Surrendered(25)

“I always want you.” I say easily.

He laughs. “Babe, I’m Theodore Ellis, of course you want me.”

“Modesty always was your strong suit.” I mumble.

“It’s okay, only you get me. Turns out, hot redheads are a rare gem, and I’m quite partial.” I can hear the smile in his voice.

“You know Hugo once said something similar to me. You know it’s bad when you start sounding like Hugo.”

He snorts. “Well he’s always knee deep in pussy, so he must be doing something right.”

“I’m a quality rather than quantity kind of girl…” There’s a knock on my office door. “Ugh, I need to go. I’ll call you later. Love you.”

“Yeah you do.” He says before I hang up the phone. ‘Yeah you do’. Seriously?



My office door swings open and Josh steps in. I smile widely at him. I’ve missed Josh. As much as I love that I’m now a solicitor with my own office and everything, I really loved working as his junior.

“How is life in your own office?” He asks brightly.

“Good, stressful and a little boring without you.” He takes a seat in the chair on the other side of the desk and props his feet on the desk. He unbuttons his suit jacket and tucks his hands in his pockets. He kind of reminds me of an older version of Theo. He has this really laid back vibe, but he’s all smart suits and business attitude. His dark hair is greying, but it works for him.

“I miss your…excitement.” He grins.

“Well, I am much more exciting than you.” I smile. “You’re getting a little old for excitement.”

“Well, that’s true.” He shrugs. “I miss the soap opera that is your life. Namely, watching you make eyes at Ellis and pretend you don’t want to bone him.”

I blanch. “Oh my god. You did not just say that. I thought you were all professional.”

He throws his head back and laughs. “You don’t work for me anymore, I don’t have to be professional. Anyway, what’s going on with you?”

I sigh. “Everything. I have so much to catch up on.” I gesture to the papers scattered all over my desk. I don’t tell him why I’ve been absent for the last two days. I’m a solicitor, a young solicitor. I’m supposed to be working sixty hour weeks with no holiday and taking contracts home on the weekends. Instead I’ve taken a lot of time off recently. To be fair, most of it was before my promotion, but still. Josh must be suspect as to what can possibly be so pressing that I’m letting it effect my career. There are thousands of law school graduates who would sell their own mother to have the opportunities that I have been given. I cannot tell him that my life has borderline imploded, and my brother is in jail. I trust Josh, and I like him. I’d definitely call him a friend, but not that kind of friend. I need to keep this whole situation under wraps. I told Simmons I have a family emergency. That one has to be getting pretty old by now. The old boy does seem to let me do whatever the fuck I want. That must be Theo’s influence. Surely? Who knows? Usually I’d be pissed about that, but right now, being Theodore Ellis’ ex-girlfriend, is beneficial. I say ex, because as far as they know, that’s what I am.

“Yeah, this looks fun. I’ll leave you to it. Oh, and I came in to say that I’ve been dealing with Hardy this week. He has a meeting scheduled with you on Monday.”

“What for?” I ask suspiciously. The last time I spoke to Hardy was at the Florell and Simmons summer party. That was awkward to say the least. He didn’t say anything, but there was this tension about him when Theo walked in. Maybe it was just me. I don’t know. There was some serious bloody tension on my part.

“Well, obviously you know Ellis is undercutting him on the buyout of that company. He wants your help in getting him another company.”

“So he’s not giving me grief about it?” I ask.

He shrugs. “He seemed pretty laid back about it to be honest. I was surprised he still wanted to stick with the firm after we fucked him like that, but apparently you have some kind of magic touch that keeps them coming back.” He raises an eyebrow, his dark eyes shining with humour.

I roll my eyes. “Yeah, something like that. Honestly, this place is like a soap opera.” I shake my head.

He stands up and smooth’s his suit jacket down. “It wasn’t before you rocked up.” He teases before he strides out of my office.

I check my watch. I need to clear up and go pick Harry up. I pick out a few of the more urgent contracts and put them in a file, which I shove in my handbag. I clear the rest away. I’ll have to come in early in the morning to get some of this stuff done. I really want to hang out with Harry tomorrow, but I’m treading on thin ice as it is. I cannot take any more time off work.