When he pulled back, he was smirking.
“What?” she asked, flustered.
“I told you I had my ways to get you to kiss me.”
“You’re lucky I like you,” she told him with a shake of her head.
Are you still coming by for our afternoon coffee? I have to get back upstairs soon.
Trihn sighed heavily when she got the text message from Preston. She’d had every intention of meeting up with him for coffee after his meeting with his boss, but Lydia was taking forever. Trihn had agreed to have lunch with her sister since her plans with Preston had been disrupted. It wasn’t often that Lydia had lunch open at a decent time with her new job anyway. Trihn had thought it would be easy to juggle both, but she hadn’t told Lydia about Preston yet, so she couldn’t exactly rush her without raising suspicion.
Lydia finally put her fork down and called for a waiter to bring them a check. Trihn breathed out in relief. She might still make it.
Yes. Just finishing up lunch with my sister. Sorry.
Lydia put her credit card in the black booklet.
Trihn tried to stop her. “Ly, you seriously don’t have to pay for my lunch.” She furtively glanced down at her phone to check the time…again.
“Don’t worry about it. I can see you’re in a hurry.”
“What?” Trihn asked, looking up. “No, I’m not.”
“Well, if you aren’t, then you’re acting really weird.”
“I’m not acting weird either.”
Lydia snorted. “Okay.”
Trihn’s phone beeped again.
No worries. Just wanted to see you.
“So,” Lydia said, “who is he?”
“Who is whom?” she asked.
Her eyes met her sister’s across the table. Lydia gave her an all-knowing look.
“It’s just Renée.”
“Uh-huh.” Lydia rolled her eyes. “I got the check. You run along and tell me about him later.”
Trihn stood up from her seat and shook her head. “Seriously, it’s no one.”
“You act as if I don’t know my sister.”
“I love you, Ly,” Trihn said. She kissed the top of her sister’s head and then began jogging out of the restaurant.
“I want the dirt later,” Lydia cried as she left.
Trihn hopped on the subway and took the train uptown to Preston’s building. Trihn had been to Glitz magazine headquarters more times than she could count throughout the last eight years since her mother had become the executive vice president of the company. It was strange, being on her way there for something…someone else.
She jogged to get there in time, and she was thankful that she had opted for her studded gold flats. Pedestrians gave her evil glares when they managed to look up from their cell phones.
And there he was, waiting for her in a crisp black suit.
A smile plastered itself onto her face at the sight of his dark blond hair and characteristic smirk.
His eyes found her across the short distance on the sidewalk, and he moved toward her like a magnet. “Hey, beautiful.”
“Hey,” she whispered.
His hands fell to either side of her face, and he softly kissed her on the lips. It was intoxicating. She could do this all day. Her stomach dropped out from under her. All she could do was clutch on to him and hope that she would stay standing, despite the fact that he was turning her legs to mush.
He broke the spell and gestured for them to walk into the Starbucks inside the building.
“Sorry about lunch. I thought we would be done sooner,” she told him.
“That’s all right. Just trying to steal more of your time.”
“I don’t mind that at all.”
He charmingly smiled down at her, and she felt that now familiar flutter in her stomach. She had to force herself to look away to avoid getting completely blinded by him.
They ordered their drinks, picked them up from the barista, and then walked back into the building. Trihn stealthily looked around the lobby. The last thing she wanted was to run into her mother. She rarely took lunch out unless she had important meetings, but it still made Trihn cautious.
Preston put his free arm around her waist and leaned into her. “Don’t make plans for lunch tomorrow.”
“I’m all yours.”
“I like the sound of that.” He dragged her against him for another heart-stopping kiss. “I’m not ready for you to leave. Come up, and see the office.”
“Are you sure? Don’t you have to get back to work?”
“Of course I’m sure. It’ll only be a minute.”
“All right. Then, yes!”
Trihn followed him to the elevators. She was excited to see where he spent much of his life. If he wasn’t with her, then he was guaranteed to be working. She was glad that they had started having lunch together nearly every day because most of his nights were occupied. He took overachiever to a whole new level.
The elevator opened onto his floor, and Preston whisked them by an oblivious receptionist. He walked Trihn past a giant wall with the Glitz magazine logo and into the immaculate office space beyond. Nearly every space was occupied with white cubicles. Most of them were empty from the lunch hour, and only a few people had trickled back in already. All-glass meeting rooms were in use across one far wall, and the other wall opened up to the New York City skyline beyond.
“And this,” he said dramatically, “is my desk.”
Trihn giggled. It looked just like every other cubicle on the floor. “Very nice.”
“Seriously, this is where the magic happens.”
“I like it.”
“One day, I’ll be up there,” he said, plopping down into his seat.
“In the sky?” she joked.
“With the bigwigs, making the decisions.”
Trihn bit her lip. “Very ambitious of you.”
“You sound disbelieving.”
“I’m not,” she said earnestly. “If I can become a successful fashion designer, then why can’t you run a fashion magazine?”
He smiled in a way that said she completely understood. And she did. She knew what it felt like to want to make it to the top. She had felt that all her life. Between ballet, modeling, Lydia…all she had ever done was strive to be the best.
Preston grabbed her hand and pulled her down onto his lap. His hands circled her waist as he stared up at her. “You get it.”
“I get that you’d give my designs all the best placements in the magazine,” she joked to defuse the heat radiating between them.
“Oh, you think you’d get special treatment, do you?” he asked.
He trailed a row of soft kisses down her neck, and she shivered all over.
“Absolutely.”
“You might just be right.” He nipped her neck.
Her shivers turned into a full-blown shudder at his touch. She turned her face toward him, and their lips met. His tongue slid into her mouth, and her hands wrapped around his neck. Where they were and what they were doing didn’t seem to matter at that moment.
Then, someone cleared his throat behind them. “Well, what do we have here?”
Trihn jumped up like a shot of electricity had rushed through her. “I’m so sorry,” she apologized immediately.
Preston stood hastily and brushed down his suit. “Sorry about that, Mr. Brown.”
Crap. His boss.
“I was just leaving,” Trihn said awkwardly.
“Perhaps Mr. Whitehall can escort you out, as he should have earlier.”
“Yes, sir,” Preston said quickly.
Trihn hastened her steps back toward the elevators with Preston on her heels. She stared down at her feet as she waited for the door to open. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to get you in trouble with your boss.”
“Hey,” he said, tilting her chin up, “I’m not in trouble. Even if I were, it would be worth it to have a few extra minutes with you.”