CHAPTER NINE
The next couple of days in the office felt wildly different.
Lara couldn’t stop thinking about what’d happened between them, the pleasure she was experiencing under his hands. She marveled on it, because it was an awakening for sure. The only lover she’d had before had left her wondering what all the fuss was about. In fact her first experience made her give up any romantic notions she might have had, in exchange for determination to succeed in business. Her determination hadn’t gone away. Instead she felt enriched by their relationship, ready to take on the world.
When she walked into Compton Finance each morning she felt more confident striding alongside Draco to their desks. The secret, sensual knowledge she savored made her more aware of herself, of him and of everything around them. How nice it would be to work hard all day and have him or someone like him as her reward.
They exchanged lingering glances every few minutes, and it thrilled her. However, she reminded herself this was a temporary arrangement. Draco was probably like this with every woman he chose to go to bed with.
Well, whatever, she didn’t regret it, not for one moment.
It was getting near the time Draco took his turn to collect coffee, when a voice distracted her from her thoughts.
Janice approached their area.
Lara looked at her in surprise. She’d rarely seen her father’s PA outside the fancy office adjacent to his, and never here on the floor where all the work went on.
Janice sashayed across the floor in stacked heels and a very tight skirt. Resting her elbows on the cube wall, she offered Lara a quick, curt smile, and then looked at Draco. “I thought I’d come down and check how you two are getting on,” she said directly to Draco.
“Why thank you,” Draco replied. “Settling in nicely.” With a side-eye smile at Lara, he — at least – included her.
Lara leaned closer to him and tried to involve herself in the conversation.
Janice carried on speaking to Draco. “We’ve got some social events on the calendar, I wondered if you were any good at paintball?”
Silently, Lara fumed. Janice would have been told he was a close friend of Lara’s. Even her Dad assumed Draco was her boyfriend. He was her buddy, and he wasn’t available to be flirted with.
Draco grinned at Janice, and started asking questions about the in-house social events. Maybe he was coded to flirting mode.
Lara looked at him, aghast, as she considered it. With a sinking feeling, she realized he wasn’t hers to be territorial about, and probably never would be. Turning back to her desk, she picked up her phone and busied herself looking at texts, humming to drown out Janice’s giggles.
Why was she even thinking like that? So they’d slept together. Big deal. In his mind he was still a free agent, and even if he wasn’t he was only around for a few weeks. It was wrong to get hung up on him, and this hideous mutual flirtation event right under her nose was probably the best wake-up call she’d had for a long time. It hurt though, and Lara couldn’t shake it off. No matter how much scrolling through Twitter she did.
There was no reason for her to be hurting. He was just some guy she was working with, not a boyfriend or even someone she could call a lover. Sure he’d shown her a good time, shown her how to enjoy her body in ways she never had.
It didn’t prepare her for this. Janice was blatantly flirting with him. And he responded. The conversation carried on for a few minutes before Janice left. As soon as she’d gone Lara felt a hand on her knee.
“Hey, you okay?”
Glancing at him, she saw concern in his eyes.
“I’m fine.”
“Don’t be daft. I’m only being polite, keeping her sweet.”
Again her stomach sank. Was he keeping her sweet too? Is that why he was showing her a good time in bed?
“She’s Compton Seniors PA. I might need insider info.”
She gave him a bright smile. “Insider info? That’s what you’ve got me for.”
“You worry about everything, don’t you?”
“I have to. I have a lot at stake.”
“Don’t worry you can trust me not to blab my mouth off, least of all to someone who works here.”
That wasn’t what she was worried about though, and perhaps she should have been.
* * *
Draco stared at the logo on the work station screen and brooded over the Compton Finance breach of security. The night before had proved interesting, He’d only spent an hour accessing remotely, but he was pretty sure he was on it. He’d double checked his suspicions the night before, to be sure.
Now he wanted to know why, why this was happening.
“Lunch?” Lara rose to her feet.
She still looked tense. Something about the ice maiden turning up had unsettled her. Shame, because otherwise it was going like a dream.
“Let’s go out.” He stood up and kissed her. Not overly long but long enough the staff around them noticed.
“Sushi?” she said as they left the building.
“Sure.” He’d never had sushi. “Sushi it is.”
Lara led the way to a sushi bar about a half mile away, down a side street.
The task involved sitting at a revolving conveyor belt ready to snatch whichever plate of food appealed. He had no idea what any of it was, so once she’d made her selection, he grabbed one too.
“Tell me more about your brothers.” He stared at the sushi, bewildered.
“Why? They aren’t involved.”
Draco wasn’t so sure. “Don’t get your back up. I’m asking because they’re the two guys who were asked to find out what’s going on. In essence, they’re my competition for the reaching the goal, your goal.”
She was about to eat, but paused, chopsticks in hand. “Oh, right, yes. I hadn’t really thought of it like that.”
That was an admiring glance she was giving him.
He popped one of the sushi into his mouth and smiled. Chewing, he found himself astonished. It was cold, and slimy. He reached for his sparkling water.
“Jamie’s twenty-two and he’s a cool guy, but he does as little as possible.”
“I can take that two ways.”
“I bet you could take it more than two ways,” she answered sarcastically. “Hear me out. He does as little as possible, but he’s highly intelligent and take the shortest route to the end result.”
Her sexy smile turned him on. “Bit lazy, bit clever.”
“Yes, a lot like you, in fact.”
He lifted his eyebrows and shot her a glance. “Anything else I need to know about Jamie?”
“He’s serious, keeps his head down. He’s a home boy really, likes living with my dad and his new wife, and doesn’t want to rock the boat.” She stared into space for a minute. “Split up with his girlfriend recently. Apparently she kept mentioning her ring size and he said he wasn’t ready for marriage.”
“What about the other guy, the party boy, Charles?”
“Oh yeah, he loves to party hard, lives for the weekend. Has bit of a cocaine habit.”
“Cocaine?” Draco tensed.
She frowned. “Yeah.”
Draco knew he was scowling, but he couldn’t help himself.
“Just recreational, parties and such.”
Something buried deep inside rose up and rattled him. “Jesus, just a bit recreational coke?”
She sucked in her breath, looking from side to side as if she thought someone might have heard. “Wow, judgemental or what?”
“Don’t tell me you do drugs too?”
“No, but that’s not the point. I find your attitude unnecessarily extreme. It’s none of your business what I or my brothers do in our personal life. That’s not what I invited you to work with me for and I’d be grateful if you’d keep your judgemental opinions to yourself.”
He stared at her for a good half a minute, and then had the dreadful feeling she was going to walk out in him. She was not only offended, she looked nervous about his reaction.
“Sorry.” He sighed and pushed his hands through his hair. “That was uncalled for. You’re right, I’m being judgemental, but it’s not without reason.” He paused, trying to figure out what to say. “Someone close to me got tangled up in drugs. It hurt people around them, a lot.”
Her expression softened. “I’m sorry to hear that. Was it a girlfriend?”
He shook his head.
Studying him silently, she picked at her food.
Draco sipped his water.
“Look,” she added, in a lower tone, “I don’t understand why he needs to do it, really, but I try not to judge people. Besides, you should be glad he’s a party animal, its unlikely he’ll get to the information before we do.”
Draco huffed a laugh. “Fair point.”
It bothered her immensely, the fact she might be beaten in the secret project. He wanted to reassure her, but he had to tread cautiously. “Have you ever used, recreationally?”
She shook her head. “It’s not my thing, and I have to keep a straight head if I’m going get ahead in my dad’s business.”
He nodded.
She stared at him thoughtfully. “You really disapprove so much?”
He didn’t really want to talk about why, but she looked suspicious, as if she needed more of an answer. “Someone close to me got heavily into drugs for a while, for years. It affects everybody around them, sooner or later.”
Once he’d said it he worried she was going to question him, dig a little bit deeper, and he didn’t want to talk about his mum’s darkest days and what it was like growing up inside that special version of hell.
Thankfully she nodded and returned her attention to her food.
Draco risked another sushi. This was one tasted of tuna, which as a relief. He had no idea what the hell that slimy stuff was in the last one.
“Do you think either of my brothers is looking for the drain?” Lara asked.
So she had thought about it. “They didn’t give any signs of being under pressure, did they?”
She shook her head. “Charles is probably rattled more than anything, it’s the kind of pressure he might not respond to.”
Is that why Compton Senior had taken the task to them, to wake them up? Draco nodded. He didn’t want to say anything more on the matter, but he couldn’t help being sceptical. Both brothers were quietly going about their chosen diversions, despite being set a challenge by their dad, neither doing an obvious hunt for the breach of security and lack of funds. Why not?
Because it was one or both of them behind the breach? Was that why C.S. had told them, to let him know he was aware? Was Charlie boy funding his party habit or was Jamie creating a personal stash, before walking out on the father who had walked out on them? Draco figured he was letting his own life experience color his view, but it was a possibility he wasn’t going to rule out
He chucked down a couple more sushi so she wouldn’t know, and then glanced at his phone. “Talking of family,” he said, once they were walking back to the office, “I need to go see my stepbrother, Rory, this evening.”
“Okay.” She looked disappointed.
“It won’t take long. Why don’t we meet for a drink at seven?”
She smiled. “Great idea. There’s a bar near the apartment that does happy hour on cocktails between six and eight. I’ll give you the postcode when we get back to the office.”
“Great, it’s a date.”