Chapter Five
Three days Sophia had been close, and for three days something had gone wrong taking him away from his office, which only served to piss him the fuck off. There had been some kind of systems failure that required him to fix it. No one else knew how, and he was fine with that. Of course, he was out of the office, and Sophia was right next to him.
Finally, Thursday lunch came, and he entered his office to find Sophia … not there. Gritting his teeth he moved toward his PA, who was typing something up.
“Where’s Sophia?” he asked.
“She went to lunch with the rest of the interns.”
“Why?”
“Because she was an intern, and when she came in on Tuesday asked about them. She’s an intern herself, sir.”
This wasn’t what he wanted. “Thank you.”
He turned toward the elevator as it pinged, and there was Sophia.
“Hello, Alfie,” she said. The smile on her face pushed all of his anger to one side. She was smiling. She was happy, and that made him so.
“I had brought us lunch, but Lara here told me you’d already gone.”
“Yes, I did. There was something I wanted to ask you.”
“I’m going to be eating my lunch. I can answer all of your questions there.”
This was not progressing the way he wanted, and it was starting to wear thin. Business was getting in the way, not to mention that he didn’t want to push her too far for fear of her rushing off. Sophia was a skittish little thing. Everything he had learned and seen had told him that.
Entering his office, he waited for her to pass, and admired the curve of her ass. He couldn’t wait to get his hands on her, and to finally make her his.
One step at a time.
Just take it easy.
Out of the two friends, Sophia was the one who hadn’t shown any desire to be with a man. He was getting tired of knowing everything about her, and not being able to do anything about it.
He took control. That was what he did, and yet when it came to Sophia, he felt like she was slipping through his fingers, and it had been a matter of four days. To him, it had been so much longer than that. He’d been watching her for a long time, needing her, waiting, planning, and now she was finally here.
Closing the door, he made his way behind his desk as she lowered herself into her seat. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and he preferred it when she left it down. He had imagined many times running his fingers through her brown locks, wrapping the length around his fist as he fucked her hard. When he finally took that cherry, he was going to make her so addicted to his touch, that she couldn’t move without thinking of him inside her.
His cock thickened, and he forced a smile to his lips.
“How are you finding it?” he asked.
“The work you set me has been interesting.”
Before he left to deal with his problem, he had handed her six files of some of his bestsellers, and company dealings. He wanted her to see every single department so that she knew what she was dealing with. In time, he intended for her writing to be the passion she wanted to do. He also imagined her writing in the office right next door to him. The publishing company he had purchased was currently giving him a crash course on how to make a profit within the industry.
Was it a bit crazy to buy a company to give his woman her dream? Yes, but he was willing to do everything he could to make her happy.
“Good. Has there been anything you felt that we’ve been slacking on?” he asked.
“I don’t think software is really my area of expertise.”
“Have you read all six files I sent you?” The final file was about his latest acquisition. “With the way technology is advancing, I decided to purchase a company, a publishing company, with books and stuff.” This was not the way to sound very grown up, and he gritted his teeth.
Her eyes grew wide, and she smiled. “You’ve gotten a publishing company? Like, for real?”
“Yes. I thought your expertise would be suited there. Mr. Coleman told me you had innovative ideas, and I’ve seen some of your projects.”
Her smile grew even wider.
“Do you love literature?” he asked.
“Yes, of course I do.”
“Excellent. Then you have nothing to worry about. I look forward to what you think of my latest venture.” He wanted her to be by his side in his business, helping him make decisions.
“I look forward to it.” She stood, about to leave.
“Was there anything else?”
She paused, and rubbed her hands together, shaking her head. “No, there’s nothing. It was just something silly, but it’s fine now.”
“Are you sure?”
“Totally sure. Did you resolve what you needed?” she asked.
“Yes, I did.”
“I will leave you to your lunch.”
She left, and as he ate his sandwich he watched her return to her office. There was no way he could look away as she flipped open the file, and found exactly what she was looking for. At the moment it was Brown Enterprise Publishing. In time, he intended for her name to be at the top of the firm. Sitting back in his chair, he watched her read through the paperwork, seeing the excitement grow with every passing second.
Plan one was complete, and now he had an excuse to be with her for the next steps. He already had a hotel booked for next week, and their flight arranged. In no time at all, he would have what he wanted.
****
Over the next week and a half, Sophia worked closely with Alfie, showing him certain points with regards to his new publishing company. She couldn’t believe how excited she was. The only other time she felt this way was when she was writing her own stories.
“You think romance is a big market?”
“Hell yeah, I also think the e-world is a big place as well. There are a lot of men, women, and even kids buying books there. You really need to hit that target there.” She moved toward his white board, and wrote out some of the statistics. It was nine o’clock, and she had been working on this presentation for the past couple of days. According to Alfie, he had asked several of the interns to create ideas that mixed software with publishing.
She knew he’d been seeing several of the other interns, but she wanted to bring traditional publishing into the new era, and set up their own company for distributing books. For the first time in her life she wanted to impress the man sitting behind the desk.
Every night after Freya had gone to bed, Sophia had been doing a great deal of research on the man Alfie Brown, and she loved what she had found out about him. He was a man that intrigued her, and she admired him. Also, she respected him.
She’d also gotten in touch with Mr. Coleman and asked his opinion of the man sitting opposite her.
“I have to say, Sophia, this is amazing,” Alfie said, standing up, and rounding the desk. He didn’t stop there, and stepped up close to her. The scent of his cologne was appealing. She didn’t know what he wore, but it was nice, and it suited him. “You’ve been the only intern to show the most passion about this project.”
“I love books of all kinds. I think they are important in our lives, and between the two of us, I kind of like writing.” She covered her cheeks, embarrassed that she had let him know that little piece of information.
“You write books?”
“I’m not very good at it. Writing has been the one passion I had growing up. The thing is, I know it’s not always a good way of earning money.” She shrugged. “My parents didn’t want me to waste my potential, and I seemed to have a good business head, or at least that’s what my professors tell me. Also, I’m hard working, and now I am rambling again.” She hated it when she got embarrassed. Whenever that happened, she didn’t know when to stop or to shut up.
He chuckled. “I think you’re doing fine, more than fine. Right, my mind is made up. You were the last one to present to me, so I have an idea. How do you feel about coming with me to the company this weekend? We leave tomorrow and it would be for an entire weekend.”
“Wait? Go to an actual publishing company?”
“Yes, of course. The one you’ve been researching. What do you think?”
“I think that would be amazing. Thank you so much.” Before she knew what she was thinking, she threw her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. She was so happy, and that was crazy.
Alfie wrapped his arms around her, and something else happened to Sophia that had never happened before.
She became aroused, instantly so. Pulling away quickly, she was mortified. This man was her boss, and there was no way in hell that she should be aroused by him.
Biting her lip, she smiled.
“You really need to stop doing that,” Alfie said.
“Doing what?”
He reached out and pulled on her lip, drawing it away from her teeth. “Doing that biting your lip. You have no idea what it does to me.” He stepped up close to her, and with nowhere else to go, she pressed her back against the wall.
The look in his eyes was so damn sinful, and for the first time in her life, Sophia wanted to cave to this man, to find out what all the fuss was about. It was so wrong. He was her boss, and she was merely an intern. Not only that, anyone could find out, and she would be the laughingstock of the entire building.
“You don’t want me to do this?” she asked, and bit her lip again.
Alfie groaned, captured her hands, and pressed them either side of her head. Sophia was in a haze, unable to break free, nor did she want to.
Locking her fingers with his, she stared into his green eyes. His blond hair fell down over one eye, and he looked ready to fuck. She was a virgin, not stupid.
They were alone. Everyone had left hours ago, and she had been so desperate to give her presentation that she had stayed late, even telling Freya she wouldn’t be home ‘til late.
“I think you’re tempting me, Sophia.”
“I don’t know how to do that.” She wanted his hands on her.
Her nipples were rock hard, pressing against the front of her shirt. This was so wrong. He was her boss, and he was older than she was. This shouldn’t be happening. Not today, not when she had really enjoyed everything.
She licked her lips, unable to stop herself from dropping her gaze down to his lips. They were so firm, and much to her shame, she had wondered what they would feel like on hers.
This had never happened before. She had dreamt about him late at night and woken in a sweat at some of the sexy dreams she’d been having. Never had she experienced a sex dream with a man she was close to.
Alfie pressed his body against hers, and she whimpered. Fire ignited inside her, and it was like she had never been touched before. What was more important, she didn’t want it to stop.