Sophie followed her nose and found Kara in the kitchen singing along to the radio as she buttered hot toast. Maybe it was just the effect of showering the last week’s grime and tears from her body, but Sophie felt her stomach rumble in response to the homely smell as she sat down at the kitchen table. It felt good to wear clean clothes again. She'd reached instinctively for her slouchiest jeans and a soft, nude pink sweater, looking for any scrap of comfort she could find. In the absence of warm arms, clothes and her trusty sheepskin boots would have to do.
"Your phone beeped. Seven times." Sophie cast a hunted glance at her mobile on the work surface. If Kara had looked at it, she'd no doubt have seen Lucien's name flash up on the screen.
"I've been ignoring him."
"He doesn't seem to like it. You have eleven unread messages."
"You've been in my phone?"
Kara shrugged unapologetically. "So shoot me. I'm worried about you, Soph. You can't stick your head in the sand."
"I'm okay." Sophie pulled the sleeves of her sweater down over her fingertips. "Or at least I will be, just as soon as I can find another job."
Kara slid a plate of toast onto the table. "I haven't seen many adverts for PAs to Viking sex gods lately," she observed, deadpan.
Sophie gave her friend a withering look and picked up a piece of toast.
"What are you going to do about him?" Kara's eyes flicked back to Sophie's mobile.
"Nothing."
"Something tells me that nothing isn't one of your options, Soph. You still work for him officially, remember?"
"It's up to me, not him. And I say no."
Kara nodded. "You’d better tell him that, then."
Sophie's shoulders slumped. "I know. I just can't face him yet."
"Send a text?"
Sophie shook her head. "And say what? 'Thanks for the sex and the temporary job, but I've decided to look for something a bit less heart-breaking?' You've never met him Kara. If you had, you'd know he isn't someone you can send packing with a text message."
Kara crossed to the sink to wash her mug. "Err, Soph... did you say he drives an Aston Martin?"
The beautiful black car purred into Sophie's mind. "Yes."
Kara turned away from the window. "Then I hate to say it, but I think he's coming up the garden path."
Both girls froze at the sound of the knock on the door.
"I'm not answering it," Sophie whispered, holding onto her coffee mug so tightly that her knuckles popped white against her skin. "I don't want to, Kara."
"I'll get it then."
"No! Just leave it. Please. He'll go away if we don't answer it."
"You reckon?" Lucien knocked again, harder this time. "Fuck, Soph, I know you said he was hot, but he's ay-may-zing." Kara's eyes were on stalks as she craned over the sink to get a better view through the window. "Please let me at least open the door for a proper look."
"I'm serious Kara," Sophie's whisper rose a strangled octave in panic. "I can't speak to him today."
"Sophie." Lucien's deep voice echoed along the hallway, and Sophie closed her eyes as Kara widened hers.
"Open this door, Sophie, or I will." His voice was level, but the threat was clear.
"Christ, is he going to break the door down?" Kara hissed, practically bouncing with excitement.
Sophie put her mug down and glanced worriedly along the hallway. She wasn't sure she could handle another showdown, but it seemed she was destined to have one anyway.
As she walked towards the door, she could make out Lucien's tall, familiar frame through the glass panes and her stomach rolled with nerves. The toast had been a mistake.
"I can see you, Sophie."
Her stomach flipped again, and it had little to do with the toast this time.
"Please go. I don't have anything to say."
"Well, I do. Now you can let me in, or I'll use this key that's right here in the door to let myself in." He paused to let his words sink in. "Which is it to be?"
Sophie's eyes darted in panic to her own keys safely on the hallway table, and then suspiciously towards Kara in the kitchen doorway. The frantic way she was feeling her pockets and the apologetic grimace on her face confirmed the worst. Lucien wasn't lying. He could have walked straight in. He was giving her a chance to invite him before he invited himself.
As her fingers hovered over the door catch, Sophie sighed and laid her head against the glass.
"I really don't want to open this door," she said, mostly to herself.
Lucien was silent on the other side. Waiting. Watching.
Sophie felt Kara's hand squeeze her shoulder in quiet solidarity.
"Open the door, Soph," she murmured. "I'm here. I'll make him leave if you really want him to."
Sophie swallowed hard, then pressed down the latch and pulled the handle towards her.
Pain registered first. Pain from the way Kara's fingernails suddenly bit into her shoulder. Sophie wasn't surprised. Meeting Lucien Knight for the first time had had a similar effect on her too.
Her gaze connected with his chest, solid, broad and clad in a battered black leather jacket.
She closed her eyes for a second before looking upwards, taking a moment to mentally assume the brace position. Three, two, one...
"Lucien."
It was the first time she'd said his name since he'd left this same hallway last weekend with Dan's blood on his hands, and it felt like a guilty pleasure on her lips.
His eyes locked onto hers.
"Sophie."
He didn't look away, didn't even seem to register Kara's presence beside Sophie.
"I need to talk to you."
Being so close to Lucien did strange things to Sophie's insides. She was seething mad with him for his previous behaviour, and yet the pure sexual pull of his body called to hers like a siren. How could she be so furious, and so mixed up, and yet still crave him too?
She hated her treacherous body for wanting him. Her resolve stiffened, and she glanced at Kara behind her. "I'll be okay." She patted her friend's hand to encourage her to release her death grip on her shoulder. "You should probably get going."
Kara's uncertain eyes slid from Sophie to Lucien, and then back to Sophie again.
"You're sure?"
Sophie nodded, and Kara's expression seemed to say a million things at once. She saw concern, and she loved her friend for it. She also saw admiration, and felt bolstered by Kara's confidence in her. And lastly she saw 'Let me stay because I want to stare at this man some more,' which Sophie could hardly blame her for.