Michael, finally able to disengage Sophia from his lap, opened the menu to browse the pizza selection. “Allllright …” he started. “Howzabout we get an extra extra large New York style, supreme with extra mushrooms, peppers, onions and anchovies?”
“Ewwwww!!!” wailed Sophia. “That’s whorish!”
My eyes about bugged out of my head and Blake barely contained his laugher.
“Horrid, honey,” he corrected.
“Whorish,” she repeated. “I want cheese. And Chicago style.” She shot a glare at Michael.
This of course resulted in a very heated argument between Sophia and Michael about which was better; Chicago or New York style pizza. Michael had no chance of winning.
When we were finally able to place our order of a large, Chicago style, cheese pizza and a side salad for myself, we relaxed into our normal easy banter. Michael picked on Sophia relentlessly until our pizza arrived and then remained silent as he stuffed piece after piece into his mouth.
I, on the other hand, watched my friends eat pizza and cried on the inside. I kept staring at my salad, trying to pretend it was pizza. It wasn’t. It was lettuce. Warm lettuce. And a soggy pepperoncini. Logically, I knew one piece of pizza wouldn’t make me fat. But never in my life had I ever eaten just one piece of pizza. I almost always eat until my pants don’t fit and I can feel the grease oozing out of my pores.
“Anna, you can eat a piece of pizza! I promise I won’t let you have two!” piped Sophia from across the table.
She was so much like her father. She could read me like a book.
“Now now, Sophia,” Blake playfully scolded. “Anna can’t eat pizza. She eats until she’s sick and then hates herself for days.” He winked at me and continued on with his pizza.
Easy for you to make fun of me, Blake. I thought to myself. Not all of us can eat anything we want and still have an ass hard enough to bounce quarters off of.
Sophia let out a muffled laugh and shot chocolate milk out of her nose. We three adults hurried to clean up the mess with napkins before the milk leaked onto the pizza. Thank goodness no slices were harmed. I could just barely handle not eating them, but to see them being destroyed by nose milk? Nope. Couldn’t do it.
“What’s so funny, baby bug?” Blake asked his daughter.
“Anna said that you make fun of her because you eat what you want and have an ass that you can bounce quarters off of!”
Michael choked on his pizza. Blake slowly shifted his shocked gaze to mine. My jaw dropped to the floor.
I definitely didn’t say that out loud. Did I? No. There was no way. But if I didn’t say it out loud …
I stared across the table at Sophia. Sophia, I thought. Can you hear me?
She giggled and nodded.
“Holy Christ on a moped!” I exclaimed, jumping up and knocking over the parmesan cheese, causing a cloud of white powder to erupt and cover Blake’s livid face.
I stared slack-jawed across the table at Sophia who burst into tears.
“Damn it, Anna!” shouted Michael as he scooped up a still crying Sophia.
Blake shook off the parmesan cheese before shoving me out of the booth. He reached in his pocket, pulled out two quarters and handed them to Michael. “Sophia, it’s alright baby. Anna was just a little surprised. Why don’t you and Michael go get a gumball from that machine over there?” He motioned toward the red bubble machines full of gumballs and sticky hand toys.
As soon as they were out of earshot, Blake sat back down in the booth, turned to me and grabbed my wrist, yanking me onto his lap. I struggled to stand back up, but Eric clamped his other arm around my midsection to hold me still.
“Hold still,” he half growled, half whispered into my ear.
I took a deep breath and glanced around the room. Nobody was looking at us that I could see. To anyone else, it would have appeared that we were just having an intimate moment. I stopped struggling and looked down at Blake.
“This is none of your concern,” he whispered. “This is between me and my family. Sophia’s gone through a lot of shit lately and your reaction just now has probably set her back quite a ways.”
His lips were so close to my ear, I was having a hard time concentrating on what he was saying. He was majorly invading my personal space bubble.
“Anna!” he snapped as he wiggled in his seat. “Focus. We’ll talk about this later, but for now I need you to chill out and apologize to Sophia.”
He placed both hands around my waist and lifted me off his lap before scootching over in the booth so I could resume my seat next to him.
“Eric, I’m sorry, I …”
“Sorry guys, but we need to wrap this up. I have a meeting at one,” Michael interrupted as he and Sophia returned to the table.
I took one look at them and couldn’t help but grin. They were both chomping on giant wads of bubble gum which had stained their lips and teeth dark blue.
I reached out and dragged Sophia on to my lap.
Sophia, I thought. I’m sorry I was so surprised. I just wasn’t expecting that.
She stuck her thumb in her mouth and stared up at me.
This can be super cool, though! We can have our own secret code language! I can tell you funny jokes and secret hiding places and stuff!
She smiled at that idea.
I love you, sweetie.
“I love you too, Anna Banana,” she whispered as she hugged me and laid her head on my shoulder.
Seemingly satisfied that the situation was under control, Blake threw some bills on the table and directed us back out to the car. We said goodbye to Michael and piled into Eric’s car for the trip back to work.
As we were cut off by a taxi, it hit me why Blake didn’t want me to drive this time. Obviously it’s not a good idea to have a four year old in the car with me, the Queen of Road Rage. It didn’t matter if I held in my thoughts, she would have heard them. Yikes. The kid would have the vocabulary of a well educated sailor within minutes of riding with me.
Minni met us in the lobby of Vance Publishing to pick up Sophia. I hugged the little sprite and kissed the top of her head. “I love you to the moon, sweetie.”
She smiled up at me and winked. “I love you past the moon,” she said.
“Bye, munchkin. See you in a few hours.” Eric kissed her and passed her off to Minni.
The tension between Blake and I was grating as we entered our building. I could tell he was deep in thought and didn’t want to interrupt, but my brain was buzzing a mile a minute.
How long had Sophie been able to read people’s minds? Obviously Michael knows. How could he keep something like this from me? Who else knows? Surely Regina knows.
I couldn’t stop the questions from swarming in my mind.
I let the elevator doors close before I began my assault. “Eric, how …” He cut me off with a glare.
“Not here,” he whispered harshly.
“It’s always not here!” I cried. “When are we going to be anywhere that you’ll talk to me!? You’re always avoiding me. I’m sick and umf!” Blake cut off my tirade with a hand over my mouth.
“Not. Here.” He bit out, keeping his hand in place over my mouth.
I thought about biting him, but worried he wouldn’t tell me anything if I maimed him. So instead, I stood there with Blake’s hand over my mouth for the remainder of the elevator ride.
When we arrived on our floor, Blake grabbed my elbow and tugged me to his office. I shut the door behind us and took a seat in front of his desk while he paced back and forth. After what felt like hours, but was really probably like ten seconds, he let out a breath and sat down behind his desk.
“This does not leave this office,” he snapped.
I nodded.
“I don’t know how long Sophia has been able to read other people’s minds. It could have been from birth. She’s only just recently begun speaking so fluently. It started about six months ago. She was watching football with me and Illini fumbled. I shouted a
rather inventive curse inside my head and she repeated it. I didn’t even have to ask her to do it again. I knew. These powers are hereditary. And I’ve spent the last six months trying to keep it a secret from absolutely everyone.”
“Even Regina?” I asked.
“Even Regina,” he confirmed. “I knew she couldn’t handle it. I’m not blind to her faults, Anna. I know who she is better than she does. Michael only knows because Sophia was watching some reality TV show with him and overheard his thoughts on one of the female contestants.”
I winced. I didn’t figure that was a good thing.
Blake let out a small chuckle. “Yeah, I about knocked his teeth out for that one.”
“You said that Sophia had been through a lot of rough shit lately,” I said. “None of this sounds all that rough. Did something else happen?”
Blake sighed and lowered his head into his hands. “Regina found out.”
I stood and walked around to sit next to him on the corner of his desk. “I take it that didn’t go well?”
He let out an exasperated laugh. “You could say that. She freaked. Called Sophia all sorts of awful things, even as far as calling her the AntiChrist.”
I was shocked. What kind of mother reacted that way to their own child?!
“After her freak out, she left. She left Sophia all alone in our house, bawling her eyes out. Minni wasn’t scheduled to be there that day. I came home from work late that night and found Sophia asleep on the kitchen floor.”
My heart absolutely ached for the little girl. I reached out and squeezed Blake’s shoulder. “Eric, I’m so sorry.”
He reached up and covered my hand with his. He took a few moments to compose himself before answering. “Don’t be sorry for me. Be sorry for Sophia. Regina was never a good mother to her, but she was still her mother. It’s hard enough to have your mother leave you, but to have her leave the way she did?” He shook his head. “Sophia’s still not over it.”
“Wait, if Regina just left you, why is she pretending you’re still together and telling me you belong to her?” I asked.
Blake rolled his eyes. “She actually left about four months ago. She realized pretty quickly that she can’t afford her lifestyle without Eric Warbucks to fund it. She’s been hounding me constantly.”
“And you don’t want her back?” I asked.
“Are you kidding me?” he replied. “The only reason we got married in the first place was because she got pregnant with Sophia. She hasn’t been faithful to me since probably the beginning. I just figured it’d be better for Sophia to have her mother and father be married. Now …” He sighed. “Now I just see how much better she’s been since Regina left and I wish this would have happened sooner.”
I shook my head and squeezed Blake’s shoulder again. Ninety percent of my heart was broken for him and for Sophia. The remaining ten percent was whooping and offering awkward high fives. No one should have to be married to someone as awful as Regina. I had no doubt both Eric and Sophia would be much happier once their grieving was over.
A knock sounded at Blake’s door, half a second before Emmett Vance walked in. He caught my eye before looking down and noticing me sitting on Blake’s desk with his hand covering my own on his shoulder. I tried to subtly remove my hand, but Eric didn’t relinquish his hold. Emmett’s gaze rested there for half a second before switching to Eric.
“Blake, I’m missing supporting documentation for some purchases from the speedboat shoot last week. Can you get those to me by the end of the day?” He didn’t make eye contact with me.
“Sure,” replied Eric, finally releasing my hand.
Emmett nodded before finally looking at me. “Ms. Jennings,” he murmured before leaving and shutting the door behind him.
“You did that on purpose!” I accused Blake.
He nodded. “Yep. I wanted to see if he’d notice or react. He definitely noticed and it was obvious he had to hold back a reaction.”
“UGH!” I groaned. “I don’t want him to react.”
“Liar,” Blake challenged.
“We were having such a good moment,” I whined. “Why must you always ruin it?”
Blake chuckled before turning his gaze to his computer, signaling I was dismissed. I let out a muffled scream and stormed out of his office.
10
Gin and Nachos: The Ultimate Aphrodesiac
I spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on what I had missed while saving Carl. Luckily, Mae had the forethought to not schedule any meetings during her day off. I still had about three hundred emails to respond to.
By the time five o’clock came around, my brain felt like it was about to implode. I was debating whether or not to call it an early day when a couple girls from Design stopped by to invite me out for a few drinks after work. With the week I’d had, a few gin and tonics were exactly what I needed.
I always keep a pair of jeans and a couple tops in my office for occasions like that. I changed into some super sexy Rock Revivals and a sheer sparkly tunic. After gobbing on some thick eyeliner and mascara, I was ready to go.
A group of nine of us walked down the street to a local bar where all of the single twenty-something professionals go after work. We arrived at the bar and promptly ordered giant plates of nachos and drinks for the group. I decided to screw my diet for the night. (Honestly, if I had just gone home there’s no way I would have stayed away from the Rocky Road in my freezer.) I needed to drown myself in artificial cheese and over-seasoned beef.
After a couple rounds of drinks, we moved it to the dance floor. I’m probably the worst dancer in existence. I’m a typical Midwestern girl in that I took several years of dance classes when I was a kid. But that kind of dancing doesn’t really prepare you to be in a sea of sweaty bodies grinding on each other. That being said, get a few drinks in me and I’m probably the best dancer ever. Or at least that’s what the gin tells me.
I was dancing in a circle with my female coworkers when I felt a pair of large hands on my hips and a very solid body behind me. I looked over my shoulder to find gorgeous green eyes shining down at me. With a huge smile, I twisted around to face Hot Ian, bringing my arms up to his neck.
“Ian! I didn’t know you were coming!” I shouted over the music.
He leaned in close so I could hear him better. “A few people were talking about going out after work this morning at the gym, so I thought I’d swing by and see who made it.”
“I’m glad you did!” I shouted back.
His hands pushed at my hips, turning me back around so my ass pressed against him.
“Me too, gorgeous,” he murmured in my ear.
We began dancing a little slower than the beat of the music. Apparently Ian wanted to do the grindy thingy. In my semi-inebriated state, I just went with the flow.
Ian grabbed my wrist and brought an arm up over my head to grasp the back of his neck. I continued to swirl my hips, barely brushing up against his hard body, though his hands were possessive, pulling me to grind against him. After a few beats, I felt Ian’s hand slide up from my hip to my side, taking my shirt up a couple inches with it and scattering tingly little sparks across my body.
With my free hand, I moved his hand back to my hip and tugged down my shirt. I shot him a friendly warning glance over my shoulder and put an inch or two of distance between our bodies. Apparently my warning glance needed more zip to it because Ian just pulled me back into his body and let his thumb slide under the hem of my shirt.
I turned around to tell him to take it easy when my heart dropped to my stomach. Emmett Vance was making his way through the dance floor, heading straight for us and looking extremely pissed off. I quickly disengaged myself from Ian’s hold.
“Anna,” Emmett greeted me through clenched teeth. “Care to introduce me to your friend?”
“Sure!” I squeaked. “Emmett Vance, this is H-Ian. This is Ian.” What is it with me not knowing people’s last names?
Ian stood up straight and
puffed up his chest. “Ian Watts,” he said. “And you are?”
“Emmett Vance. Anna’s boyfriend,” Emmett challenged.
Emmett said he was my boyfriend?! My head was not amused by his caveman show. My heart was doing somersaults over the thought of having Emmett Vance as my boyfriend. My lady parts were doing the Mambo.
Ian raised his eyebrows and looked from Emmett to me. I shrugged and put my arm around Emmett’s waist.
“Well in that case, I’ll pass off the next dance to you,” Ian said with a forced smile before turning and joining the group of coworkers.
Emmett pulled me tight against his body and started swaying to the beat. Moving on my own wasn’t really an option as he was most certainly leading the dance.
As he crushed me against him, he leaned down until I could feel his breath on my neck. “I don’t share, Anna,” he growled into my ear. “I can choose to ignore your hand on Eric Blake’s shoulder and your ass on his desk. I can brush off the idea of you drinking coffee with a man named Hot Ian. What I can’t tolerate is seeing another man’s hands all over your body and your ass grinding into his junk.”
Whoa, Nelly. That was probably the hottest thing I’d ever heard in my life. Shouldn’t I have been offended by his possessiveness? I wasn’t. Hearing his deep voice rumbling in my ear and feeling his big hands crushing me against his growing arousal pretty much set off the boxing bells in my brain.
I began to move my hips in a sensual figure eight as I ran my hands up his muscular back. I ran my nose along his collar bone and stood on my tippy toes to kiss his jaw line, his stubble tickling my lips.
“For the record,” I breathed in his ear. “Coffee was just coffee. My hand was on Blake’s shoulder to comfort him during a hard time. And I wasn’t grinding into anyone’s junk until just now.” I pulled him closer so I could feel the hard outline of him beneath his slacks. He might be angry, but he was definitely turned on.
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