Chapter 66

Florence's POV

I inhaled and exhaled as I stood in front of the door to Dominique's office. The hallway and the room in front of me was deathly quiet, but I couldn't be fooled by that. It was all a facade and I knew it very well. The office next to me was occupied by one of my co workers and Dominique was very well in his office. I knew this because he'd asked me to come in at exactly one o'clock today. A brief glance at the wrist watch wrapped around my wrist showed the time to be thirty minutes past one. Not only was I nervous, I was late. 

Great.

I sucked in a mouthful of air as I adjusted my feet on the cold tiles. Involuntarily, I found myself squeezing the files in my grip, almost crumpling the edges. 

Come on Florence. Take deep breaths. You can do this. It's just Dominique after all, right?

That didn't make me feel better at all. If anything, I felt my anxiety level spike higher than it originally was. 

After standing out there for what seemed like five more minutes, I decided I was going to go in. I smoother the invisible creases on my skirt as I inhaled and exhaled all the more. After repeating the breathing exercise about twenty more times, I finally pulled myself together to be able to knock on the door. 

Time seemed to slow to a halt as I waited for a response. To be honest, a tiny part of me couldn't help but wish that he wasn't in. Maybe he'd waited for me and since I didn't show up early, he'd decided to leave. If that was the case I would…

“Come in.” His gruff voice came from the other side of the door, cutting me off immediately. “It's open.”

“Alright.” I bit back a frustrated groan. Taking one more breath, I grabbed a hold of the door knob, before pushing it open. “Good afternoon, sir.”

The moment those words slid past my lips, Dominique raised his head towards me. For some strange reason, I found my breath hitching in my throat. With his brown hair pulled back in a gelled hairstyle and the way his eyes twinkled was more than enough to leave me temporarily stunned. 

“Florence.” I blinked twice at the sound of my name. I gave an awkward laugh as I stalked towards his table. “You took your sweet time, didn't you?”

“I'm so sorry,sir.” I pleaded immediately. I didn't have a valid excuse as to why I was late and there was no way I could tell him I'd been standing in front of his door for close to an hour now. “I, I actually lost track of time.”

“It's fine.” I'd mentally prepared myself for the biggest lashing out of the year, so imagine my surprise when I got none. “Are you with the documents I asked for?”

“Yes.” I nodded stiffly. A moment passed before I realized what I was supposed to do and before I could embarrass myself further, I submitted the documents in front of him. “Here they are.”

Wordlessly, Dominique pried the stack of papers. My ears perked up as he flipped each and every page of the documents stacked together. The further hr went, the lower my heart dropped to my stomach. I had put in a lot of work into this and hopefully, it was going to pay off. 

I hoped.

“This is,” he paused after a couple of minutes. If he was doing it mainly to be dramatic, I'd actually gotten the point. “Actually really good.”

“I'm sorry, sir. I tried my best to…” I trailed off immediately, without listening to him properly. Only when his words had settled in my head, did I finally speak up. “What?”

“You heard me.” He nodded, a ghost of a smile on his lips. “I like it. You've really outdone yourself this time.”

“Thank you.” I found myself grinning from ear to ear. “Thank you so much.”

“Pass it on to the admin block and they'll take the next step.”

“Thank you.” I chorused again, not knowing what else to say. “ I really appreciate it.” 

I spun on my heels immediately. I was almost out the door when Dominique's voice reached my ears again. 

“Florence.” I halted at the sound of my name. I sucked in a mouthful of air as I waited for his next string of words. Footsteps reached my ears immediately and only when they stopped right next to me did I realize that he was behind me. Goosebumps lined my skin as his fingers grazed my arm. “You do know I'm proud of you right?” 

My throat felt parched as he turned, till I was finally facing me. 

In a more calmer tone, he added. “You're steadfast in what you do and you have no idea how happy that makes me.” 

The world seemed to slow to a halt as I stared at him. Never in a million years would I have predicted what happened next. One minute we were staring at each other, and the next, we were locking lips. A moan bubbled at the base of my throat as Dominique sucked on my lower lip, pressing his lips closer to mine. A low growl erupted from Dominique's mouth as his hands found their way round my waist, before pulling me flush against him. 

I completely lost it when his fingers found their way to my hair, each one tugging along a strand of hair with him. Likewise, my dainty fingers caressed the back of his head. Dominique let out another low growl and I took it that he liked the way I fondled the back of his head. I'd never felt like this in a while. The more he kissed me, the more I wanted. I yearned and craved for more than I could chew and I still wanted more. 

“Florence.” He moaned. “I…”

Three loud knocks from the front door had us jumping apart immediately. We had barely just separated when the door swung open to reveal a young man of about my age. 

“Sir?” He sounded unsure, like he could sense the energy in the air. Almost like he knew what we were doing. “ I'm sorry if I interrupted anything, but you have a visitor sir.”

“I'm not in.” Dominique snapped. “Tell whoever it is to come back some other time.”

“But it's a client sir.” The man winced. “The one you asked us to look into all this while. We were finally able to get him to meet up and….”

“Fine.” Dominique sighed. “Tell him I'll be there in five.”

**********

“That'll be all please.” I smiled to the lady at the counter as I slid my card towards her. With an equally wide grin, I watched as the lady behind the counter swiped my card over the little machine in front of her. After a couple of beeps she handed the card over to me, along side the bags she'd packed for me. 

Balancing both bags in my hands, I headed to the exit. It was the weekend and with the way things had been going smoothly, I took it upon myself to surprise Dominique with a bounty banquet. I'd never done it before and while I was looking forward to his reaction, a tiny part of me couldn't help but be scared about the whole process. 

What I wasn't looking forward to, was bumping into the last person I'd thought about since I moved to Dominique's mansion. 

I stood in rooted in my spot the moment the Mall's double doors slid open to reveal…

“”Well, well,well.” She chimed, an evil grin on her face. “If it isn't my beloved stepsister.” 

Shit.