Page 14 of After-Hours Heir

No. She would probably still have those.

They were certainly linked with the publisher, but they weren’tonlyabout the publisher.

“I’m going to vote against this.”

“You’re welcome to,” Daniela said. “But it won’t make a difference. This is a largely unanimous decision. But Christos said that he was going to give you an opportunity to review the contract—”

“Christos?”Sylvie asked, crossing her arms and regarding the other woman closely. “First-name basis. Wow. Are you sure you’re not just agreeing to this deal because the man in question is a handsome devil? Because the key word here isdevil, Daniela. He is quite literally Satan.”

And with that, she turned and went back to her office. She stewed, and then she turned her focus to tonight. The problem was there was nothing she could do about the Christos Onassis situation at the moment. All she could do was see to the day-to-day operations of the company while the dark storm cloud that was Lucifer hung over her as the world’s most depressing threat.

She could do nothing about it. She had to stop ruminating about it. She had to stop letting it eat her from the inside out like a feral animal. A small, wretched animal with sharp snapping teeth and oily claws.

She leaned back in her chair and looked up at the ceiling. Then she looked at the time. She had half expected him to text her, though he didn’t tend to during the workday.

But theyweremeetingtonight.Theyweremeetingtonight.

She should ruminate on that because she could do something about it.

She had downloaded a particularly erotic romance novel and felt a lashing of guilt for buying something from an evil online conglomerate rather than her own company, but she needed aspecificthing. An erotic romance about anonymous sex, and she had paid particular attention to the details.

She knew about sex.

She knew the mechanics. But she had always found it easier to learn something by doing it, and therefore it wasn’t like she felt entirely as if she knew what she was doing.

As soon as work was over, she left. She was prone to staying late, but she wasn’t doing that today.

Yes, she needed to see to the day-to-day operations of the company, but if she was destined to lose this job, then she was going to go home and spend that time preparing herself.

She went back to her apartment, and she turned on some music, before taking her clothes off and slipping into the shower. She sadly wished that her apartment was big enough to have a bathtub. She supposed she should just be grateful that she had her own bathroom and not a shared one in the hallway.

She smoothed lightly scented lotion all over her skin. She wanted to be soft. If all he could do was touch her, then she wanted to…

Just thinking about it made her shiver.

She carefully selected a pair of underwear that was sexy, even though he wouldn’t see it. He would feel that it was lace and thin. He would know that it was for him.

She bit her lip, arousal coursing through her. It was twenty-five minutes until they were supposed to meet.

Her phone lit up.

Baby: 807

It was the room number. That was all.

She checked her appearance in the mirror, which was silly, because he wasn’t going to see her. But she wanted to feel beautiful.

Her hair was wild, and her makeup was as inexpertly done as it ever was. She couldn’t say that she felt beautiful. She felt like herself.

But he seemed to want her.

So that had to mean something. She needed it to.

She stepped outside and decided to get in the cab that was passing, rather than fussing around with a rideshare app.

“The Luxe.”

She sat back, tension spreading across her shoulders, up the back of her neck.