[18+] Mark just wants a quiet life. With plenty of action at work, he has no interest in bringing the drama home with him. But he does need a flatmate, and when blonde bombshell Zoe crashes onto the scene, she's more than he bargained for.
Zoe is a...
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July 2015
ZOE
Teddy swings his arm around the back of my seat and reaches for his beer.
"Nice restaurant, Zo." The pad of his thumb brushes my bare shoulder blade. "Do you get people from outside the hotel eating here too?"
"The restaurant, yes. Only about a third of reservations are from our guests. It's technically a separate business to the hotel, so it's marketed as its own brand to attract more customers. The bar across the lobby is ours."
I'm rambling, flailing under the intense attention of the man sitting across the table from us. Face like thunder, his stormy gaze is trained on Teddy's arm. Even sat in a chair, he's all tall and broad and menacing. So damn hot. We're taking this friendship very seriously, though. And by that, I mean we've not had sex once. Not even a kiss.
I guess normal friends don't sleep with each other. They have coffee once a month and Skype every other weekend. When they're travelling, they send postcards. On the rare occasions they're in the same city for an extended period of time, they go food shopping together because the short one can't reach the stuff on the top shelf. Just mundane, normal stuff.
But my God I'm sexually frustrated. He could sort me out in seconds. In fact, pretty sure he could just look at my clit and I'd explode.
Heat creeps up the back of my neck, and I reach for more wine.
"Good idea, Zoe!" Marianne claps her hands together. "Let's get another bottle, shall we?"
The last thing I need is to get drunk, but we're trying to schmooze our biggest clients and Marianne clearly assumes expensive alcohol is the way to go. Ironically, only Teddy and his manager are drinking. Mark is on the water, and the other two security guys—the ones not guarding the entrance to the restaurant—are sipping Diet Coke.
I turn my head towards her and softly murmur, "Probably just the one bottle. There's only a few of us drinking."
"It's about the relationship-building, not the alcohol," she replies through gritted teeth. "We want them to think we're looking after them."
I bite my tongue. I don't agree with that, but Marianne is retiring in a few months and I'm eyeing up her job, so I need to keep her on side in the hope she'll put in a good word for me.
"Another beer, Teddy?" Marianne asks.
"Nah, I'm good thanks." He taps a finger against the rim of his water glass. "Pacing myself."
Spoken like a truly mature twenty-two-year-old. Meanwhile the thirty-year-old next to him is struggling to keep her vision in focus and we've not even had mains yet.
"I'm going to pop to the bathroom," I say. "Can you order me the risotto if they come over?"
"Sure," Teddy replies, even though I'd directed the question at Marianne.
