Upside Down by Liz Gavin Read Free Book Online Page A

so easygoing, chatting away with the handsome young man that I felt ashamed for having had that crazy dream. She looked up, gave me one of her bright smiles and waved a manila envelope in the air.
    “Ms. Sullivan, good morning ! This has just arrived for you. Steve here said it’s urgent,” she extended the smile to the delivery man named Steve who only managed to grin back at her, eyes glued to her face.
    I grabbed the thick envelope and recognized a big client’s logo on it.
    “Thank you, Ms. O’Rourke. That’s indeed urgent. I’ll take it myself.”
    “You’re very welcome,” she giggled , winked and turned back to sign the delivery log as she resumed talking to Steve.
    I shook my head and tried not to feel too guilty about the damn dream. Dreams are not supposed to make sense, right? They are unreal, they are exactly that – dreams. So what? She is a nice, lively young girl and all that. I shouldn’t feel bad about things I couldn’t control. I squared my shoulders and stopped by Mark’s desk.
    “Good morning, Mark. Here’s the information we had been waiting for. It’ll help us a lot with that meeting later. Come to my office when you have some time and we’ll go over the presentation again.”
    “I’m free now,” he answered and stood up immediately to follow me in. We closed the door behind us and I didn’t have a second to spare thinking about enigmatic dreams or sick parents or new employees for the rest of the day.
    As soon as the meeting was over, I called Mark to my office.
    “ Close the door.”
    I was leaning against my desk, facing the door. He closed it and came to stand before me.
    “ Can you be at my place around eight tonight?”
    “Sure thing ,” he folded his arms behind my back in a loose embrace.
    “Excellent.”
    “Do you want me to bring anything? Wine, maybe?”
    “No, d on’t worry about anything, pet,” I ran my hands up his chest, tweaked his nipple over his silk shirt and smiled when he winced. “Just bring your good-looking self and we’ll be fine.”
    “You know, I still haven’t recovered from that elevator ride yesterday,” he pushed his lower body against mine.
    My grin widened when I felt his hardness and I grabbed him by his hair to kiss him hard and long.
    “Mark, my dear, you are amazing,” I whispered in his ear when I pulled away from the kiss. “But I doubt you’ve been that turned on since yesterday.”
    “Of course, not,” he laughed , kissing my neck. “Only when you were around.”
    “Even during that last, endless meeting?”
    “More than any other time,” he chuckled in my ear as he nibbled at my ear lobe.
    It was my turn to moan.
    “ We need to stop this right now or we’ll never get to dinner,” I pulled away but he kept his hands on my waist.
    “Would it be so bad?”
    “I want to cook something special for you tonight, Mark. You know I love cooking but it’s not fun cooking for only one person.”
    “ Oh, well, what can I say? I think it’s official, then,” he put a hand over his forehead in a fake dramatic gesture as he winked at me. “You’re one more woman, in a long list, to fall prey to my irresistible charms. Today, you want to cook; next thing you know, you’ll be crawling after me, begging for my attention.”
    “In your dreams, my boy .”
    I escaped his embrace , laughing, because I knew he was making fun of himself. He had an athletic, hot body but he was not conceit at all. On the contrary, he was a generous lover who always made sure I was having as much fun as he was, if not more than he was.
    I took my purse from a nearby chair, blew him a kiss and walked to the door.
    “See you in a while, gorgeous.”
    “See you, Madam.”
    I smiled to myself all the way to my car. That was my sweet boy – he knew pretty well who was running the show and it wasn’t him.
    * * * *
     
    I was finishing putting together my famous ‘eggplant Parmigiana’, an old recipe I learned from Mrs. Pinkman, my childhood