Ficorpio
Chapter 1
At eleven o’clock at night, only a handful of lights remained on in the office tower. Sophie Bennett rubbed her aching temples and sent the final report to her email. Outside, rain poured from the sky, fat drops hammering against the glass with a relentless patter—as if they were pounding on the nerves she had kept taut for five years.
Her phone suddenly vibrated.
The name Adrian Sterling flashed across the screen, making her fingertips tremble.
She answered. His deep voice came through wrapped in the murmur of rain, carrying its usual unquestionable authority.
“You at the office?”
“Yeah. I just finished.” Sophie did her best to keep her voice even.
“I’m waiting downstairs. Fifteen minutes.”
“Is something wrong?” she asked, a strange unease rising in her chest.
There was a brief silence on the other end.
“You’ll know when you get here.”
Then he hurriedly hung up.
Five years. From the unexpected entanglement between them on the night they graduated from college to the secret, unacknowledged relationship they had now, Sophie had never once disobeyed Adrian’s instructions.
But this time, there was something complicated in his voice—something she couldn’t quite read.
She snatched up her coat and ran into the rain. The icy water immediately soaked the ends of her hair. At the intersection, the Black Bentley stood out beneath the streetlights. The window rolled down, revealing Adrian leaning against the driver’s seat, his features rendered even sharper by the dim glow.
He wore a perfectly tailored black shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows, exposing an expensive watch at his wrist.
“Get in.”
Adrian never wasted words.
Sophie bent down and slid into the passenger seat. Rainwater dripped from her hair onto the beige hem of her dress, spreading into a small dark stain. The car smelled of his usual cedar cologne mingled with a faint trace of tobacco—the scent she had known for five years.
“Where are we going?” she asked softly.
“My place.”
Adrian started the engine. The windshield wipers swept back and forth in long arcs.
“Vanessa is coming back next week.”
The name struck Sophie in the chest like a needle.
Vanessa Sinclair—the woman Adrian had treasured above everyone else. The girl in the old photograph tucked inside his wallet. The insurmountable distance Sophie had never managed to cross in five years.
The Bentley entered a familiar neighborhood of private estates and stopped outside the detached house she had visited countless times.
Adrian got out and handed her a Burberry shawl still warm from his body.
“Put this on. You’ll catch a cold.”
Chapter 2
His fingers brushed the side of her neck by accident, sending a shiver through her. Sophie pulled the shawl tightly around herself and followed him inside.
The warm golden lights stretched their shadows across the living room floor.
“Sit.”
Adrian poured her a glass of warm water and handed it to her.
“Next Wednesday, you have a matchmade blind date. He’s a lifelong childhood friend of mine. He’s a good man. Go meet him.”
Sophie’s fingers tightened around the glass. The warm water nearly sloshed over the rim.
So Vanessa was coming back—and Adrian was already eager to deal with Sophie, to arrange someone else for her before his idealized former love returned.
“Whatever you arrange is fine, Mr. Sterling.”
She deliberately used the formal address, creating distance between them.
Adrian’s brows drew together, as if her politeness displeased him.
“Sophie, I’m not trying to drive you away.”
“I just don’t want Vanessa to misunderstand. You’ve been with me all these years. I don’t want you to be treated unfairly.”
He didn’t want her to be treated unfairly?
Sophie laughed bitterly to herself.
Five years as his secret casual lover. Five years of companionship that could never see the light of day. Now that the woman he had always loved was coming home, he thought a single sentence about not wanting to wrong Sophie would be enough to send her off on a blind date?
“I’ll go.”
She swallowed the bitterness in her throat and stood.
“It’s late. I should head home.”
“Don’t leave tonight.”
Adrian’s voice suddenly stopped her. It had gone low and hoarse.
“This is the last time.”
His kiss landed without warning, forceful and impossible to resist.
Sophie didn’t fight him. But as he bent over her, she heard him whisper clearly against her ear.
“Sophie, there has never been anyone else by my side but you.”
Against the backdrop of Vanessa’s imminent return, the words sounded painfully hollow.
Sophie closed her eyes and let the tears slide down her cheeks. They fell onto his shirt, spreading into small, dark stains.
Morning light slipped through a gap in the curtains, but Sophie Bennett was already awake. The place beside her had long since gone cold. Adrian had probably gone to his study hours ago.
It was one of the unspoken rules they had followed for five years. He was a light sleeper and never allowed anyone to spend the night in his bedroom. No matter how exhausted she was, Sophie always waited until he fell asleep, then quietly slipped away to the guest room.
She dressed without making a sound, washed up, and headed downstairs. At the bottom of the stairs, she ran into Adrian as he returned from his morning workout.
Chapter 3
He wore a white tank top that showed the clean, powerful lines of his shoulders and back. A fine sheen of sweat still clung to his temples.
“Martha left breakfast for you.” He picked up a towel and wiped his face, his tone casual.
“I’ll pass. I have to catch the subway.” Sophie bent to put on her shoes. “The promotion decision comes out today.”
Adrian raised an eyebrow. “I’ll drive you.”
“No.” The refusal came without thought. “It wouldn’t look good if my coworkers saw us together. I don’t want people talking.”
Silence fell between them.
The faint smile on Adrian’s face disappeared. After a moment, he opened the entryway cabinet, took out a business card, and held it toward her.
“The man I’m setting you up with. His contact information is on there. Don’t forget to call him.”
Sophie accepted Elliot Whitmore’s business card. Its sharp plastic edge bit into her fingertip.
When she had come over the night before, she had meant to end things with Adrian. Five years was enough. She was tired of being the woman he kept hidden in the shadows.
But when the moment came, his tenderness and his promise that it would be “the last time” had stopped the words in her throat.
“I’ll contact him,” she said softly.
Then she turned and hurried out of Adrian Sterling’s estate without looking back.
By the time Sophie reached Crownwell Group Headquarters, there were still ten minutes before the workday began.
Gavin Mercer greeted her with a grin and handed her a cup of hot coffee. “Congratulations in advance, Sophie. That Director of Corporate Strategy position has your name all over it.”
She smiled, but uncertainty twisted in her stomach.
She had sacrificed too much for this promotion. She had accepted an assignment in Africa that no one else wanted and contracted malaria there, nearly dying before she could make it home. She had pulled countless all-nighters to finish proposals, spending more nights at the office than she cared to remember. She had led one major project after another, and her performance numbers stood far above everyone else’s in the department.
“The decision isn’t out yet,” she said modestly. “Nothing’s certain.”
“How could it not be?” Gavin leaned closer. “Look at the other candidates. Not one of them can compete with your experience or your results.”
At exactly ten o’clock, the promotion decision email arrived in the company inbox.
Sophie drew a deep breath and opened it with a trembling hand.
The bold line of text struck her like a sledgehammer.
We regret to inform you that your application for promotion has been unsuccessful…
Her mind went blank.
The excited chatter around her vanished as if someone had cut the sound. Her coworkers gathered behind her, but the moment they saw the message on her screen, their smiles froze.
The office fell deathly silent.