. Once I realized that Chuck was short for Charles, I started to worry that I’d been in a snarky email battle with your father this entire time.”
I tipped back in the chair, testing the limits of the springs. “But no regrets for being snarky with me?”
Ellie shrugged a shoulder, ridiculously cute. “I mean…” With a sigh, she plopped herself in the seat next to mine. “You were an asshole to me first.”
An offended noise sounded in the back of my throat, but it devolved into a low laugh. “You implied I was a grumpy old man.”
“Hey, if the cane fits….”
I reached beneath the table and pinched the underside of her knee, extracting a tiny squeal. “I’ll probably need a cane after beating myself up, and it’s going to be awkward as hell, but I did promise to avenge you.”
She twisted her chair toward me and leaned forward, forearms on knees, her brown eyes wide and questioning. “Explain the name thing to me, because I’m still struggling to connect the dots.”
“I come from a long line of Charles Davises—I’m the fourth. My dad goes by Chuck, and when I hear the name ‘Charles,’ I picture my Grandpa Charles. While both he and my father are intelligent, hardworking businessmen, I wanted to separate myself from them and the family business as much as possible, so I went from Charles Lucas to Luke.”
“Ah. You and George Lucas share a middle name.”
I nodded. “Guess the rest of my secret’s out, too. I’m the silver-spooned son of a real estate mogul, and that line goes back for generations. I bucked tradition by daring to go into another career field, and nepotism bothers me, even though it’s also one of the reasons I have so much freedom to do what I love. And yes, it does make me feel like a hypocrite.”
Ellie placed her hand on my knee. “You know I don’t care about any of that, right? You’re Luke, the guy who sends me funny texts, makes me laugh until my stomach hurts, and sets my body ablaze with the lightest touch.”
I dragged my knuckle up her arm, a soothing wave rolling through me at the fluttering of her eyelashes. “And you’re Eloise Kostas, a woman who can be feisty—and a bit terrifying, honestly—over email. Something I didn’t expect from my Ellie, especially since she turned me into a fan of talking on the phone and doing the tango.” I scooted my chair closer, my knees bumping into hers as I dipped my head, torturously close to her mouth. What I wouldn’t give to close the distance, but now wasn’t the time for that, unfortunately. “If you’ll turn your attention to Exhibit A”—I glanced at my crotch—“you’ll see I feel similarly on that last point, and I don’t much care whether it’s Ellie or Eloise I’m looking at.”
Her gaze dipped to my obvious erection, and the swipe of her tongue along her lips drew a groan from deep within me.
“Not helping,” I said, and her resulting siren grin displayed how very unapologetic she was about her effect on me. “Now I’m seeing the similarities between you and Eloise.”
She smacked my arm and laughed. “Fun fact, it’s actually Eloise Maria Kostopoulous. People have a hard time saying it, so I often go by the shortened version.”
I blinked at her. “I’m…gonna have to work on that one.”
“‘Davis’ is in the top ten most common surnames in the US, so even if you’d introduced yourself as Luke Davis, I doubt I would’ve thought much of it, besides that you shared a last name with a grump—a fastidious client of mine. This also explains theold‘new phone, who dis’ reference. People totes stopped saying that at least three or four years ago.” She winked, and I drifted my hand up her inner thigh, doing some teasing of my own.
Ellie peeked toward the window and asked how many minutes we had left.
“Four, maybe five.” I turned my attention to the three website images still glowing on the pull-down screen. “I don’t want to piss you off, and I can tell how much work you’ve poured into the design, but what if I don’t pick the one you want me to?”
She crinkled her nose. “You’re going with the boring one, aren’t you? So not what I expected from an adventure junkie.”
“Evidently, it doesn’t transfer to technology, especially when I’ll be handing over the reins to my brother or father, who don’t know how to strap themselves into harnesses.”
Ellie nodded, her features remained carefully neutral.
“All jokes aside, I’ve always admired your passion, and how you fully throw yourself into everything. It makes sense why those emails you sent about the website design were….” I searched for the right word.
