Entry-Level Mistress by Sabrina Darby

fact that his mouth was now in the vicinity of my hipbone. I sucked in a sharp breath.
    “My purse,” I said, waving a hand vaguely to the left where the pink bag sat on the floor.
    He was naked and back between my legs in a moment, pulling me down by my hips so that my head rested flat on the cushions. It was strange to be doing this right after discussing, or barely discussing, the old history, but that was our relationship: strange. I reached for him and at the sharp surge of pleasure as his body filled mine, I wrapped my legs around him and welcomed him in.

Chapter 8
     
    It was odd going to work the following day knowing that Daniel was nowhere in the building. He’d left on an early flight to make some sort of dinner meeting in Paris. I didn’t know what and he hadn’t elaborated. A secret part of me had almost hoped he’d invite me. One of those last-minute romantic gestures one always sees in movies.
We can shop when we land.
    It took a full quarter hour of silent lecturing to rid my mind of backward thoughts like that. I was not some kept woman. If I
were
, I wouldn’t be sitting here in the morning marketing meeting in my stupid sweater set. All of this, Hartmann Enterprises, my affair with Hartmann himself, was only temporary. Come August I’d be in upstate New York starting my real life. After that, maybe Manhattan or London. If I managed to save the excess money from the next few paychecks, instead of squandering it on lingerie, I could even take a month and travel sooner than later, visit friends. There really weren’t any limits to what I could do.
    “For me, global means round.” Jillian was pointing to the easel where she’d placed a poster with six circular logos. “When I worked for Balson, we always underscored the importance of finding a theme.”
    There was a flurry of nodding and a chorus of assenting murmurs. Jillian had apparently been stolen away from Balson Designs, Boston’s premier branding consultants and she liked to remind everyone of her experience. But for me, round just didn’t seem big enough. Not for what they said Daniel was trying to do. Neither did an arrow, or a cube or a bunch of interlocking squares in primary colors.
    “Yes, Emily?”
    Lance, Jillian, James, and everyone else were staring at me. Startled, I lowered the hand I’d raised as if I was in high school.
    “I was thinking that maybe it would be interesting to do a skyline for the logo.” I heard a snicker from somewhere to my left. Yeah, just like high school. “Something futuristic though, like buildings that don’t even exist yet.”
    There was an uncomfortable silence. I realized abruptly that they all knew I was sleeping with the boss.
    The heat of embarrassment flooded my body.
    “Logos need to be simple, elegant,” Jillian said, almost as if I hadn’t spoken. “The classics, the ones that stay in people’s minds, have real meaning. They need to be translatable across a wide range of mediums.”
    I looked down at the yellow legal pad on the table before me, my shame still painfully present. Jillian was right. I knew nothing about logos, and of all the people here, I was the last who should be giving suggestions. I had no investment in the success of the company, in Daniel’s success. In fact, I should be doing exactly the opposite. I should be trying to tear him down.
    “Good point,” I said with a fake, bright smile. I caught Lance staring at me and he raised an eyebrow. I looked down, focusing my attention on crossing out a daisy I’d doodled a minute earlier.
    “Futuristic is a good word to think of.” My hand stilled at Lance’s voice. “But not sci-fi, we don’t want to go too far. How can we make Hartmann Enterprises look like it knows where the world is heading?”
    Did the company know where the world was heading? Did Daniel? Or was it all really a show, an attempt to make everything simply appear “as if”?
    Like me …
as if
I knew what I was doing working a desk job …