Page 106 of Love Among the Ruins
CHAPTERTWENTY-SEVEN
DOMINIC
What was he?
Needy?
Desperate?
Thirteen?
Dominic slammed his whiskey glass down on the table and let out a loud groan. Eleni hadn’t replied. He’d gone too far.
Shit.
He’d said too much.
He’d lost control of his emotions and his senses, something which had been happening ever since he’d met Eleni. Something had been happening to her, too. Something which had prompted her to make a lewd comment back to him. Knowing her, he was certain she was dying from humiliation. He wasn’t going to mention it.
The effect she had on him was intoxicating. He didn’t need alcohol when he was around her. He stared at his cell phone, waiting for her to reply, panic knotting his insides.
But there was nothing. Nothing to indicate that Eleni was typing a response, either.
Answer me.
Several minutes passed, and still there was nothing.
It didn’t look as if she was going to reply, and he couldn’t blame her. His behaviour was nothing short of him making a verbal pass at her. He should have known better; he’d managed it so far. It hadn’t been easy, but he’d managed it.
Nothing like a few glasses of whiskey to throw his self-control out of the window.
Asshole.
She was an employee, a temporary employee at that, someone he’d bypassed the usual hiring process for in order to get her to join the company.
And now he’d asked her to come to a wedding, as his plus one. Or rather,shehad asked, and he had accepted her offer.
Disgusted with himself, he was about to switch his phone off completely—not wanting to be lured in by the sound of more texts coming through—but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. That would require going cold turkey, and he wasn’t ready to do that. He threw the phone onto the empty armchair, instead.
He felt like a juvenile; unable to rein in his emotions, and his feelings about Eleni were getting completely out of control.
At work the next day he kept his head down, locking himself away in his office. At least Alexander had left; that was one less thing to worry about.
If any more meetings came up with Galatis, he’d have to suffer taking Linus along with him again just as he had a few days ago. No more Eleni accompanying him. No more having Eleni within a two feet radius of him.
The last meeting had been fruitful. Galatis had actually listened to what Dominic was proposing and things were starting to move ahead.
As for Demi’s wedding, he simply would not go. A part of him had ignored the invite altogether and pushed it to the back burner until Galatis had mentioned it.
One morning as he made his way to work, he’d stepped into the elevator and pressed the button to the third floor only to find Eleni and Miranda slip in after him.
“Oh ... hey ... Dominic.” Miranda blushed her usual shade of bright red, while Eleni’s face drained of color.
“Miranda.” He nodded at his PA, but his gaze returned to Eleni.
“Hi.” She smiled, but it was a weak smile, a half-assed smile.
The journey from the ground floor to the third lasted a lifetime.
