I pick up the pace, knowing I need to basically power walk if I want to make my bus.
The only downside about working here is that Solomon’s offices are uptown, and Mom and I live in the more working-class part of the city. But hunkering down with my Kindle and my headphones on a bus is a small price to pay for such an awesome gig.
I walk into the spring evening air, a cool bite moving over me as the city turns the deep purple of the setting sun.
I head for the street corner, where I’ll be able to press myself against the wall to get out of the way of the other pedestrians. I need to get my headphones on as soon as possible.
I need to blot out all the craziness surging through me.
I’ve just taken them from my bag when I feel somebody standing over me.
My heart thuds in my chest, sending fear spiking through my body.
In this city, a stranger looming over you is never a good thing.
I look up, getting ready to raise my hands to defend myself.
Solomon stares down at me, a subtle smirk dancing across his lips. His bright eyes dance, too, seeming sharp and intense.
“Um, hello?” I say.
“Is that a question?” he smirks, as people rush past us.
It’s like we’ve fallen into our own personal universe, secreted away from the rest of the world.
“No?” I say, giggling despite how wrong this should feel.
We’re not at work anymore.
What the heck does he want with me?
Whatever it is, I know it won’t be what I wish it was.
“Now you’re just playing games with me,” he says, his voice gruff and intense, making me think a million things that would make Caitlin hate me. “Are you heading home? I can give you a ride if you’d like.”
No.
You’re playing with fire.
“Yes,” I hear myself saying, as though somebody else is guiding my words. “That would be nice.”
He gestures toward the parking garage.
“Then follow me,” he says.
He turns and strides in front of me, this huge towering man, looking like somebody from the cover of a men’s health magazine. Everything about him is tight, huge, bulging, and manly. I feel something deep inside of me burn and whimper, and for a second I imagine what Solomon would look like with a tiny baby in his arms, my baby.
I banish the thought.
It’s bad enough to let my mind brim with betraying lust, let alone with impossible baby making.
Sure, I’ve always wanted children.
Sure, I used to play with dolls when I was way too old for them, and I used to dream that I’d have children at a young age, soon after graduating high school, but that hasn’t happened and it’s certainly not going to happen with my best friend’s dad.
He walks past the main entrance to the parking garage and then turns down an alleyway. He’s so broad he barely fits in the gap.
I pause at the mouth of the entrance.
He turns, his smirk twitching, his eyes whispering over me.
Tingles dance across my skin and buzz hotly through my body.
“Don’t worry, Sophia,” he says. “I’m not going to hurt you. I’d never hurt you.”
“I know,” I say. “I guess I’m just …”
“Wondering why I’m leading you down an alleyway when I said I’d give you a ride home?”
“Well, yeah.”
He grins wolfishly, looking for a moment like a man half his age. He has more life in him than most boys my age. Despite being forty-two – Caitlin recently wrote a birthday post on Facebook about him – he brims with energy, enthusiasm, and power.
“Follow me and I’ll show you,” he says.
I swallow a big ball of lust and then walk into the alleyway. He walks ahead of me, leading me past the graffiti covered walls and around another corner.
I will him to turn around and grab my shoulders, shove me up against the wall, and growl in my face. You horny thing. You know why I brought you here.
I know I’m reading far too much into this situation, but I still ache for it, the longing captivating me and making my skin feel as though it’s sizzling up from the inside.
Finally, he waves at a phone booth sitting in a corner, just past some trashcans. The glass is thick-looking and marked with scratches here and there, and there’s a padlock on the door.
“What’s this, some sort of billionaire’s secret entrance?” I ask.
“Exactly.”
He takes a key from his inside pocket to unlock it and then steps inside. He smirks at me, standing tall with his shoulders back, a challenge in his eyes.
“What’s the matter, Sophia? Would you rather take the bus?”
“It’s just …”
There’s not enough room in there for the both of us.
Technically, that’s not true. There is enough room.
We’re just going to be pressed really close together.
“Get in, Sophia,” he growls, a hint of urgency in his voice.
I can imagine him giving me instructions during heated moments in the same tone of voice.
I walk toward the phone booth, my heart thumping, telling myself over and over again that this isn’t what I think it is, what I wish it was.
He doesn’t want me. He can’t want me. Not like that.
Yet as I step into the private closeness with him, his body brushing against mine, I feel an impossible hope flaring to life within me.
CHAPTER FOUR
Solomon
What the fuck am I doing?
When I saw that Sophia was leaving on my private security camera feed of the lobby, something twisted inside of me, something primal and compulsive. I knew I had to follow her.
It felt like I had no choice.
I’m not in control now.
My seed swells and burns, roaring at me to take this woman, this fertile, beautiful woman.
Now, she’s pressed close to me, her breasts grazing my abs as she wriggles deeper into the phone booth.
“Now what?” she murmurs, her cheeks shiny and flushed in the light of the naked bulb. “I hope you realize how super-villain-esque this is, Solomon.”
I chuckle deeply. “Oh, I do. Don’t worry. Now—descend, password,
