The Triumvirate's Consort

Excerpt From: The Triumvirate's Consort

"He’s still watching you. They’re all still watching you."

Evangeline Flint frowned at her girlfriend Melissa. "I don’t care. I’m not here to pick up. I have to be back at work in fifteen minutes." She sipped from her straw. She was on to her second scotch, and it still wasn’t going to be enough anaesthesia for the coming afternoon’s budget meeting.

"C’mon, Evie, live a little," Melissa urged as she put her wine glass on the table. "They’re definitely interested."

"How can you tell? They’re all wearing sunglasses." Inside a pub. On a dark and gloomy afternoon. Go figure. Yet they didn’t look ridiculous. They looked-well, hot.

"He’s obviously into you. He and his friends have been staring at us-you, for over half an hour."

And that’s exactly why she wanted to run back to work. She wasn’t the blonde nympho type that Melissa was, or the hot-man magnet that their other friend, Paris, was. She was Evie. Tall, dark, blend-into-the-background Evie. She made the effort to disappear in a crowd, and, at six foot, she was used to some stares, but only because of her above-average height. She never attracted any other kind of attention, and didn’t know what to do with it when she did. They were looking at her. Staring-at her. Her nipples peaked in her lacy bra. She’d checked the men out, too, but hopefully nowhere near as obviously.

Evie glanced surreptitiously over her shoulder at the gentlemen at the bar. They stood out like construction workers at a tea party. Three of them, all tall, broad-shouldered and lean-hipped, with expensive sunglasses masking their eyes. The one with the dark hair kept drawing her gaze. She wished she could see him clearly. His curly dark hair brushed the collar of his shirt and should have looked scruffy, but instead it looked rumpled and sexy, begging for a lover’s touch.

At that moment he looked up from the conversation he was having with his blond companions, and met her gaze. He nodded at her, and Evie blushed as she looked quickly away. Hoo-yeah. He was gorgeous. Like a model from a Polo Ralph Lauren advertisement. No, make that a Calvin Klein advertisement; at least then he’d be near-naked.

"I have to go, Mel. Baxter wants to do a quarterly review. I shouldn’t be late."

"Baxter wants to do you, Evie. Anyone else in the department can look after that report. Why do you think he’s always trying to get you to work back late?"

Evie shuddered. "No way in hell is there ever going to be anything between me and Baxter." Her boss was a prick. In his late forties, balding, in need of a diet, a toothbrush and a strong deodorant, he was an unhappy man who enjoyed making others as unhappy as he was. But he also worked on some great regional projects for the logistics company that employed them, and, if she could just manage to last long enough, she’d gain the experience that would allow her to apply for a role in any of the larger overseas offices. She could travel, develop her career, and hopefully even take on a developmental role within the company. She just wanted to be a respected and valued member of a team, and she’d realised she had more ambition than being Baxter’s financial manager.