She sat on the corner of my desk. “Yes. Are you all right, Lily?”
I raised an eyebrow. It was an odd sort of question for Sylvia to be asking. “Yes, I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“No, no it’s okay, just thought I’d ask.” She jumped up from my desk and headed for the door.
“Sylvia, wait up.” I walked towards her. “Please, tell me what’s going on.”
She looked pale. “Jacky said she heard you and Michael arguing and that you’d be moving out soon.”
I was pissed. Jacky needed to mind her own damn business. “We haven’t argued, so I don’t know where she got that idea from. And as for me moving out? There is no chance of that. Everything between Michael and me is good. I don’t ever remember being so happy.”
She seemed to sigh in relief. “Thank god, I should have known better than to believe anything she said, but I needed to hear it from the horse’s mouth, you know.”
“Yeah, don’t worry about it. Next time don’t believe anything she says about us. I think she’s jealous.”
“I won’t. I better get back to work,” she said as she walked out of the office.
“Shit.”
“Nice vocabulary for a hot young woman,” Lucien said. I turned and he was sitting at my desk.
“Comfortable?”
“Actually no, this chair is rock hard. How the hell do you relax on the thing?”
I laughed. “That’s the point. I wouldn’t get any work done if I relaxed on it,” I smirked, “besides, that’s what Michael’s for.”
“I really did not need to know that…. Grab your purse. The big boss has given me permission to take you for a coffee.”
“You asked his permission?” I asked while I retrieved my purse from the bottom desk drawer.
“Not really. I did tell him though. I don’t want a black eye for kidnapping you for a short while. I have an appointment in an hour, so I can spare thirty minutes. I can’t wait to find out what you were both up to in there when I arrived, because I had to use my own key to get in.”
I blushed. There was no way in hell I was telling anyone what we’d done in there.
He laughed. “Mmm, that good, huh?”
“Shut up, Lucien.”
He took my hand and pulled me out of the office, into an elevator and straight to Starbucks before I could even get my thoughts together.
As we sat down by the window with our drinks, I noticed Jacky sitting across with a couple of other women who worked for the company on a different floor.
Lucien followed my gaze and then turned back to me. “Ignore them Lily. Jacky might be acting all jealous because you’re living with Michael, but the truth is, she would go with anyone who had money. And before you ask, no, none of us have taken her up on the offer. She works for us. Until you came along, employees where strictly off limits. But you’re the exception.” He smiled. “You have Michael so tied in knots it’s funny. I’ve never seen my brother like that before, so you need to let us get the teasing out of the way.”
I rolled my eyes. “Boys will be boys.” I took a few sips of my drink, conscious that Jacky and her friends were glaring at me, probably wondering what I was doing living with one McKenzie while drinking coffee with another.
“Lily.”
“Sorry, they’re annoying me now…. So Lucien,” I grinned, “I think you need….”
He didn’t let me finish. “I don’t need anything or anyone,” he said with emphasis on the ‘anyone’.
“You know, one of these days I hope you meet a woman who really does drop you on your ass, and when that happens, I will laugh my socks off!”
“Wishing that on me is just cruel.” He sulked.
I really did like Lucien. He was serious most of the time, but with me, he was playful. There was no sexual tension coming from him, he just needed a friend and I wanted to be that friend. Michael had started to settle down when I was around his brothers and started to trust our relationship.
The realization in his office earlier that I loved him was a shock. I never really loved David, not like I love Michael. He was my whole world. Without him I’d crash and burn.
“Earth to Lily! Where did you go? Never mind, I know where you went.” He roared with laughter.
“I’m telling you, one of these days you’ll be dropped on your ass by a woman and I really can’t wait to see it.”
“You,” he pointed his finger at me, “are asking for trouble. Come on, I have to leave or I’ll be late for my appointment. I’ll take you back upstairs, so Michael doesn’t shout at me.”
“Really, I’m quite capable of walking into an elevator and then walking back to the office on my own.”
“Humor me, besides your friends have just climbed aboard. Come on.” He practically dragged me to the elevators. “Play along,” he whispered, then wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me into him.